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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To Think This Is A Racist Comment, even for the DM?

167 replies

RubyFakeNails · 28/07/2012 21:52

A friend alerted me to this article in the DM.

This section I think is particularly crass, with one sentence being racist.

"The highlight was undoubtedly an hilarious sketch featuring the Queen and James Bond which saw her Majesty ?parachute? into the stadium.

But it was the absurdly unrealistic scene ? and indeed one that would spring from the kind of nonsensical targets and equality quotas we see in the NHS - showing a mixed-race middle-class family in a detached new-build suburban home, which was most symptomatic of the politically correct agenda in modern Britain.

This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.
Almost, if not every, shot in the next sequence included an ethnic minority performer. The BBC presenter Hazel Irvine gushed about the importance of grime music (a form of awful electronic music popular among black youths) to east London.

This multicultural equality agenda was so staged it was painful to watch.
And Conservative MP Aidan Burley was right to point out on Twitter that it was a load of 'leftie multicultural c**p'. Yet predictably he has been castigated by Twitter's Guadianista brigade.

Unfortunately the kind of politically driven multiculturalism we saw last night is the kind of social engineering we have come to expect."

I'm really offended by this as I can't see what evidence they have to make that comment, and as a white educated middle-aged woman living with an equally educated black man in a happy family set-up, maybe I am biased. Would like some opinions.

AIBU to make a complaint about this?

OP posts:
motherinferior · 29/07/2012 12:59

My Indian mother met my Ango/Scandinavian dad at Oxford.

DP's Bangladeshi dad met his English mother at Cambridge.

Grin
motherinferior · 29/07/2012 13:15

Just thinking about my daughters' friends and classmates: lots of middle-class mixed race nuclear families among them. Am just looking out of the window at our opposite neighbour (middle class black woman) heading into the house to see her white husband and their two kids; replying to DD1's party invitation to another family with white mother, black father, two kids, again middle-class; yes, some of the couples I'm thinking of (our white GP and her black husband) have split up after a couple of decades but frankly, statistically, that's not exactly unusual....

RubyFakeNails · 29/07/2012 13:17

Thanks three, we've all complained to PCC.

I do think there is an element of trolling with the DM, but that's mainly why I posted the offending paragraph, as opposed to just that link. It's frustrating because it gives them what they want, but hopefully in the long term everyone being outraged and complaining means they won't continue to write such bile.

OP posts:
RunYouBastardRun · 29/07/2012 13:29

My brother's view

HKat · 29/07/2012 13:31

I have long suspected the author of this 'article' is actually my Daily-Fail-loving-mother in disguise. Certainly sounds like something she'd say...I'm just waiting for her comments as to why there were black and Asian people in the 'Green and Pleasant' and Industrial Revolution scenes as it would not have been 'historically accurate'....In other words, she's racist but tries to present her views in what she sees as a rational argument. Bah :( I hate the Mail. Misogynistic, racist, horrible rag.

HKat · 29/07/2012 13:36

RunYouBastardRun your brother is awesome. Im going to forward my DM that link :)

edam · 29/07/2012 13:44

Hello MI!

RunYouBastardRun · 29/07/2012 13:50

Smile HKat

Mrsjay · 29/07/2012 14:19

dont read the daily mail please stop reading it , and I love dizee he is adorable I am not young , although I am not sure Dizzee would be pleased i said he is as cute as button Wink

Frontpaw · 29/07/2012 15:13

But he is! Cute little cheeky smile... Makes me go all maternal!

Mrsjay · 29/07/2012 15:14

But he is! Cute little cheeky smile... Makes me go all maternal!

and m
e serious grime artist or cutsey pie I think Dizee would rather be known as a serious artist but his little face is adorable Grin

edam · 29/07/2012 15:16

I think it was Dizee who used to be taught by Shappi Korsandi. She told this story about being at a showbiz party and now-famous ex-pupil comes bouncing up to her saying 'Miss! Miss! Remember me!'. Grin

Mrsjay · 29/07/2012 15:18

Miss! Miss! Remember me!'.

aww bless him Grin

Frontpaw · 29/07/2012 15:38

Can he be our mumsnet mascot, please?

SamanthaSingsTheBlues · 29/07/2012 16:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AmberLeaf · 29/07/2012 16:39

I think what he's saying is not so much that educated (read middle class) white women don't 'go with' black men but that black men don't stay with the families they create.

If you are a white woman with mixed race children it is often assumed that you are 1) a single parent and 2) your children have different fathers because black men don't stick around long enough to see two blue lines appear!

So yes YANBU deffo racist.

caramelwaffle · 29/07/2012 16:53

It seems they have removed it.

Someone at DM Towers know they pushed it far too far.

hackmum · 29/07/2012 17:13

Edam: "But the Mail has one of the biggest websites around so they really need to sub it just as carefully as the paper."

Yes. This is wandering off a bit from the main topic, but the website often has numerous spelling, punctual and minor factual errors that almost certainly wouldn't get through the subs on the main paper. You'd think they would be more careful, given that the website has far more readers than the print edition.

edam · 29/07/2012 17:17

quite hackmum - although I think the Mail isn't alone in not being as careful with the website as they are with the main paper (not that I'd dream of confessing to being less than perfect as a magazine editor but it's entirely possible there may be a few minor errors on my own website...)

Aladdinsania · 30/07/2012 00:32

UPDATE UPDATE: The Mail has pulled the article entirely now. The link to it now just reaches an error page. But you can read the article in full...here

TheShriekingHarpy · 30/07/2012 01:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheShriekingHarpy · 30/07/2012 01:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RubyFakeNails · 30/07/2012 02:21

I haven't said I'm contacting Diane Abbott for an impartial opinion, I contacted her because she is my MP. The fact that she has experienced her own controversies is irrelevant to the fact that she is my MP, who I know to be responsive and I am a massive Diane fan.

Also its widely acknowledged by many on mn that the DM has a vile right wing staunch that is not in line with many posters opinions but we contradict ourselves by choosing to read it, most commonly 'the side bar of shame' so I can't understand why you seem to think you've made some hugely hilarious point when its something we are all aware of and I believe has been mentioned on this thread.

OP posts:
TheShriekingHarpy · 30/07/2012 02:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MORCAPS · 30/07/2012 03:01

I thought the racial mix was about right for London.

I lived in Fulham for 6 years and know plenty of extremely well educated, comfortable lifestyled mixed race couples and kids and families.

The DM is full of shit, it always is but MN seems to be constantly surprised by this.