Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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:
RubyFakeNails · 30/07/2012 03:24

It is completely irrelevant, she is my MP regardless of the issue; race, environmental, educational etc. If Aidan Burley was my MP I would unfortunately be contacting him. I have contacted her on issues before, I like her, I vote for her, yes she has had controversies but if I'm contacting her about an issue as a member of her constituency comments she has made about white people in the past are completely separate.

I can't see how I am being hypocritical or disingenuous, so I certainly can't see how I'm being supremely hypocritical or disingenuous.

I cannot understand what on earth the point is you are trying to make. That some bemoan the DM and still read it? That I shouldn't contact my MP? That its ironic Diane Abbott is my MP? That the article is right?

OP posts:
RunYouBastardRun · 30/07/2012 11:50

Aladdinsania that's my brother's blog. He's received 200,000 hits and been retweeted by celebs and politicians.

ljny · 30/07/2012 12:33

RunYouBastardRun, congratulations to your brother. He did good.

RunYouBastardRun · 30/07/2012 12:59

Thank you Grin

caramelwaffle · 30/07/2012 13:03

Run Your brother did well there.

Good on him.

RubyFakeNails · 30/07/2012 17:06

Had a response from PCC:

Thank you for raising your concerns with us.

The Press Complaints Commission has received a large number of complaints about the article. These have been made predominantly under Clause 12 (Discrimination), while some complainants have also cited Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors? Code of Practice. In line with the PCC?s procedure, one complainant, whose complaint was made under these clauses, has been selected for the purposes of a PCC investigation into the article. The complaint will be sent to the newspaper for its comments on the matter. We will inform you of the outcome of the PCC investigation when possible.

Peter Wright, who was until the end of March 2012 editor of The Mail on Sunday, is currently a member of the Press Complaints Commission. However, as the Daily Mail, the sister newspaper of the Mail on Sunday, is the subject of your complaint he will not take part in any discussion or consideration of the complaint by the Commission.

OP posts:
festiemum · 30/07/2012 17:09

Yes! Had the same response ruby! So glad lots of people did complain and that the PCC are investigating. Even if the Mail have completely pulled the article now. They still need to be taken to task for printing such offensive drivel in the first place!

Pendeen · 30/07/2012 17:12

The ceremony was representative of it's locality.

Not of the UK as a whole.

RubyFakeNails · 30/07/2012 17:26

Yes festie I think its good that at least it is being investigated and will hopefully be raised with the arsehole writer.

OP posts:
OnYerMarksGetSETKnit · 30/07/2012 17:31

YANBU. Maybe I should invite them to come round to our house :-)

OnYerMarksGetSETKnit · 30/07/2012 17:34

Oops, just seen the end of the thread Blush
Good on you for complaining. Will you update the outcome here OP?

Devora · 30/07/2012 21:33

OK, so the cast was not 'representative of the UK as a whole'. Tru dat. But the content was representative, wasn't it? I would understand the point more if the opening ceremony had been turned into a World Music festival, where all we got was reggae and rumba and African drums. But it wasn't, was it? it was British - black British, white British, brown British. It is interesting that so many white people balk at being asked to identify with, or be represented by, black people. Yet black people are endlessly expected to feel represented by white people (in Parliament, on TV etc).

Just saying.

Inneedofbrandy · 30/07/2012 21:38

Oh did everyone else who complained get a email today saying

Thank you for raising your concerns with us.

The Press Complaints Commission has received a large number of complaints about the article. These have been made predominantly under Clause 12 (Discrimination), while some complainants have also cited Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors? Code of Practice. In line with the PCC?s procedure, one complainant, whose complaint was made under these clauses, has been selected for the purposes of a PCC investigation into the article. The complaint will be sent to the newspaper for its comments on the matter. We will inform you of the outcome of the PCC investigation when possible.

Peter Wright, who was until the end of March 2012 editor of The Mail on Sunday, is currently a member of the Press Complaints Commission. However, as the Daily Mail, the sister newspaper of the Mail on Sunday, is the subject of your complaint he will not take part in any discussion or consideration of the complaint by the Commission.

With best wishes
Yours sincerely

Simon Yip
Complaints Coordinator

motherofallhangovers · 30/07/2012 21:48

" It is interesting that so many white people balk at being asked to identify with, or be represented by, black people. Yet black people are endlessly expected to feel represented by white people (in Parliament, on TV etc).

Just saying."

Good point.

edam · 30/07/2012 21:49

run, well done to your brother!

Inneedofbrandy · 30/07/2012 23:44

Oh sorry RubyFakeNails didnt realise you posted same email I had, was sure no one else had before I posted it. Blush

Pendeen · 31/07/2012 09:34

"It is interesting that so many white people balk at being asked to identify with, or be represented by, black people. Yet black people are endlessly expected to feel represented by white people (in Parliament, on TV etc)."

Interesting viewpoint. What would you recommend to change this?

Bear in mind, parliament is an elected body and should represent the the majority of the electorate so therefore if this was true then 50% should be female, 10% would be non-white and so on.

TV however is nothing of the kind I would suggest that the representation as regards male / female, white / non-white on current programmes and especially adverts is quite different.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page