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

[KingHenrysCodpiece]

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.

Dana28 No, he didn't apologise.

He implied that anyone who saw racist connotations to the image was racist themselves. Just like you've done.

I doubt there are many black or mixed race children over ten years old who don't know of racial slurs like this. Are they racist as well? Or is it that they've experienced racism? Hint: it's the latter.

It's okay to be ignorant of the uses of some words in the English language. It's really not okay to claim that ignorance signifies virtue on your part.

Then he followed up with another reference about it being his turn in the barrel. That is an abbreviation of the expression "to shoot fish in a barrel", which means "to pick an easy target". He's saying he thinks this is just happening because he's an easy target.

Is it fishist to understand what he means when he likens himself to a fish there? If it's not, how come some people always claim it's racist to pick up on monkey references?

Dana do you believe he didn't know which royal had given birth

He did apologise and delete as soon as someone complained

But an apology doesn't erase the behaviour.

Besides, he then stood on his doorstep and told all kinds of obvious find.

@noodlenosefraggle
@NoSauce
@JacquesHammer
@Noeuf

What you are all missing is that two slightly different things can both be true at the same time:

1. Danny Baker knows enough to recognise the racist interpretation when it is pointed it out to him,
2. Danny Baker doesn't instinctively make that racist connection himself, and wasn't aware of it when he posted it.

If I had to guess, I'd say the overwhelming majority of people in the UK know of the trope. Maybe most kids below 12ish are blissfully unaware of any such trope, and would probably struggle to see why anyone would make such a connection at all. After all, for kids who don't see skin colour as of any significance amongst their friends, why would they? But everyone else has probably at least seen reference to the trope in the papers (or observed or suffered it first hand), so they have knowledge of it.

As for how much of the population instinctively make that connection? The proportion for whom that is their first thought when they see that image? Well, that % has probably come down quite a lot. I suspect very few people in their 30s or younger make that association instinctively unless they have grown up somewhere dodgy, or have suffered that sort of racism themselves. For older age groups it is probably more mixed.
Give it 50 years and I'd say that instinctive reaction to the image will be very rare indeed.

Of course, even for people who don't instinctively make that connection, you'd expect their filter to kick in before they hit the 'post' button. But that's the anthropic principle - if that had been the case, we wouldn't even be talking about it.

So someone posts a racist tweet, he then quite astonishingly does not apologise profusely for doing, he lies about not knowing who the royal baby had been born to and that he didn’t know Meghan was mixed race. And you think it’s unfair for anyone to disagree with people asking whether he’s ill or has been drinking?

I'm afraid we're clearly not on the same page. You're trying to convey that you think my question is absurd (which is an opinion you're entirely entitled to hold), but your description of events makes me feel more convinced that someone has hit him on the head!

Or maybe that he wanted to be sacked?

twitter.com/prodnose/status/1126782949909827585
So many awful people.

MrsBethel

I’m not missing anything. How can DB NOT know the racist connection between monkeys and black people when he has spent a good amount of time this football season discussing JUST that.

Are you really suggesting he can easily discuss how disgusting it is that Raheem Sterling had bananas thrown at him, or that Danny Rose had monkey chants directed at him in Montenegro but isn’t aware of the connection?

And now, the man has finally apologised. It could do with a bit of a rewrite in places, but it's closer to a proper apology. If he'd done something like this yesterday, he'd still have his job.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48226247

Jamie, what do you mean by “your description of events”? Are you saying that what I wrote wasn’t what actually happened or something else?

but your description of events makes me feel more convinced that someone has hit him on the head!

In the (unlikely?) event that he has a medical excuse, it's more likely to be to do with his previous radiation treatment of his head.

But, his doorstep performance yesterday makes me doubtful that that's it.

The Royal parents one is ginger, the other doesn't even look black to me,

Wow.

@Dana28

I think you owe an apology to those of us who have experienced racist comments first hand. That is why we have made the connection that racist people have made comparisons between monkeys and people of colour.

You have called us racist. How dare you.

I don't think that was me!

Um Dana you posted this at 9.32...

He apologised and deleted the so called offending item immediately.massive overreaction

Your last post suggests you’re either not too bright or deliberately goady.

I can't even see any connect with racism.

So... do you just think we’re all lying when we tell you that for decades, racist people have compared black people to monkeys to try and convey the disgusting implication that they are less human than white people? Do you think we all just spontaneously decided to lie about that today?

Gilead I was just trying to work out the joke. Danny seemed to be implying that Meghan and Harry had produced some sort of circus animal.

I mean your post where you have summed up the timeline in your own words. Yes, of course that's what happened.

At this point, I am not even sure what we are arguing about.

• The Royal parents one is ginger, the other doesn't even look black to me,*

no words

Dara O'Briain defended him last night on Twitter and that didn't go down well either (rightly IMO) - Gina Yashere was particularly effective in her replies to Dara! While I hope that DB has apologised more effectively off his own bat, I am wondering if that Twitter thread highlighted the general opinion a bit more obviously to DB, Dara has come out of it looking like a prat as well now!

I tend to agree with Dara's take.

And Jon Ronson's.

^The Royal parents one is ginger, the other doesn't even look black to me,and if that was the case why choose a pic with white parents. It makes no sense. I can't even see any connect with racism. I think people put every little throwaway comment under the micfoscope to find something to take offence at. What I do see reference to is lack of intellectual prowess (the Royal familywell known for academic weakness) being surrounded by finery.
Anti Royal yes. Racist no^

And that's acceptable to say about a newborn baby, is it? "You're going to grow up to be a thicko?" is what this picture says to you? Birthday cards from you must be a joy.

Come on, Dana. Just say, "I had no idea people in Britain were subject to such abuse. That's awful. I didn't see the implications myself but I will certainly learn from this and be very careful never to use such a comparison in future." It would be so much easier than performing mental gymnastics like that, wouldn't it?

Why he couldn’t have made that apology yesterday is bewildering. Too little too late, the damage is done.

People probably would have been more willing to accept DB’s apology had he not lied, joked about it and then suggested he was being thrown under a bus.

Why he couldn’t have made that apology yesterday is bewildering. Too little too late, the damage is done.

The damage is done, regarding my opinion of him, but I think
that apology is probably enough to get him a new job, presenting somewhere else.