Jonathan Ross suspended, Carol Thatcher sacked..

[one eyed jack]

Hey Jonone, i was just speaking from the black perspective. I would never diss the Polish or anyone...And while Im aware of the word I have never called anyone a paki in all my life cos im not quick to assume everyone who looks asian is from the same country...Liek Im not quick to assume anyone white with a cockney accent is from Bethnal Green...But I dont see racist dolls being made about Poles.

Randy Andy I doubt dolls of Obama will look as ridiculous as the gollywog. Come on!

If those with ginger hair are offended by toys making them look ridiculous then I would see their point too.

Again with the justifications...Would you like it if there were white dolls depicting white people as pigs to be humourous? For all you know, there are people who would probably find that very funny. Question is , would you?

[steve56]

Theres good and bad all over the world ive known some whites who are real trouble some really nice coloureds too.

[one eyed jack]

Coloured folk prefer to be called black Steve. Otherwise you are coloured too being white.

[steve56]

Didnt like to say Black OEJ just incase it sounded Racist.

[max_tranmere]

Some interesting points there. I do think we have got to the point of George Orwell's 'thought police' when someone makes an off the cuff remark, in private, and they are sacked for it. It really is quite worrying.

There is class discrimination on a big scale aswell. If a tv commentator, who comes from a background of priviledge and wealth, made quite right-wing comments about working class communites and the kind of people and attitudes within them (like many did over the Shannon Matthews incident, refering to fat birds with cans of lager and how they should get a job and stop 'scrounging Benefits') isn't that just as offensive to that social group, as comments about other ethnic groups would be to them?

Rich people being 'classist' would probably be as offensive to working class people as someone white who is being racist is to ethnic minorities, surely? But society doesn't see it like that. Daily Mail commentators, those women who sit on the panel on that Loose Women programme, and many others, all slammed the 'Shameless community' (reference to the Channel 4 TV programme) where Shannon Matthews lived, as being lazy, freeloading, unintelligent, criminals, sroungers, and so on.

That was deemed ok to do. Imagine the same commentators, all of whom are wealthy and white, saying derogatory comments about the black community in Brixton. They would be vilified and instantly sacked. As I said at the top of this thread, making racist remarks is seen as the worst thing anyone can do. It is very bad, dont get me wrong, but so are other things too. We seem to have lost sight of that.

[Jonone]

That's why i intensely dislike the term 'chav'. It's class terrorism !

[steve56]

Fits Karen Matthews though

[one eyed jack]

We havent lost sight of that at all Max. It wasnt central to the issue of gollywog dolls.

If people take issue to those other things then maybe they should stand up for it. Theyd probably meet with some success on it if for the most part it wasnt true but the truth is alo tof those people labelled fat and lazy with cans of lager and being common usually are. The difference is one is a social statement and the other is racism at the expense of another group of people.

No one is stopping those fat uneducated common people you talk about from getting jobs. Racism throws up barriers where you dont want to employ such people.

Big difference.

Any other ways I should be told to lighten up and think this is just a harmless bit of fun?

[Steve R]

Would it be 'racist' if a blonde female tennis player were to be described as looking like a Barbie doll?