I despair, I really do. As if there aren't enough people desperate to take offence at something by jumping on the racist bandwagon, now actress Parminder Nagra (no, never heard of her before either) joins the club. Apparently, Parminder experiences racism every day. Her example: "The other day I went somewhere for work. I'd been there four times and the person still kept misspelling my name."
So misspelling is now a racist act it seems. My name has occasionally been misspelt as Robinson, Robertson, Robison, and Robeson over the years, but it never once occurred to me that it was due to anything other than someone not listening or reading with their full attention, not because they were a bigot of some description.
Spare us from those who are determined to see a racist insult everywhere - especially when it doesn't necessarily exist.
The real problem with complaints like this is that they obscure the very real problems of racism which afflict people every day in serious and sometimes banal ways. Sadly too, it also allows folks who like to complain about a "snowflake" society the opportunity to have at a for real snowflake. Although I complain about folks misspelling my last name too. They want to spell it with just one "B" as "Web" as if anyone anywhere on the planet spells it that way. It happens to me all the time and I don't quite know why? I'm pretty sure it ain't racism since I'm about as white a guy as you're likely to stumble across in these United States.
ReplyDeleteRip Off
Racism exists of course, RJ, but I sometimes think it doesn't exist as much as some people imagine, as well as more than some other people believe. It's getting the balance right, isn't it? One thing I do know though, that someone spelling someone's name wrong is unlikely to be an example of racism.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to my own name, I don't really bother whether people get it wrong in some way, unless it's deliberately rude, and I don't think that's ever been the case.
I would relate this sort of thing to the way politically radical make a big deal about the use of proper spelling of foreign names. I agree that one doesn't want to be indifferent to correct pronunciation. But does the average person really get any deeper understanding of Muslim culture if you spell the name of their holy book "Quran" rather than "Koran?" Aren't both translations into English letters mere approximations of whatever sounds are represented by Arabic letters? And doesn't the whole Arabic language have connotations that just aren't translatable? People of all cultures and subgroups need to take a chill pill and realize that a certain amount of misidentification is pretty much inevitabe.
ReplyDeleteCan't disagree with any of that, GP, but the trouble is there are people (in all cultures) who look for 'reasons' to take offence - for their own political or ideological purposes. It gets kind of tedious to more reasonable folk after a while. However, until we stand up and say "End this pc woke nonsense", it will continue and increase.
ReplyDeleteHah, just today I heard some podcaster claim that the pc people, by which I mean cancel culture types, get a dopamine high from finding victims. If so, they won’t give up their highs easily.
ReplyDeleteSadly, very true, GP. I suppose it also gives them a sense of importance, to say nothing of relevance.
ReplyDeleteDon't spell my name as Collin...ggrrr.
ReplyDeleteHow about Colinn then?
ReplyDeleteI think Parminder Nagra's in the news with it being the 20th Anniversary of the film 'Bend It Like Beckham', which launched her into international stardom, likewise in the case of her co-star Keira Knightley. Yes, without a doubt, racism does exist and it is a very pernicious element of the lives of all of us, but this does seem a little on the precious side. As one who runs a couple of Blogs on female Pop music of the former Soviet Bloc (you may remember me from some months back!) I get irritated by the way that the surnames of especially female sports personalities from either the Czech Republic or Slovakia get 'mangled' by commentators in terms of pronunciation, but I don't think they're being 'racist', (if it's possible to be 'racist' to fellow White people), just a bit dim, that's all. Maybe with my questioning of the term 'racist' in the context of ethnicity rather than complexion there should be a new '-ist' - 'ethnicist'.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is, CB, there are far too many 'ists' already. It's like hate crimes; if you assault someone because of the colour of their skin or their sexuality, it's classed as a hate crime. Another level of unnecessary categorization in my view. It should be a crime to assault someone, anyone - period, regardless of the motivation. There's no need to complicate things with different levels of criminality for the same crime.
ReplyDeleteYes, I tend to think that an assault is an assault, no matter what the motivation. I'm sure it doesn't make the injuries hurt any more or less. I have a close relative who is openly Gay, however and he may think differently from me on that score. We'd just have to agree to disagree.
ReplyDeleteBTW, to change the subject to something more agreeable, I was here looking around for 'Captain Scarlet'-related stuff on the Web since in my latest 'Bananas For Breakfast' Blog post I was thinking about how I landed on that as the title for the Fan Blog for Valérie Čižmárová (pronounced 'Chizh-MAHR-ovah', not 'Sizmuh-ROH-vuh'!). After I'd decided on 'Bananas For Breakfast' (it's a long story!) I thought of 'Slovakian Rhapsody', inspired, variously, by Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', a Seventies classic, 'Charlie's Angels', as a top 'Seventies Burd' (as you Scots spell it!) and the 'Angels', specifically Rhapsody Angel, of 'Captain Scarlet'.
Did you know it's her Minus-Twenty-First Birthday today, according to the 'Chronology of the Captain Scarlet Universe', linked from my latest 'Girls Of The Golden East' Tumblr re-blogging?
Those 'Angels' were quite some 'burds', but still not quite up to Valérie Čižmárová in her Seventies prime, in my opinion, at least!
Finally, back to racism, I know that 'Captain Scarlet' had a couple of pioneering Black characters, in the form of Melody Angel and Lieutenant Green, but maybe they could have picked another 'Captain' colour apart from Black to have been the 'Mysteronised' one, like the 'Baddie' in Westerns always wearing a black stetson!
Well, Captain Scarlet was also 'Mysteronised' and scarlet is sometimes used in a pejorative sense (scarlet woman). However, black has traditionally been seen as the colour that villains wear, but not the colour that villains ARE, which I think is an important distinction. I quite fancied Atlanta and Marina (and also Venus) when I was a kid, but I couldn't have seen enough of the Angels, 'cos I don't recall fancying any particular one of them - even though they had the most incredibly sexy voices. (Or maybe I just fancied them all? Can't remember.)
ReplyDeleteGroup of white kids determining what's not racist, you got to laugh.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredibly racist thing to say. What an @rsehole.
ReplyDeleteJust ignore them, 'Kid'! I'd have wanted to have remained 'Anonymous' if that's all I had to contribute!
ReplyDeleteYes, I take on board that Captain Scarlet was also 'Mysteronised', but in a 'good' way, unlike in Captain Black's case. There is still something subliminally racist, I think, about any association between the colour black and evil. I hope my one-time late sparring partner over the Web on matters racial, Professor Arthur J. Graham wouldn't have taken me to task on possibly misusing his 'patented' term, Subliminal Racism, coined by him half-a-century ago, in that context!
Sadly, back in the day, we only had BBC One, so I wouldn't personally have seen any of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's productions then, so I can only agree or disagree with you over Atlanta, Marina and Venus 'after the fact', as it were. I note that, since you talk of sexy voices, the last two of those characters were voiced by Sylvia Anderson herself, together with Melody Angel.
It probably is a bit of a disappointment on the Black promotion front that Melody Angel wasn't voiced by a Black woman, unlike the similarly pioneering Black character, Valerie (yes, another Valerie!) Brown out of 'Josie and The Pussycats' which I referenced at the 'Valérie Čižmárová: A Life In Pictures' page of 'Bananas For Breakfast', whose speaking and singing parts were both provided by Black women, respectively Barbara Pariot and Patrice Holloway.
I see that those other 'sexy voices' of the 'Angels' were Elizabeth Morgan for Destiny, Rhapsody and (partially) Harmony, Lian-Shin also for Harmony (so they did also choose an Oriental voice-over for that Oriental character) and Janna Hill for Symphony.
Continuing on the racism and 'Captain Scarlet' theme a very early memory of mine from sometime in the late 1960s is of coming second in a fancy dress contest to 'Captain Scarlet', dressed up in some exotic shiny fabrics and with my face blackened with shoe polish as an 'African Prince'. That certainly wouldn't have been permitted these days...and maybe rightly so!
Apologies for the delay in publishing your comment, CB, I've been resting for most of the day. I'll respond more fully later, 'cos I'm absolutely worn out at the moment.
ReplyDeleteParminder Who?.... screams racist. Interesting how a nobody with a passport like photo gets big ear play. Sounds like a lot of bollocks from a trouble making faction of shit stirrers trying to disrupt society.
ReplyDeleteYes, but Scarlet was bad to begin with, CB. He was brought back to the side of right by Spectrum Computers. Presumably the same could be done for Black if they ever caught him. But the main point I was making is that his name wasn't intended (nor do I think it actually was) racist.
ReplyDeleteY'see, I'm not convinced that the use of the word black is racist; I presume the fact that some people have 'black' skin is a mere coincidence. It's a black day, the black dog (depression), he's in a black mood, etc., are all examples where the word 'black' is used with no racist intent. And it seems it's only when white people use the word that it's deemed racist, which is a racist sentiment (against whites) in itself.
On the topic of only black people voicing black puppets or cartoon characters, I personally think that idea is nonsense. Black actors voice white characters and nobody kicks up a fuss, so why should it be wrong in reverse? And nobody seemed to object to Lenny Henry 'white-ing up' in his one and only (I think) big screen role. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with kids blacking up as an African Prince for a fancy dress party. There's no disrespect meant and it's not done to demean black people.
In my famously humble opinion, there's just too much wokery and pc nonsense in this country (if not the world) nowadays, and it's past time it all stopped.
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And I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you, LH. How you feeling these days? Much better hopefully.
Yes, that perhaps was a bit of a simplification on my part regarding Captain Scarlet's 'good Mysteronisation'.
ReplyDeleteI suppose, as I have alluded to that expression earlier in this thread, that we shall have to agree to disagree that using the word 'black' with negative connotations is (or is not) subliminally racist. It does, at least, have a positive connotation, as in 'in the black' as opposed to 'in the red', which is all well and good, since (unless one is thinking back to the now rightly outmoded word 'Redskin') red is not a recognised racial complexion.
I wouldn't say that I'm 'kicking up a fuss' about the fact that Melody Angel's part was voiced by a White woman, merely stating that it was a missed opportunity for a Black actress to have got that voice-over gig. I was only saying that I was 'disappointed', not 'horrified'.
That thing about Lenny Henry 'white-ing up' is a bit of a complex issue and I'm torn in two ways about that between it being as bad as White people 'blacking up', as, apparently, Piers Morgan has remarked and the other point of view that Black people 'white-ing up' doesn't carry the same historical racist baggage as White people 'blacking up'. I'm not saying that I personally regret that fancy dress contest, but I do recognise that opinions have moved on since then so of course it's right that it would not have been allowed nowadays.
However, overall, I would certainly not describe myself as 'woke'. There are rather 'woker' people around than I!
Again, apologies for the delay in responding, but I didn't have the mental energy to give your comment the attention it deserved before replying to it, nor did I have the mental energy to even reply.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, agreeing to disagree is allowed on this blog and even encouraged. I'm sure there are 'woker' people around than you, CB, but your opinions about 'racism', in my view, certainly lean in that direction. Nor was I accusing you of 'kicking up a fuss' about black voice actors not getting voice-over gigs for black puppet or cartoon characters; my point was that black voice actors voice white characters, so parity suggests it should happen in reverse. Colour should not be an issue, regardless of a character's race or ethnicity. To give someone a role (or a job) mainly because of the colour of their skin is racism of a kind. So-called positive discrimination is a load of old pants in my view, because when that happens, other people are being negatively discriminated against.
It's like gays now saying that only gays should play gay characters in films, yet they don't knock back straight roles when they're offered them. That's double-standards and just shouldn't be allowed.
Lenny Henry has now jumped on the bandwagon, saying that the Black & White Minstrels TV show was racist, even though he made a good living from appearing in it. The Minstrels show was loved by the British public, and if anything, probably helped race relations at the time. It wasn't made to demean or insult black people, and any black person who felt that way probably only did so because he had a grudge against whites. THAT'S racism. I know the origin of B&W minstrels in history is convoluted and even contradictory, but in the '60s and '70s, the TV show wasn't teaching hatred against blacks, so can hardly be described as racist.
And I still feel that there's nothing wrong with kids or adults 'blacking up' to portray an African Prince in a fancy dress party, as long as it's not done with the intention to cause offence. If it does, those who are offended are just looking to be offended to use as a weapon against whites. Again, THAT'S racism for you. Would I be offended if a black kid 'whited up' as a white character for a party? Not in the slightest.
Anyway, nice chatting with you. As you say, we'll agree to disagree - if just to avoid going around in circles by repeating what we've already said.
Re: the earlier remark about a connection between "black and evil"-- we should recall that for many tribal people who never saw Black People, "black" is evil because it connotes darkness and death.
ReplyDeleteNow, since we're talking about modern audiences who are aware of all these skin gradations, I have certainly seen dozens of stories in which some character is called "black" to signify his evil (doesn't England have a "Black Prince" kicking around back in elder centuries?)
That said, even if "black" is often used to connote negativity, what does it mean if there are roughly a dozen or so heroes kicking around Golden Age comics who stick "black" in their names even though they're white? Blackhawk, Black Angel, Black Owl, Black Phantom-- surely "black" doesn't mean "evil" in those cases. Should we make a STAR TREK-ky philosophical interpretation: that these heroes use the negative in their psyches to make them go out and beat up criminals, like Captain Kirk getting his Hyde on in order to take command?
Think also of that cool Tarantino riff from PULP FICTION (which I'll paraphrase). In a long exchange, the Boss behind a heist operation informs his hirelings that (a) he's going to give them all color-code names, and (b) none of them can carp about their assigned color, because if they all had their way they're all want to be called "Mister Black."
Very interesting point, GP, and very eloquently expressed. Something else - Black Panther has the word 'black' in his name, but it's not intended in a negative way. Yes, I know, he happens to be black, but I don't think it's meant to refer to the colour of his skin so much as his costume (and the animal he symbolises).
ReplyDeleteAs you suggest, 'black' can have evil and good (in the case of superheroes or a bank balance) connotations depending on the context, but I don't think racism has much of a part to play when the word is used negatively (i.e. - it was a black day).
Thanks for your contribution.