Quote: Firkin @ 6th January 2018, 12:30 PM
Very interesting point, I didn't know that. Why didn't Obama change that ? I do remember being shocked when I read America still had segregated schools and busses in the 1960s and was very late at dropping slavery.
We have racism but it doesn't appears to be as high on the agenda as in America. I read once, that this was a hangover from our imperialist days, we simply became more adept at compromising with other cultures and hence more tolerant. So it is ironic when some Brits say "Those Polish coming over here, getting their food in our supermarkets, steeling OUR night watchmen jobs...." But why does the country that brought us Martin Luther King, the Williams Sisters and Obama, still have such a big race issue ? Is King still revered in America?
Your point about Blackface I'm sure it total valid for America, but here in the UK our "Black" community take umbrage with the term Afro American, because British Jamaicans are daggers drawn with British Africans. Same as referring to an Indian as Asian, they are daggers draw with Pakistanis. So it's a minefield. Anyway I think we've clearly demonstrated Little Britain is not definably maybe racist. Next topic, is it funny and why. I would say yes, because it's using shock tactics, hence this thread. But that make it hit and miss for me. Very funny or very disturbing (the vomiting ones). 
The POTUS is the Executive Branch. Only the Congress, which is the legislative branch can change that. The POTUS can veto/sign it and if it gets 2/3rd vote in Congress they can do the reversal. Obama's hands were tied, as the Republican Party spent 8 years trying to undo/block everything Obama tried to do simply because he was black. So he couldnt give blacks the vote and he famously said "I am not black people's president". GO fig.
Segregation on record in America didn't end until 1970 across the country. That includes miscegenation laws as well (check Loving v. Virginia). 47 years isn't enough to "get over it" when each POTUS since then including Obama has contributed to continuing as a matter of federal public policy laws and other behaviors against black people in the states. Plessy v. Ferguson was the reason for Separate but Equal, Jim Crow, Grandfather Clause, and a host of anti-black laws across the country, primarily in the South but not totally absent from the North. Hangover from the Civil War during the period called Reconstruction. And more to the point, slavery technically didn't get abolished. It says all people are free UNLESS accused of a crime/sentenced to a crime. That is the reason for the high rise of the prison industrial complex and former POTUS Nixon's "southern strategy" that disappropriately targets black Americans for incarceration. Look up Kalief Browder. That happens ALOT.
Yes, your racism in the UK is heavenly by comparison, but only because as I've said countless times, UK has a different relationship and treated their black people better in transition. There were no groups created and empowered by your monarchy in the 1800s for the sole reason to torture and kill without impunity black people that emigrated there, or keep them from assimilating into full citizenship rights.
No, Martin Luther King is not revered. Ask your typical young American about him, all you might get is "we get a day off from school for that". He is not taught in American history outside of a blip about the March on Washington in 1963. In the South he's not taught at all. And truth be told, the last four years of his life both black and white America distanced themselves from him as he started getting into union politics and organizing black labour. When he was assassinated, neither side cared for him much. Tavis Smiley's "Death of a King" is a researched book on the subject if you're curious.
Afro-American, lol. Every 40 years in America the terminology changes. On birth certificates it varies based on your year of birth. First it was "nigger". Then "colored". Then "Negro". Then "Black". Then "Afro-American". Then "African-American" (which is incorrect and bugs a lot of folk). Then don't forget "Mulatto" (half white that can pass for white), "octaroon"(3/8th white), "quadroon" (3/4th white), "Biracial" (half white).
I'm not mad that blackface is still prevalent in UK tele. First time I saw it was on Benny Hill, when he did Miriam Makeba, Idi Amin and Billy Eckstine. Jackie Wright also did blackface as Huggy in the Starsky and Hutch spoof. Granted, none of this was ever shown on American or Canadian television - saw it on the VHS tapes. However, Eckstine, who was a huge fan, allegedly talked with Hill about that impersonation and Hill was deeply apologetic as he didn't mean to offend him. He really was just lampooning him and thought the color thing was okay. And the great thing about Hill, was that he didn't do blackface after that. Now, when he did Mr. T. on the B Team skit, he was in brown makeup, but I can't even call that brownface because they did a kick ass job matching the tone where it didn't look fake. And that is awesome that he was more considerate of what imagery he was doing, including cutting down the yellowface of his Chow Mein characters. I just wish Little Britain would take the same consideration.
Now is Little Britain funny? Hit or miss depending on what your funny bone is. I find the Weight Loss thing amusing. But not Daffyd, which seems to repeat the same thing over and over. I like Downing Street (but I'm bias I love political spoofing), but not so much the fake handicap dude because i can guess that entire scene with little motivation. Sometimes that bad girl in school character is gut busting hilarious because it takes me back to primary school and there were girls like that, but sometimes its just repetitive. The one about the parents with the sick kid in the hospital so reminds me of American country bumpkins its ridiculous and hilarious. But I wouldn't jump out there and call it shock tactic full. I think they are saying what a lot of old school Brits say behind closed doors, and in that regard it is very reminiscent of 70s Brit comedies, especially like something ala Bless This House.
Quote: DaButt @ 6th January 2018, 1:48 PM
Probably because it's not true.
The United States abolished slavery 20 years after the British Empire did the same. I'm not sure that "very late" is an apt term.
Little Britain was funny. There's a difference between irreverent, biting satire, and spiteful, angry racism.
The right to vote for blacks is a complex one. It isn't a simple google either. But you can start with Obama begging Congress to extend the Voting Rights Act renewal period to 25 years.
I just know Clinton, Bush, and Obama had to sign off on it to extend the rights of black folks to vote.
Here's Bush: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14059113/ns/politics/t/bush-signs-voting-rights-act-extension/
Here's Obama: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/250913-obama-pushes-congress-to-renew-voting-rights-act
Here's Clinton, but its an article you have to find: Cosby, Camille. "Prejudice Permeates American Culture." USA Today. 8 July 1998.
Abolished isn't the right term. Britain got rid of slavery, and allowed their blacks to integrate into their society within half a generation. America, on the other hand, made provisions that kept the institution going through Reconstruction hindered that process and let over 100 years go by with racism, discrimination, and segregation run rampant, finally coming to a conclusive end in 1970 on paper, but still dredging on by another name. You can start by watching the Netflix doc The 13th by Ana Duvernay.
) and you will cherry pick other comments to suit your agenda.
