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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think Radio 5 host Danny Baker cannot stay at the BBC?

999 replies

KingHenrysCodpiece · 09/05/2019 08:41

Sorry if theres a post on this already.
Link www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7009283/BBC-Radio-5-Live-host-Danny-Baker-tweets-racist-Royal-Baby-monkey-image.html

He ought to go immediately.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
bamboofibre · 09/05/2019 12:38

Glad he's sacked. Sick of funding gits like him. It's the right decision.

NoSauce · 09/05/2019 12:38

Part of me thinks the issue is with those who connect chimpanzees as a refrence to black

Words fail me.

findingmyfeet12 · 09/05/2019 12:39

Part of me thinks the issue is with those who connect chimpanzees as a refrence to black

Excellent way to dismiss decades of abuse. The image has connotations due to the reality of the type of racism experienced by real people!

Kennehora · 09/05/2019 12:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

elkiedee · 09/05/2019 12:40

OK, I note Mike Read doesn't have a regular contract at the BBC but they do sem to bring him back regularly, and he is still very much a media personality.

Seniorschoolmum · 09/05/2019 12:40

What MissEliza says. He has shown himself to vile, racist, toxic and ignorant to the point I hope he never works again.

There is just no place for his views...anywhere...ever

Hearhere · 09/05/2019 12:42

Exactly @oceanview it's hardly like a typo where you write they're instead of there is it
He made a deliberate and conscious effort to post what he posted

elkiedee · 09/05/2019 12:43

Floribunda, I realised as soon as I posted that Mike Read probably doesn't work all the time for the BBC, but he still gets brought back for things now and then and he has certainly had various BBC jobs since 1988, including a regional radio post for some time.

Weirdwonders · 09/05/2019 12:44

If there was a shred of racist intent in the tweet he wouldn’t have posted it because a) you’d lose your show, obviously and b) you’d have to endure 24 hours of tedious, worthy judgement on Mumsnet and Twitter telling you what a dreadful person you are. Bring back Danny!

ThatCurlyGirl · 09/05/2019 12:44

@ohwellstartagain

But you're white and so your dad made a comparison which would have no racist connotations in everyday life.

Even if someone means no malice with a comment, saying something that is used as a slur by racist people about a minority is at best ignorant and the person who said it should be confronted and educated as to why it's offensive.

I'm bipolar and find it awkward when people use it as a descriptor of people who aren't actually bipolar. I don't assume malice behind their comments but I do feel it's ok to explain why I find their comment offensive so they have the opportunity not to do it again.

However in DB case I just can't believe he didn't realise how the tweet could be construed. So I don't understand why he posted it.

I think it's reasonable that people in the public eye are held to a higher standard and have more accountability for their actions because they have a platform that reaches so many more people than us regular joes. Both are absolutely wrong but it feels even more important to hold someone to account if they have a platform.

tenbob · 09/05/2019 12:44

Part of me thinks the issue is with those who connect chimpanzees as a refrence to black poeple

Come off it. Danny Baker is knee-deep in football culture, where barely a month goes by without a horrific incident of crowds making monkey noises at black players
There isn't a fart in hell's chance he doesn't see the connection with chimpanzees being a dog whistle for racists to refer to black people.

brassbrass · 09/05/2019 12:45

I can also clearly see the Old Fashioned Family Trots Out Newborn connotations

Did the purely white royals get this kind of attention when they paraded their newborns? Why did DB feel compelled to comment now?

Hearhere · 09/05/2019 12:45

Fucking hell Trump really has emboldened them hasn't he

poorbuthappy · 09/05/2019 12:45

Someone on FB has just asked why Alan Sugar wasn't sacked for his racist comments (which I can't lay my hands on at the moment!!)
Is it different?

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/05/2019 12:45

Excellent way to dismiss decades of abuse. The image has connotations due to the reality of the type of racism experienced by real people! Must be the way you read it... it was the racists that constructed that specific form of racism I was referring to

Words can fail whomever. But reading the very worst into a post isn't really helpful! I was condemning the racists who made that link. FFS!

BertrandRussell · 09/05/2019 12:47

“Someone on FB has just asked why Alan Sugar wasn't sacked for his racist comments”

Yep. I wondered that at the time.

SouthWestmom · 09/05/2019 12:47

Part of me thinks the issue is with those who connect chimpanzees as a refrence to black poeple

Yes this is the issue. And the rest of us are aware that those people have subjected black people to racial abuse comparing them to monkeys, bananas being thrown at them and chimp noises made. So we don't tend to post images that replace black people with monkeys

Disfordarkchocolate · 09/05/2019 12:48

I'm a bit baffled to find from this thread that he has a collection of similar images of monkeys etc dressed as humans. Has no one said to him at any point that a lot of people will find that at least distasteful if not outright racist now.

Weirdwonders · 09/05/2019 12:48

Also what do people mean there’s no coming back from it? That he can’t hide - what do you mean exactly? That he should be hounded, never forgiven? From what, a tweet that was not intended to be seen in the way it was, which was withdrawn immediately comment was made and an apology issued? So what happens now? I don’t want to share this society where there’s a complete lack of understanding or forgiveness. I totally reject it. So many of you are wrong. You just are. We can’t carry on like this.

JacquesHammer · 09/05/2019 12:50

That he should be hounded, never forgiven? From what, a tweet that was not intended to be seen in the way it was, which was withdrawn immediately comment was made and an apology issued?

Nobody should be hounded Confused

People with racist views shouldn’t be given a platform.

His apology was the biggest “sorry, not sorry” possible.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/05/2019 12:51

Ph, FFS! I should know better.

STOP SNIPPING SINGLE LINES AND MAKING IT SEEM LIKE I SAID / MEANT SOMETHING I CLEARLY DID NOT!

Noeuf I explained, it was those racists I was referring to.

I get that my phrasing may not have been adequate, other posters seem to think the same... but fucking hell! Leap off the bandwagin a moment and read all I wrote!

findingmyfeet12 · 09/05/2019 12:51

No it's not about the racists who made the link Curious it's about what that image has now come to represent. If you can't see that then you're pretty ignorant.

poorbuthappy · 09/05/2019 12:53

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44544897

Found it.

Why is 1 a sackable offence and 1 not?

SaveThePangolin · 09/05/2019 12:53

Weridwonders I've seen no one suggest he should be 'hounded'. People are reasonably baffled by his behaviour and disapproving of racism. I haven't seen anyone attempting to whip up a frenzy of hatred. I wonder what your motive is in trying to imply there has been...

Hearhere · 09/05/2019 12:53

This wasn't a mistake it was a grave and disturbing error of judgement