And the competitor for International Fail Champion steps forwards

[sparkindarkness]

It does seem there are a lot of people out there who do so try to push back the boundaries of epic fail. I worry I really do. Can the human race please TRY to be vaguely decent for a while? I’m trying to control my misanthropy and it’s getting really really really hard.

The newest person to enter in the Fail Olympics is Carol Thatcher (yes, daughter of She Who Must Not Be Named). She has called a black tennis player a golliwog.

Now, I’m told this term doesn’t actually travel well and is something of a British slur more than anything (though from what I can see golliwog has been used throughout the English speaking world). A wikipedia link is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwog but basically a golliwog is a very old fashioned doll in the form of the most offensive, stereotypical portrayal of a black person you can possibly imagine. The toys are now, thankfully, extremely rare and regarded as the disgusting things they are. The word, however, is still used as a vile racist slur.

Now, people hearing this were rather perturbed. The BBC, thankfully not willing to put up with this shit, gave her an ultimatum - apologise unconditionally or be sacked (frankly, I think that’s generous. They’d be perfectly within their rights and have me waving fan banners if they’d given her the heave-ho before the echoes of her foul mouth had died).

She refused to apologise and was sacked.

Ok, let’s have a brief aside here. She refused to apologise. What. The. Hell. She just lost ALL points for being a decent human being on that one. Even if it WERE a generational gap or ignorance or temporary insanity or possession by evil spirits - if you accidentally say something offensive and unintentionally offend people (giving her the biggest possible benefit of the doubt) then the natural, decent, HUMAN thing to do is apologise. She didn’t.

Now, we are treated to scum as diverse as Will Young to Boris Johnson through the gamut of the usual suspects at the Sun, Daily Mail and Telegraph all outraged that the BBC had the temerity to sack someone for being a racist arsehole. Well done guys, collect a fail prize - you all fail at basic humanity. The lot of you disgust me to the point of nausea.

So now let’s look at some of the specific defences the scum have raised to defend the inexcusable.

1) She said it in private!
No, she said it off-air. That doesn’t make it private. She said it at work, on work premises, in her employer’s time, while acting as a representative of her employer, in an official part of the work place, in front of her colleagues, her employer’s guests and several journalists. Private? No. Really not. If I went into the waiting room of my office and used that word my senior partners would be pissed. I would be expected to apologise. If I wilfully refused to do so I would be booted. I can’t think this is unique.

2) The BBC has a grudge against She Who Must Not Be Named.
Yes. And to exercise this grudge they employed her daughter in a lucrative and easy role then waited until she said something unacceptable (possibly forcing her to do it with some evil mind control)

3) It’s natural for someone of that generation.
Bullshit. She is an educated, intelligent woman who works as part of one of the biggest news and information networks in the world and is the daughter of a POLITICIAN. Do not even TRY to tell me she was unaware that the word was offensive or that such words come naturally to her. Seriously. And if it WAS unintentional then why the hell didn’t she apologise?

4) It was taken out of context
The word is golliwog. It was used to describe a black man. There ISN’T a good context here. In what possible context can the word be used as that kind of descriptor and it be ok?

5) It’s PCISM gone mad! It’s over sensitivity!
It’s basic bloody manners. Hey, please don’t use vilely insulting language to describe people. If you accidentally offend people, you apologise. If you use racist language at work, your employer is going to be miffed. What makes Carol so damn special that these don’t apply to her? Is she beyond, above or better than good manners?

It makes me sick. Not just that one person would say such an idiotic, offensive, vile thing, but the legions of people who step out and support and defend her. It’s disgusting and it just makes an awful thing far far far far far worse.

Comments

[only-playing.livejournal.com]

Good on the BBC.

On an aside note, it is interesting the differences in racial/ethical slurs based on culture/ country of origin.

On this side of the pond, I've never even heard that term. But then I also thought that the dreaded "P*ki" term was on par with calling Australians "Aussies" or New Zealanders "Kiwi's".

Which brings me to another point: Even if I don't think that something is insulting, if someone took it that way, I would totally apologize and attempt from ever making that mistake again.

Second aside, those dolls are kinda creepy looking. They remind me of the Mammie dolls my greatgrandmother had a child.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Sadly if it were ever meant as a mere abbreviation the venom of racism has long since covered it.

Which is my point. If she didn't mean it that way why can she not apologise


Aye, I hate the things. They look awful

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

Apparently she's an even big sack of shit than we thought:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/06/carol-thatcher-multiple-golliwog-remarks

Sigh.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

Congratulations Ms Thatcher. After reading the above addition to the land of fail you call your life, you have now won the hateful git award of the month. As a bonus you will now be added to my tools of inspiration for the villainous Madam Donaldson in my Heartbeat of the Earth series. You should feel honored…only the evilest of women can say they’ve earned such an honor.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Ok that's it - uber fail points. She has no brownie points left

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I am just glad the BBC is cracking down on her for this. It set an example of what himd of behavior will not be tolerated. Why is it so hard for people lately to just say sorry when they open thier mouth and say something stupid or hateful? I never had a problem admitting when I screw up...I don't get the problem folks.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aye I would have lost all respect if they had brushed it up and covered it over

I don't get it. An apology would have cost so little

[helbling.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what I wanted to say, onyl youtyped it first - you must get out of my head :P. I'm linking, if you don't mind.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

By all means :)

[flickums.livejournal.com]

Came here via helbling

You win the Awesome Award. Congratulations!

[popelizbet.livejournal.com]

Here via the same source. Megadittoes.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Thankeee :)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[seryan.livejournal.com]

3) It’s natural for someone of that generation.

I hate this argument. It makes it sound as if everyone of a certain time frame ran around spouting racist comments with no thought, and no one in that period ever thought it was wrong or that it should be changed. It also makes it sound as if people aren't able to change, which is nonsense. My grandfather - who was FAR OLDER than this Ms. Thatcher - would never have used a word like that.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It's such an insult to older people. Seriously - because they're a certain age they can't help but be racist arseholes? How demeaning! How ridiculous! Like they've spent the last 20 years with their heads buried in the sand!

[kathminchin.livejournal.com]

I am going to cheat and cut and paste a comment I made in a friend's journal:

This situation has led to a very interesting discussion in my office. For those readers of sparkindarkness’s LJ who don’t know, I work for a company that provides specialist insurance (which includes cover in the case of a professional or employment tribunal) for medical professionals, including advice in respect of employment and professional issues. It has also recently formed a trades union and the people discussing the case were the employment advice team – who are all legally qualified.

Whilst the discussion touched lightly on “was it racist” and then “was it appropriate for her to be sacked”; then main thrust was “should someone at the BBC now be facing disciplinary charges for leaking it to the press?” An interesting question and the general consensus were “almost certainly.”

Whilst no one is saying that the comment wasn’t racist and highly inappropriate; and indeed none of them are querying “should she have faced disciplinary action as a result of the complaint” or even “should she have been fired as a result?”; there is a feeling that by leaking it to the press, Ms Thatcher’s privacy has been breached. Unless a matter is brought to an employment tribunal – which is an event that is accessible to the public; the transcripts are automatically available to anyone who applies for them and the press are able to attend them; employment disciplinary outcomes are not a matter of public record. If the disciplinary does not involve criminal charges then there is no obligation for an employer to report them to any overseeing body (if it’s criminal charges then they would be reporting them to the police.) She isn’t part of a regulated profession like pharmacy where if the company had concerns about her professional practice they could report her to the regulatory body. So someone has potentially broken legislation by reporting it to the press (the most obvious one I can think of is the data protection act); and therefore could be disciplined for professional misconduct.

Which in the case of a bunch of employees who are journalists by trade makes for an interesting scenario – it is news after all; and it could be argued that revealing that CT has racist tendencies is in the public interest – and of course it’s a good thing to be discussing as a society in the interests of combating such insidious racist comments. But on the flip side, whoever did it has released personal information regarding someone; without their consent – and although you could hold such data as part of the employment process I’m positive that either her contract or the terms under which the BBC has said such data would be collected and stored don’t include “the ability to publish the results of any employment disciplinary.”

Suffice it to say, they’re watching this with great interest that has nothing to do with the fact that CT got fired – that they’re completely in agreement with!

(BTW I do believe that CT should have been fired, esp after she refused to apologise. Saying that "no one should have been offended" is stupid - people obviously were!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Well i wonder - does it even count as a BBC leak? Beyond perhaps explaining the reason for her being booted (doubt she was quiet about it)

Sure people who were there may have leaked it - but some were journalists and I can't see it being overly privileged anyway.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

This term would probably receive the same reaction in America as that one does over there.
I was shocked when I heard she refused to apologize. Who does that? I keep trying to think of a metaphor and I can't. It's just reprehensible behavior.
Out of curiosity, why do you refer to Carol's mother as "She Who Must Not Be Named"?

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

Carol Thatcher's mother is sort of like Voldemort from Harry Potter, or Shai'tan in the Wheel of Time series - inasmuch as there is a popular folk tradition that, if you speak her true name, you draw her attention; and give her a certain power over you. The truly superstitious believe in tales of She Who Must Not Be Named appearing at the bedsides of careless youths who speak her name aloud, staring down at them with crazed, glowing red eyes, talons clawed to rend the unwary to pieces.

The key difference between She Who Must Not Be Named and these two fictional characters is that Margaret Thatcher is real.

O shi--

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

You spoke its name! I must set up wards - where's the holy water? Where are my stakes! Damn it, someone board up the windows!

[pujaemuss.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, that word actually means 'child' in several pidgin languages in the Pacific Islands.

PJW

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

*shudder* horrendous term.

the idea that she wouldn't apologise? yes no cookies.


She Who Must Not be Named is evil incarnate. We cannot invoke her here

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

I'll have to read up on her. I'm afraid I don't know enough about her.

Amusingly enough, the person I kept pulling to mind was Madeleine Albright and I liked her. I had faces and names switched up.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Make sure you keep a holy symbol at hand. There were some things man was not meant to know

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Appy she's now selling her story to the *spits* Mail on Sunday, which really takes the proverbial. (Scroll down to the bottom of the article.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/06/carol-thatcher-multiple-golliwog-remarks

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Gah, the daily mail. Why do i expect no better?

[sapphybelle.livejournal.com]

I remember reading old copies of Enid Blyton books as a kid (the Amelia Jane ones had a golliwog character who was always trying to stop her from doing bad things... actually i think once she got hold of some paints and threatened to paint his face white D:) - ones which didnt have the revised changes in them. I never owned such a toy, and I never used the term, though.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aye it is an extremely dated toy from back in the days when racism was pretty much par the course - it's kind of depressing that Ms. thatcher still lives in those days

[solid-squid.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason it's so well known in Britain is that one of the major jam manufacturers used one as a mascot, and would occasionally have them as free gifts. There was a guy round the corner from where I grew up who collected them, and apparently there were quite a few.

[cally7.livejournal.com]

This is what I get for not reading my flist every single day. Now I'm seeing red. I hate that woman with a firey passion and to have clueless idiots (Will Young and Boris the bloody Ridiculous) defending her just makes me even more angry.

The weirdest thing was Adrian Chiles was one of the people most angry at her behaviour. He is the epitome of grumpy old bastard who gets sick to death of overly pc, overly cautious people and has made a few faux pas himself (he managed to upset people because of noisy foxes), yet even he was pissed off with her.

Honest stupidity and brainless moments happen but people like her is one of the reasons people get away with bad behaviour. Not apologising just compounds the evidence she is a spoild brat who hasn't grown up. Oh, and the "my generation" thing? Complete bullshit, I'm the same bloody generation and I would never, EVER make a comment like that about someones colour, gender, sexuality. It's called common decency, something her mother obviously failed to instil in her.