Question on todays BBC radio programme.."Are you ashamed of yourself if you laughed at Little Britain sketch'?

Little Britain was hardly 'Love thy neighbour.'

"Little Britain has been taken down from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Britbox who all agreed the use of blackface is not acceptable.
Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the overdue mainstream conversations about systemic racism and white privilege, the platforms buried Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ problematic sketch show with immediate effect.
Netflix first made the move on Friday, while iPlayer and Britbox have now followed suit, also banning the duo’s Come Fly With Me. In Come Fly With Me, Lucas and Walliams wore make up for characters including airport worker Taaj, passenger liaison officer Moses Beacon, and airline boss Omar Baba while Walliams also starred as health-spa snob Desiree Devere in Little Britain.
‘There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review,’ explained a spokesperson from the BBC. ‘Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.’"



https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/09/little-britain-removed-bbc-iplayer-netflix-britbox-use-black-face-12827123/

"GONE WITH THE WIND" has now been pulled from view until further discussion.

"  HBO Max told Variety: ‘Gone With The Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. ‘These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible… ‘When we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.’ The statement went on: ‘If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.’"

https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/10/gone-wind-removed-hbo-max-following-criticism-racist-depictions-12831432/

I wonder when they will start on more recent films like the brilliant 'Guess who's coming to dinner' and 'To Sir with love' both starring Sidney Poitier, both detailing societies attitude to black people in the 60's, and both of their time.

Where will it end?

Probably with a very divided society, I think a lot of people are going to be put off by all this kind of thing and being told they are racist, overtly or covertly without any explanations or examples.
One thing the virus seems to have done is bring people of all sorts together and maybe has broken down misconceptions and barriers.
The kind of aggressive finger pointing especially by so called celebs could very well cause peoples opinions to go into reverse.

I don't think I ever laughed at anything in "little Britain"...


I thought it was shit...!

Tommy Monk wrote:


I don't think I ever laughed at anything in "little Britain"...


I thought it was shit...!

You have no reason to feel ashamed then do you?

Syl wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:


I don't think I ever laughed at anything in "little Britain"...


I thought it was shit...!

You have no reason to feel ashamed then do you?

Not about 'little Britain'...


But I do now feel a little bit ashamed about how I used to really enjoy watching "Desmond's" years ago, but I never complained about there not being enough diversity on the show... looking back now, I realise how wrong the show was for not being inclusive enough and not having any white British/Indian/Chinese/Romanian/Aborigine/Eskimo/Mexican etc people in the show... or any of the other huge number of other possible ethnicity/nationality of people in it either... and on top of that, the level of guilt I feel for enjoying it, although it also didn't have any homosexual/lesbian/transgender/non binary/alphabet people/storylines in it either, and no goth/emo/hippy/rock/hip-hop/grunge/classical/opera/folk/new world themed storylines in it, and no representation of disabled people by not having one character in it for each possible disability out there too...



Oh... I feel so ashamed now about how I could have ever enjoyed watching a show set in and around the life of a west Indian/Jamaican barber shop owner and his shop and the small group of his regular west Indian/Jamaican customers/friends... without ever realising how racist and uninclusive this show was and never complaining about it before...!!!

I feel sorry for us whites and for the incredible white guilt we must all now be made to feel.

I foresee a lengthy period of mostly white-run institutions making fools of themselves, going to ridiculous lengths to prove they aren't racist.

Ben Reilly wrote:I foresee a lengthy period of mostly white-run institutions making fools of themselves, going to ridiculous lengths to prove they aren't racist.

Ah....the 360 white.

Ben Reilly wrote:I foresee a lengthy period of mostly white-run institutions making fools of themselves, going to ridiculous lengths to prove they aren't racist.

Screw the racism-denying...they are as racist as they ever were. They just want the money.

Tommy Monk wrote:

Syl wrote:

You have no reason to feel ashamed then do you?

Not about 'little Britain'...


But I do now feel a little bit ashamed about how I used to really enjoy watching "Desmond's" years ago, but I never complained about there not being enough diversity on the show... looking back now, I realise how wrong the show was for not being inclusive enough and not having any white British/Indian/Chinese/Romanian/Aborigine/Eskimo/Mexican etc people in the show... or any of the other huge number of other possible ethnicity/nationality of people in it either... and on top of that, the level of guilt I feel for enjoying it, although it also didn't have any homosexual/lesbian/transgender/non binary/alphabet people/storylines in it either, and no goth/emo/hippy/rock/hip-hop/grunge/classical/opera/folk/new world themed storylines in it, and no representation of disabled people by not having one character in it for each possible disability out there too...



Oh... I feel so ashamed now about how I could have ever enjoyed watching a show set in and around the life of a west Indian/Jamaican barber shop owner and his shop and the small group of his regular west Indian/Jamaican customers/friends... without ever realising how racist and uninclusive this show was and never complaining about it before...!!!

And furthermore... I would just like to say... how I feel really guilty about liking one of the main characters in the show in particular... without ever considering the enormous offence that muslims and Jews and vegetarians may have felt by this characters name... And it is only now that I am so 'woke' and such a wise social justice warrior that I wish to apologise for my indulgence in ever liking such a thing... and admit my ignorance in doing so without the proper consideration of the offense that so many others might have felt by this... And I apologise for my lack of action in doing anything before by way of raising the issue by way of voicing my opposition by way of complaint...


It should never have been allowed that a character in "Desmond's" was allowed to ever go by the name... "Pork Pie"...!

I never watched Desmonds so I cant comment on it, sounds like you loved it Tommy

Ant and Dec have now jumped on the bandwagon of self flagellation.

Syl wrote:I never watched Desmonds so I cant comment on it, sounds like you loved it Tommy

Ant and Dec have now jumped on the bandwagon of self flagellation.

Yes I did Syl... But I'm so ashamed of myself now...

Tommy Monk wrote:

Syl wrote:I never watched Desmonds so I cant comment on it, sounds like you loved it Tommy

Ant and Dec have now jumped on the bandwagon of self flagellation.  

Yes I did Syl... But I'm so ashamed of myself now...

Syl wrote:Little Britain was hardly 'Love thy neighbour.'

"Little Britain has been taken down from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Britbox who all agreed the use of blackface is not acceptable.
Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the overdue mainstream conversations about systemic racism and white privilege, the platforms buried Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ problematic sketch show with immediate effect.
Netflix first made the move on Friday, while iPlayer and Britbox have now followed suit, also banning the duo’s Come Fly With Me. In Come Fly With Me, Lucas and Walliams wore make up for characters including airport worker Taaj, passenger liaison officer Moses Beacon, and airline boss Omar Baba while Walliams also starred as health-spa snob Desiree Devere in Little Britain.
‘There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review,’ explained a spokesperson from the BBC. ‘Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.’"



https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/09/little-britain-removed-bbc-iplayer-netflix-britbox-use-black-face-12827123/

just a continuation of the nanny state we live in, label the content, let people watch what they want to watch..

+1

Thinking back to 'the bad old days' when racist bigoted programmes were freely available to watch on mainstream TV.
The two that are always mentioned as stereotypes of the past to be ashamed of are 'Love thy neighbour' and 'Some mothers'...and they obviously wouldn't be tolerated today.

But did not the white man always come off worse anyway? He was always the butt of the jokes and because of his racist views always the underdog.
In love thy neighbour the black couple were attractive and nice, the white couple dowdy and ugly, the wife was ashamed of her bigoted husband, and he was always put in his place by his black neighbour.

Something to think about??

I think all this has got seriously out of hand.
Blacks in the 70’s called us white folks Honkys .

Taking down all these programmes and celebs apologising
is way over the top.

What happened to George Floyd was utterly terrible and
the cops responsible have been dealt with.

Star24 wrote:I think all this has got seriously out of hand.
Blacks in the 70’s called us white folks Honkys .

Taking down all these programmes and celebs apologising
is way over the top.

What happened to George Floyd was utterly terrible and
the cops responsible have been dealt with.

I don't think a lot of what is happening in the UK has much to do with the murder of George Floyd in the US.
It's just given some people with a grudge a soapbox.

Surely they should be protesting against police brutality, wasn't a white man killed in exactly the same way in the US a while before the George Floyd incident? The police in the US seem to be rather heavy handed at the best of times, although dealing with someone high on various substances does cause problems it seems.

Syl wrote:Thinking back to 'the bad old days' when racist bigoted programmes were freely available to watch on mainstream TV.
The two that are always mentioned as stereotypes of the past to be ashamed of are 'Love thy neighbour' and 'Some mothers'...and they obviously wouldn't be tolerated today.

But did not the white man always come off worse anyway? He was always the butt of the jokes and because of his racist views always the underdog.
In love thy neighbour the black couple were attractive and nice, the white couple dowdy and ugly, the wife was ashamed of her bigoted husband, and he was always put in his place by his black neighbour.

Something to think about??

yes they did, funny how that worked.

Syl wrote:Thinking back to 'the bad old days' when racist bigoted programmes were freely available to watch on mainstream TV.
The two that are always mentioned as stereotypes of the past to be ashamed of are 'Love thy neighbour' and 'Some mothers'...and they obviously wouldn't be tolerated today.

But did not the white man always come off worse anyway? He was always the butt of the jokes and because of his racist views always the underdog.
In love thy neighbour the black couple were attractive and nice, the white couple dowdy and ugly, the wife was ashamed of her bigoted husband, and he was always put in his place by his black neighbour.

Something to think about??

yes they did, funny how that worked.

Vintage wrote:Surely they should be protesting against police brutality, wasn't a white man killed in exactly the same way in the US a while before the George Floyd incident? The police in the US seem to be rather heavy handed at the best of times, although dealing with someone high on various substances does cause problems it seems.

I saw the video where the white man was killed in a similar way by a brute of a cop. The cop even laughed and joked whilst the man lay dead on the floor. I think the video of that murder by cop was kept quiet for years.
When it was made known it certainly didn't seem to arouse much public interest.
Maybe white lives don't matter as much as black lives in some situations.

Syl wrote:Thinking back to 'the bad old days' when racist bigoted programmes were freely available to watch on mainstream TV.
The two that are always mentioned as stereotypes of the past to be ashamed of are 'Love thy neighbour' and 'Some mothers'...and they obviously wouldn't be tolerated today.

But did not the white man always come off worse anyway? He was always the butt of the jokes and because of his racist views always the underdog.
In love thy neighbour the black couple were attractive and nice, the white couple dowdy and ugly, the wife was ashamed of her bigoted husband, and he was always put in his place by his black neighbour.

Something to think about??

Exactly and well said.

I do think a lot of white people have white guilt and so when something like the murder of Floyd happened it gave them a platform to upon which to wail. This would be okay if they were always fair about injustices done to their own race or colour.

There’s a lot of “Look how good I am” going on at the moment.

People aren't generally going to buy the idea that a white cop killed a white suspect because the cop is racist.

Not all white cops who kill black suspects are racist, but that's a much harder determination to make. And a lot of the cops who kill black people are definitely racist.

A lot of Americans aren't willing to accept that you might be killed by a police officer based partly or totally upon your skin color; I'm one of them. I'd feel the same if black cops were killing white suspects with relative impunity.

eddie wrote:I do think a lot of white people have white guilt and so when something like the murder of Floyd happened it gave them a platform to upon which to wail.

Or, to their credit, they have a conscience.

Ben wrote:Not all white cops who kill black suspects are racist, but that's a much harder determination to make.

It makes in easier with all these cell phone/cameras going around.

Ben wrote:A lot of Americans aren't willing to accept that you might be killed by a police officer based partly or totally upon your skin color; I'm one of them. I'd feel the same if black cops were killing white suspects with relative impunity.

I get the feeling that is the southern zeitgeist going on. You were born in the north, but you grew up hearing all these excuses. Even if you are a lefty, that has to wear on you.

I heard them too, whenever we visited my in-laws in New Orleans. But, at that time I was already teaching the courses, and I knew better.

Original Quill wrote:

eddie wrote:I do think a lot of white people have white guilt and so when something like the murder of Floyd happened it gave them a platform to upon which to wail.

Or, to their credit, they have a conscience.

A conscience about what? Please do tell.

eddie wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Or, to their credit, they have a conscience.

A conscience about what? Please do tell.  

What do you think? A conscience about right and wrong.

Original Quill wrote:

eddie wrote:

A conscience about what? Please do tell.  

What do you think?  A conscience about right and wrong.

All people can do to make racism and discrimination a thing of the past is to concentrate on the right now not the past.
Look to your own conscience and treat people the way you wish to be treated yourself.
That's how people have a conscience, and that's how to move forwards.

That's right, but there is an element of the golden rule that appeals to self-interest, which removes one existentially.  To say: do onto others as if it is yourself, is to remove yourself to a conditional status.  The as if reduces your part to an abstract comparison.  It is more than that.

If we think less about interests, and more about empathy, we become more involved.  We are no longer making detached comparisons--what would I do if--but actually placing ourselves inside the situation.

I think that is what the murder of George Floyd has done.  And we see in people wanting to involve themselves through the demonstrations.  The empathy is not stand-offish, but embracing.

I have a lovely little Black Great Grandson, when he comes to see me,[ not to often] he runs into my house shouting ganded and straight into my arms, and whispers love you ganded, and I love hlm totally !

nicko wrote: I have a lovely little Black Great Grandson, when he comes to see me,[ not to often] he runs into my house shouting ganded and straight into my arms, and whispers love you ganded, and I love hlm totally !

Sounds like a wonderful little lad Nicko... You are lucky to have such a little ray of sunshine in your life... And he is lucky to have such a loving grandad!

Thanks Tom !

nicko wrote: I have a lovely little Black Great Grandson, when he comes to see me,[ not to often] he runs into my house shouting ganded and straight into my arms, and whispers love you ganded, and I love hlm   totally !

I double the sentiment above, by tommy. Grandchildren are such a gift. Well, any young un is a gift. I love the name he has given you, nick.

Tried a few times to correct him ,but no luck, {I like it] !

nicko wrote: I have a lovely little Black Great Grandson, when he comes to see me,[ not to often] he runs into my house shouting ganded and straight into my arms, and whispers love you ganded, and I love hlm   totally !

Aww that's so sweet, I wonder if he will always refer to you as ganded.
Our grandson couldn't say grandad properly either, he called him grandang. When he writes a card out for him now he still puts 'To Grandang'...and he is 23 now.