Badly.
I suspect it's more that the worlds most powerful man should be above such elementary gaffs.
David Jason Apology Page 4
Quote: sootyj @ March 27 2009, 3:33 PM GMTBadly.
I suspect it's more that the worlds most powerful man should be above such elementary gaffs.
Yeah, that's worked out well before!
Anyone suggesting this is PC gone mad has injected a little too much of their own assumptions onto the story.
Jason told a daft joke.....it's certainly not the sort of joke you'd tell in the work place to people you didn't know (unless you work at ANY RANDOM SHITTY JOB or similar) which is what being on Radio is for him...he's at work. Someone said, "mate, that's not on...some people may take offence" he said "oh, sorry if anyone did...I certainly didn't mean it as a racist joke" - and that was it. No big deal......and a million times better a situation than a country where you could happily call someone a smelly paki and give them a slap which is where we were a few years ago.
At the end of the day we have adjusted what's allowed and, perhaps, gone a little too far.....time will correct this and things will settle at a happy medium - quite frankly, to hope that we could have gone from a situation where racism ran through most parts of our culture to a "perfect" balance would have been very naive.
What's better - David Jason says sorry if anyone was offended (because a tiny amount of people might be) or Asian kids get called Paki and bullied at school (because only a tiny amount of people think they may be a bit off)???
edited to remove the implication stacking shelves at ASDA may be a shitty job 
Quote: Tiggs @ March 27 2009, 3:51 PM GMTedited to remove the implication stacking shelves at ASDA may be a shitty job
I'm glad you did - I may have had to write to Points of View! 
I, of course, can go shittier still having been a cleaner at Sainbury's between the hours of 0500 and 0700, six days a week, as recently as August 2007. 
Where do we stand on the more Chins than a Chinese phone book joke? The last time I heard it was in Austin Powers, was this OK if Fat Bastard was being self deprecating, or is it offensive to the Chinese, fat people or what?
Oh shit, I said fat bastard. I aplogise humbly an profusely to any overweight people with unmarried parents.
Last 2 posts point out an interesting thing in they cover 2 groups who get a lot of stick and little sympathy.
Fat people and unskilled workers who are both cheerfully villified in comedy.
One of the problems with the race discrimination and sex discrimination acts is contained in their titles. Sex and race only not belief, education etc.
Hence chavs, fatties etc are all fair game. Unless you want to view either as being a disability.
N.B. swithcing the debate on, what about homophobe Chris Moyles?
Quote: sootyj @ March 27 2009, 6:31 PM GMTN.B. swithcing the debate on, what about homophobe Chris Moyles?
He should be sacked. For whatever reason, I don't care. But he should be sacked and replaced by somebody less pig-ignorant, egotistical, moronic, misogynistic, ill-mannered, unfunny, bullying, cretinous... I mean, I could go on.
Quote: sootyj @ March 27 2009, 6:31 PM GMTHence chavs, fatties etc are all fair game.
As it should be; mwa-ha-haa!
It's not racist. In the sense that no peoples/races were being subjected to oppression or hatred. The question is, would anyone kick up a fuss if someone restructed that or smililar "joke" using a european template?...
So quite simply the moral is: All people have a sense of humour, just every person's humour is different. That's LIFE!
I suppose it's more "associative racism." Using expressions from a more racist era.
If you were horribly bullied at school and your nickname was pickle. You'd probably dislike that term being used in your adult life.
We don't know, there may have been a whiff of cheese about the boy!
I suspect that when a celebrity, makes what appears to be a one-off racist comment, which is out of character for that celebrity up until that point, that the then intended victims are not as offended by the comments as is made out BY OTHERS who on their behalf, ARE offended. Where celebrities and well known public figures make a career out of racist (and misogynistic) comments, aka Bernard Manning, Jim Davidson, THEN the prejudice is felt offensive by the victims; just my opinion, and it's based on a myriad of things like this:
This year a film is to be made with Helena Bonham Carter in the lead of Enid Blyton, you know she of the banned by all libraries for the racism in her books. Before anyone leaps to her defence pause to consider:
Her books are full of Gollywogs,
vandals are typically 'black' Goblins,
thieves are invariably 'foreign',
sexism/gender reinforcement with girls excluded from more dangerous/difficult tasks as one of the boys says to one of the girls requests: "Certainly not. It's a man's job".
Then there's the little black doll who wanted to be pink.
From 'Five Go Off To Camp' the phrase: "black as a nigger with soot".
And for the most part the books are class-ridden. The list goes on, and on.
- And yet despite all that, to this day, the books still continue to sell in their millions, worldwide, not causing offence to the purchasers of the books.
At one point, Blyton held the Guinness book of records for most this, most that - today she is still one of the most translated authors IN THE WORLD - 3,400 translations in 90 countries, (6th place). That includes many predominately non-white countries. And again, remember, she is that 'golliwog' author.
600 million books sold to date - with one million being sold currently each year NOW.
In 2008 - 2008 mind you, she was voted ahead of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Shakespeare as THE most-loved author (Costa book awards).
Of the reprints, a lot of the offensive references above are being edited out. But here's the reason I bring this matter up. Check out one of the UK's leading Enid Blyton websites for avid fans.
http://www.enidblyton.net/about-this-website.html
In amongst the webmasters who maintain the site is one Prabhu Viswanathan, who waxes lyrical about his love for Enid Blyton's books. As do his colleagues, Shagufta Naaz ( Karachi, Pakistan), and Nakul Datar - all their photos show them to be non-whites - all are educated professionals and united by one other factor - their love of Enid Blyton books!
Repeat: they are all, educated, non-white professionals.
There is no doubt about the charges laid against the Blyton books. She's guilty as charged. Not an opinion; fact. Guilty as sin. Even one of her daughters admits she had problems.
Huh? So what gives?
Therefore, my question is - why are those webmasters and the millions of non-white people like them around the world, NOT offended by Enid Blyton books as many white people here in the UK are? (Are they still banned in British libraries?)
Well, why aren't they offended? Plenty of this country's white population, on their behalf, are.
Quote: James Harris @ March 27 2009, 7:34 PM GMTHe should be sacked. For whatever reason, I don't care. But he should be sacked and replaced by somebody less pig-ignorant, egotistical, moronic, misogynistic, ill-mannered, unfunny, bullying, cretinous... I mean, I could go on.
I have no concept of Chris Moyles at all. I think my brain just chooses to cancel him out when I see him.
I've always thought of books as a diferent matter, especially if written in another era.
1 A book is an existing artefact and censoring it? That's to close to chisseling the statue of Davids' cock off.
2 Applying current standards to writers of another era is assinine.
If some one wants to ban the Merchant of Venice or Oliver Twist. I'll be in the protests to leave them alone.
Am I an awful snob? The more a media require intelectual engagement the less I feel it needs monitoring?
e.g. any idiot can watch daytime TV, but it takes real engagament to read a book sit through opera etc.
Quote: Danny K @ March 27 2009, 8:42 PM GMTI suspect that when a celebrity, makes what appears to be a one-off racist comment-
-which wasn't actually in any way racist, people and the media especially should shut the cock up and stop making a big old fuss about shit all!