A UK Independence Party councillor was expelled from the party for saying she had a problem with “negroes” because there was “something about their faces”, it has been reported.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9788039/Bullied-and-worse-for-being-ginger.html
Professor Robert Bartlett, an expert in medieval history at St Andrews University, says the discrimination dates back to Ancient Egypt, where the god Set was often depicted with pale skin and red-coloured hair and associated with terrible events such as earthquakes, thunderstorms and eclipses. Human sacrifices of redheads to appease his rage were supposedly made by worshippers.
Historically, Britons were more tolerant, he says. He cites the reign of the 11th-century King William II, nicknamed Rufus due to the colour of his tresses, as an example, while the crusaders willingly followed Richard the Lionheart into battle against Saladin despite his burnished complexion. Not to mention the beloved Gloriana herself, Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, under whose rule Britain prospered.
But for non-royal redheads, life was harder. In the 15th century, people with ginger hair were accused of being witches and burnt at the stake, while others were persecuted for their pale skin, which was seen as a sign of vampiric tendencies.
The late art historian, Dr Ruth Mellinkoff, discussed the plight of redheads in her book, Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Age. She claims that red hair and ruddy skin were considered suspect, impure and dangerous and condemned as opening a path to sin.
If white people can be so mean to other white people with red hair, surely Rozanne Duncan can say she doesn't like the way black people give her dark looks or the way Oriental people (or chinkies , if you prefer) look at her askance through their slitty eyes? It may not be politic to say so, of course, as a politician of a multicultural and multiracial Britain, especially if you are a member of a party that is suspected and accused of racism, but we have to make allowances for the very small and shallow puddle of talent that UKIP is now desperately recruiting from.
Another one bites the dust for UKIP, but it was a bit of an anticlimax as far as I am concerned.
If I can say about someone of my own race that I don't like the way they look, why can't I say about someone of another race that I don't like the way they look?
I have always thought that racism means thinking someone is inherently superior or inferior to you on grounds of race. Not liking the way someone looks is irrelevant as to whether you think they are superior or inferior to you.
@MistressPie @Wayneking420 I would be the first to agree that it wasn't the most tactful thing to say, but I wouldn't call it racist.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@MistressPie @Wayneking420 Is racism saying anything that might offend a person of another race?
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@MistressPie @Wayneking420 I have always thought racism meant assuming the inherent superiority/inferiority of someone on grounds of race.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@MistressPie @Wayneking420 Being rude to someone or about someone is not, strictly speaking, racist, IMHO.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark I think a distinction should be drawn between someone being tactless/rude and someone being racist.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark What we are doing here is basically laughing at plebs who haven't quite mastered the art of being economical with the truth.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark Clearly, it is the pleb whose interests are more threatened by immigration than the patrician.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark What we are doing here is expecting a pleb to behave like a practised politician when she hasn't got the education/background.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark While patricians enter politics as a career option, the pleb not to the manner born is conscripted by his or her grievance.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark When these plebs - who would have joined the BNP before it imploded - get things wrong we laugh at them.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@_Paul_Clark Plebs r not best equipped to play JUST A MINUTE with BBC interviewers in games like talk for 5 minutes without sounding racist.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate Not liking the way you look does not mean I think I am better than you: I just don't like the way you look.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate Maybe all of us secretly think we are better than everyone else. If individuals can think that, why not groups?
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate I am sure there are people you think you are superior to though you may be too well-bred to show it.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 10, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate I think racism shd b more than not liking someone on grounds of race; it has to be thinking that yours is better
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate If racism means not liking a particular race, then it means we have to like every race, which seems totalitarian
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate If we have to like every race, does it mean we have to like every individual? That would be crazy.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate I think it is enough that we all have a social obligation to be civil towards each other and most people are.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate Racism these days is no more than being caught talking about someone you thought wasn't in the room, isn't it?
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
@tristanpw1 @ScotIndyDebate Racism is usually no more than a case of someone snitching on you when you thought you could trust them.
— Claire Khaw (@ntfem) January 11, 2015
1 comment:
She lived in the generation when we really did have freedom of speech
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