Two black cleaners? Really?

[Fresta]

Watching 'How to Spend it Well' on ITV.

AIBU to think that having a load of kids make a mess and then getting two black women in to clean up after them is not really an image we should be reinforcing?

What were they thinking?

Why women cleaners? Why black women? Why couldn't it have been a man and a woman?

My friend is black and her cleaner is white.

Another is Indian and her cleaner is black.

I'm white and my cleaner is white.

Have we all missed something here? I don't have my cleaner because of the colour of her skin... I have her because she can do things with a bottle of flash and a mop I never considered possible or even considered

I live in a priviledged bubble where me and my friends have cleaners

That doesn't warrant an answer, try harder actually @Dworky, its a reasonable question. One that you can't answer though.

@bridgetreilly no, I don't think everyone does tbh. If that makes you think I'm "stupid" and "offensive" then that's your CHOICE

I can tell you what I did choose to see though. What the fuck they were using to try and get that slime out of the sofa cover...

I think perhaps what the OP was saying is not that there is anything wrong with black women or indeed anyone else being cleaners. It’s more than in the context of a TV programme (and I didn’t watch it so commenting from a hypothetical perspective) it would perhaps have been more sensitive not to juxtapose ‘white employers’ vs ‘ethnic minority doing menial job’ because it reinforces stereotypes.

I’m not sure there’s a right way to tackle this without seeming overtly politically correct, but sadly I don’t think we have yet reached the point in society where no-one notices skin colour, particularly in a situation which plays to stereotypes.x

Not a kiss at the end of my post, just fat fingers!

My friend is white and a full-time cleaner and I, a white woman help her as a part-time job at the weekends 🤔. We’re well paid at £15 an hr (in Scotland not London). It is an actual job that people choose to do, not forced into ffs.

Btw, I’ve never seen a black bin man or woman either despite a large, although not majority, population of black people.

Nah sorry Shannon. Still don't buy it. It's bollocks. And nothing but shit stirring for the sake of it.

OP I absolutely thought the same thing. Reeked of white man and kids have made a lot of mess, come in black people and tidy it up.

And if we can't rage on others behalf and call out when we think something is wrong why would anything change?

Course lots of you aren't offended. You're not black and stereotyped.

Ffs

My friend is a cleaner. She doesnt give a shiney what colour the people she works for are. She is white maybe she should only work for black people to stop all this inequality?

What a freaking insult to the woman and her daughter. Who is going to tell them that they cannot work for white people cos it offends randoms who dont know them from Adam?

Imagine, 2 women running thier own business without asking permission from random professionally offended folks. How fucking dare they. And worse how dare they 'flaunt' it on tv? Twice!! Wont someone think of the children?

I don't think people understand.

The OP isn't offended that the cleaners are black or women. She isn't offended that the show has paid black women to clean.

They are saying that when show get the chance to showcase stereotypically lower paid roles or 'female' roles then wouldn't it be nice if they made the effort to challenge rather than reinforce those stereotypes.

Like in adverts where someone is cooking or cleaning, or on shows were parents are looking after children, it's better for everyone if tv execs made a conscious decision to cast someone other than tired harranged women!

DerelictWreck exactly. When given the opportunity on prime time television, why not challenge stereotypes instead of reinforcing them!

One that you can't answer though.
LOL, you are hilarious, not to mention predictable.

You accuse others of being outraged while your posts are dripping with anger & passive aggression.

Night.

Black people are not there for you to use to push your intersectional agenda

You do know slavery was abolished? black people are now allowed to choose whatever career they want, i don't see the issue.

So you're saying that two hard working black women shouldn't be able to earn their money because some sort of "message" is being sent to the kids? Makes no sense they're obviously paid for a job they applied for what's the issue?

Since I'm white I can't hire black people?

I guess I'm a horrible racist because the gentleman who does gardening work for me is black.

Our office has three cleaners. One is female, two are male. All our Eastern European. Are the men breaking down stereotypes by taking on a traditionally female job? Or reinforcing stereotypes of Eastern Europeans taking on low paid work that UK natives don’t want? I’m sooo confused!

@DerelictWreck thank you for being so articulate in explaining why people might have felt uncomfortable

@Dinosaursaremyfriends actually no. Statistics show black women don't really get to choose "any career they want". That's racism for you.

My friend owns and runs a cleaning company. She happens to be a black woman. She started the company from scratch and now employs around 25 others (men and women of different ethnicities) and has corporate clients as well as domestic and does extremely well for herself. She also still cleans herself.

One could argue you are actually being classist assuming that these women are 'lower' in society and have not been afforded opportunities because of their job.

Must we take offence at everything?

FYI I have only ever seen white cleaners in my office

Do people sit at home waiting to be offended nowadays?

OP - your post is ridiculous!

So when asked by the tv company to do another show they should have refused and told them to get someone not female and not black? What the hell has it got to do with anyone else what these women chose to do as a job?
If they are happy then everyone else can get out of thier business.

I'm not embarrassed by my post- I'm embarrassed for some of you though that appear to have limited comprehension skills.

Derelict, thank you for explaining my post, that''s exactly what I was saying- I didn't realise others would manage to take what I said and mis-interpret it so badly.

Of course I'm not saying women shouldn't be cleaners, of course I'm not offended that the cleaners were black or women, of course i'm not saying they shouldn't be employed.

I was questioning the message the programme was sending about stereotypical roles. I didn't realise the women were a well known cleaning duo. To me they were two random women cast as cleaners in the show- I guess they would be to many others too.