Have we gone completely bloody mad????

[Bobbisox]

http://www.thesun.co....-of-Chinese-pair.html

so next time I am away from home and someone asks me to say" Whay Aye"(which has happened often) or strikes up a rendition of the Blaydon Races
do I report this to the Police? and have them done for blatant racism....too daft for words imo!

[Bobbisox]

WY which is the exact point I was trying to make but putting something as he has on FB was plain stupid, I do agree with that

[joggerjayne]

I wonder ... Why did the Police jump to the view that Kung Fu is the exclusive preserve of the Chinese people?

That's a rather discriminatory viewpoint, I think.

[WELSHYORKIE]

Trouble is Bobbi, these days everything is being taken to the nth degree. It's getting to the stage where, before long, you're not going to be able to go to the toilet until you've done a sodding risk assessment. i am not allowed to change a simple light bulb in the office because of the H&S implications!! Stucking fupid in my eyes!

[Gromit]

I am only guessing, but I do not think we are getting the whole story here. Performing a hit song is not racist and If that was the the full incident I don't think the police would have done anything. The Chinese man was offended for some reason. It was said he took photgraphs with his phone, but more than likely he took video, and it was that which convinced the Police that an offense was committed.

Maybe he sang the song in a 'comedy' chinese accent, or sang it AT the Chinese couple.

If the FaceBook comment is anything to go by, there is more to this than he was singing the song 'straight'.

[whiskeryron]

I was born & raised in Birmingham,if someone calls me a white ethnic minority brummie do you think I could get money out of it through the courts ? Ron. Ô¿Ô

[Booldawg]

I have a warrant out for Carl Douglas' arrest. The man is clearly not Chinese.

[Lore]

Bobbi, you didn't use the term but you clearly used it as an example of (as China mentioned) 'lazy racism'

I suppose I'll never understand why people think that by not saying the actual word to you so as not to offend, yet star it out or go about describing what they would normally say in the right company, is acceptable.

[Bobbisox]

Ron not likely...
but on here, you bring up a topic which is a current one, and you are branded as having no sense! or you are racist or some other unsavoury comment, as I read it the young Chinese lad put his two fingers up the the singer in question, called him a w@nker then phoned the Police!
Gromit may be right, there could be more than meets the eye about the incident

[Bobbisox]

Lore, I am not getting into this ok?

[jackthehat]

I agree, Lore. I never use the term, nor the ubiquitous ****-shop(my asterisks) when describing where I buy my milk.........it appears that some people are happy to do so. Whether it is because they are lazy, racist or too stupid to know better is moot.

I think Gromit is probably correct. Simon Ledger may well have 'funnied-up' his performance and it is *that* which caused the Chinese chap to complain.

We shall see..........

[jno]

as Jack says, the claims that he isn't a racist are rather undermined by his FB comment. I look forward to seeing the video.

[NOX]

Whilst I don't use the term myself, my friend who runs the corner shop and is Asian will frequently say to people when asked what he does for a living 'I run the P*** shop in ...... (insert town)'. Likewise there is an Asian brand of clothing called 'PAK1 clothing', in an attempt to reclaim the word from it's derisive uses in the 70's and 80's. I think it'll be a long time until white middle class people comfortable using it mind you and I'm not comfortable myself as about my worst nightmare would be for anyone to think I'm a racist.

[JimT]

To answer the question at the top of the thread: no, "we" haven't Gone Completely Bloody Mad. What's happened is merely that, as usual, a non-story has been seized on by a tabloid, splashed as a huge headline, while almost certainly (as Gromit said above) leaving salient facts out. All this has then been taken as the basis for asking if the country's "gone mad", and as being "PC gone mad", with a token whinge about health & safety (gone mad, perhaps?) thrown in while we're at it, etc etc. In other words, exactly the reaction the tabloid wanted by splashing the non-story in the 1st place.


As for the stuff about the use of "going for a chinky", "going down the *** shop" etc, mostly those references aren't racism as such, but just stupid lazy unthinkingness. Some would argue that the casual use of those words helps to create an environment in which taking the next steps to actual harmful offensive racism is made easier. Discuss!

It's on the same level as Jade Goody's "Shilpa Poppadom" comments. Not racist, but stupid and dimwitted.

[Booldawg]

'lazy racism'? could a new term have been coined on our very own AB?

Language is full of shortening, slang, abbrevations. Its just plain lazy. Making the link between racism and language traits does tend to go in line with todays grey area of peoples personal definition of what racism actually is.

[Lore]

Agreed, Jack.

Bobbi, I'm not getting into anything either, at the risk of sounding like a 5 yr old saying - she started it, I was simply explaining that I find the term in which you assumed ppl use for a trip to the local Chinese take away is something I find offensive. Healthy debate, bobbi.

[Bobbisox]

I have never referred to the corner shop (if we had one, that is) and never would, by that term, it may only be a Northern thing that we have used the Chinese takeaway term, who knows?

[JimT]

Interesting - AB automatically starred out p-a-k-i but left c-h-i-n-k-y in my previous post

[WELSHYORKIE]

In my view, the use of the alternative slang words for Chinese and Pakistanis , in particular is more modern historical than blatant racism - does anybody complain about calling an Irishman Paddy or a Welshman Taff or even a Scotsman Jock? I don't think so because they are 'affectionate' terms for their nationality. I agree that if you call the corner shop owner a P-bastard that is racist.

[Bobbisox]

fine Lore, me too, I enjoy a healthy debate