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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.

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NoSauce · 10/05/2019 16:54

Hmm I don’t think I can agree with you there Dontbeadick, when it’s something so important as racism I don’t think we can be accidentally offensive, without thinking etc. Imo you either are inherently like that or you’re not. But if for some reason you did have a brain fart and posted something like that imo you’d be so sorry and would make it clear immediately that this was not how you think or feel instead of that sad excuse of an apology.

Anyway we’re all going round in circles here. I just hope lessons will be learned from this.

NoSauce · 10/05/2019 16:55

xpost

JamieVardysHavingAParty · 10/05/2019 16:55

Have you never done or said anything in your lives that you've regretted?

Oh yes. In this thread even, I misspoke and managed to come across as defending DB's original tweet, when I was actually intending to ask why he was being so incompetent.

But he has not acted in the way I would expect a professional to act after a genuine fuck-up.

His first reaction should have been something like "I've taken that down now. I fully apologise for the offence and I can't believe I didn't see the implications for myself. Thank you very much to the all of you who've contacted me to alert me to the racist connotations of this image. More on this later".

Then he should have stopped tweeting while he got a clear-headed pal/paid P.R. professional to draft out a statement like the one he issued this afternoon.

For example, a really good move that a professional might have advised would be a promise to invite someone from a racial equality in sport charity to speak on the show, in order to redress the balance. Hmm, wonder if there are any of those specifically in football... Hmm

The only thing that makes sense at this point is that he's trying to raise his celebrity profile through controversy.

Dontbeadick · 10/05/2019 16:58

@jamievardy I agree with you on everything bar him trying to raise his profile. Trying to limit the damage as much as possible yes..

JamieVardysHavingAParty · 10/05/2019 17:07

He hasn't limited the damage. He has exacerbated it as much as he could without following it up with further racist tweets. It's been like he was trying to pour petrol on the bonfire!

Either
a) he wanted the sack and a job at A.N. Other radio station,
b) something is wrong with his mental faculties currently, or,
c) he's always been a complete idiot with no idea how to engage with the public, and it's a miracle he's not buggered up before on twitter.

I've not met him, so I don't know which it is.

RedDogsBeg · 10/05/2019 17:09

2010Aussie I am not sure how you think that anecdote negates what WeepingWillow and I have said.

Dontbeadick · 10/05/2019 17:13

We already know that he's not the brightest, so I'm inclined to go with c)!

JamieVardysHavingAParty · 10/05/2019 17:19

Honestly, finding it difficult to believe it's c). I think it's (a), (b) or (d) he didn'r apologise well because he just wasn't sorry.

MrsBethel · 10/05/2019 17:31

RedDogsBeg, WeepingWillow

"I really can't be doing with the 'I'm colourblind, me' brigade."

Well, you'd better get used to it. For the generation we are raising at the moment, I think that will be the norm.

Most children these days have got a good mix of friends and race is of zero significance for them. I hope that lasts into adulthood. It has a chance. And if we fuck it up for them, at least their kids will have an even better chance. We'll get there eventually.

BigChocFrenzy · 10/05/2019 17:36

He made a racist tweet and assumed he could get away with it - because it was against MM and so many others pile onto her

Ever since, his excuses have been digging the hole deeper for himself

If he looks shell-shocked, it's because he never expected he'd be sacked and so widely criticised
He now realises that he has probably destroyed his career permanently

NoSquirrels · 10/05/2019 17:41

The racist connotation isn't a natural thought to have 'at first glance'.
I think we'll need to agree to disagree.

BertrandRussell · 10/05/2019 17:43

“Most children these days have got a good mix of friends and race is of zero significance for them”

That may be true in some places- it is certainly not universal.

BertrandRussell · 10/05/2019 17:48

I don’t understand why you would aspire to a position where race is of “zero significance”

areyoubeingserviced · 10/05/2019 17:53

Agree that he thought he would get away with it because it was about MM

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 10/05/2019 18:00

I think for that to be someone's instinctive reaction to the picture, racism must have had more of an impact on that person's life. Maybe if you grew up somewhere tough and witnessed, and were appalled by, a lot of racism as a child, you would see it instinctively
So maybe someone who was born and grew up in, let’s say, Bermondsey, South London in the 1950/60s when racism was rife and the Windrush generation were arriving. Spent huge amounts of time and became inextricably linked to something that had really racist people involved with it, where you might have heard monkey chants and seen bananas thrown, somewhere like Millwall FC perhaps? And possibly might go on to be a lifelong fan of theirs and build a career around that, commenting on the racism in football quite often throughout said career? Someone like that you mean? I suppose you’re right. Now, if only we could think of someone who fit that profile we’d know that they would have had an ‘instinctive’ reaction to the image.....

Alsohuman · 10/05/2019 18:18

If race was of zero significance that would mean racism was dead. Would that not be a good thing @Bertrand?

BertrandRussell · 10/05/2019 18:22

“If race was of zero significance that would mean racism was dead. Would that not be a good thing @Bertrand?”

It would also mean that racial differences and racial identities had been ironed out of existence and we would be living in a monoculture. I don’t want that.

Alsohuman · 10/05/2019 18:24

Race would still exist but would be of no greater consequence than eye colour. Works for me.

BertrandRussell · 10/05/2019 18:28

Fair ebough. I like diversity.

Sofagirl · 10/05/2019 18:30

He got what he deserved

Anyone who continues to deny it’s obvious racism is probably the same person who pretends racism doesn’t exist in this country and everything is hunky dory

KingHenrysCodpiece · 10/05/2019 18:34

Mrs Bethel

Well, you'd better get used to it. For the generation we are raising at the moment, I think that will be the norm

Most children these days have got a good mix of friends and race is of zero significance for them

I'm sympathetic to this in the sense of Martin Luther's "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

I think it would be great for people not to see skin colour in the sense of not attaching either a negative or positive value to it. For people to weigh character over culture, and see culture over blanket terms like black and white. Yes I where you are getting at. And it speaks well of you if you practice such already.

However, 'I dont see it that way' isn't an excuse to trivialise the actions of someone who is aware of it. And it is implausible for him not to be, given both his lived experience and his high profile media position.

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FreshAprilStart · 10/05/2019 18:36

His nastiness has been exposed. Good riddance.

End of.

BBInGinDrinking · 10/05/2019 18:38

Good riddance to him.

placemats · 10/05/2019 18:42

My 17 year old son said it was a racist tweet. He's not woke. Just sensible and studies USA politics

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