Page 21 | .. to be disappointed that a racist received a standing ovation!

NannaNoodleman · 2019-05-13T07:55:31+00:00

Danny Baker: Standing ovation at first show since Twitter storm https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-48249637 What is wrong with people. He showed his true inherent racism but people still believe he's a top bloke!

Suiker · 15/05/2019 18:20

But in the end, the unanswered question is how on earth did a motor-mouth like DB hide his racism from the world for 40 years and why on earth would he blow his cover now over a stupid joke and lose his job and his reputation?

Surely the answer is by now obvious. He was biding his time, waiting for the moment that the first mixed race woman would join the royal family. The fact that he never sent a racist tweet before is only more evidence that he is a racist

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 18:36

Even if he is unobservant to the point of being catatonic and / or thick as the shortest of short planks, and genuinely is too stupid to understand , he is still a pathetic, nasty little man. Frankly anyone cheering and applauding him is too.

The birth of a baby is the one occasion when the maxim "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything" really does apply.

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 18:39

His tweet about H&M a few days earlier relates to MM as an American divorcee, harking back to Wallis Simpson. In his mind, I think, that was the most remarkable fact about the marriage. Whether that shows that he was unaware of her ethnicity or that it didn't seem that important - who knows?

The apologists on here have been trying to make out he would have no interest in/ know nothing about MM- how, then did the fact she was divorced come to his attention?

Suiker · 15/05/2019 18:44

DB doesn’t deny knowing that MM is mixed race, so it’s kind of irrelevant

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 18:48

DB doesn’t deny knowing that MM is mixed race, so it’s kind of irrelevant

What is irrelevant? Some of his apologists here have said he would not have known. He goes to football matches. I've never been to a football match in my life and have less than zero interest in sport. I know about the disgraceful behaviour of some football fans throwing bananas and making chimp noises. He presumably has actually seen it.

Thymeout · 15/05/2019 18:48

No idea. Perhaps he didn't know she was divorced, just that she was American and the last one who tried to marry into the royal family was Wallis Simpson. It wasn't an essay. Just a tweet in response to suggestions that the baby's name might have an American connection.

Lifecraft · 15/05/2019 19:52

Astonishingly unobservant.Presumably they never open a newspaper, either real or online, never watch or listen to the news. I'm honestly puzzled that this fact could escape anyone. It's a bit like not knowing who the PM is.

20% of UK adults cannot name the PM.

But it's irrelevant. DB probably did know she was mixed race. He certainly knew about the monkey taunts. But it's entirely possible, that at the time he sent the tweet, he didn't connect those facts. And the tweet was nothing to do with MM's race.

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 20:03

DB probably did know she was mixed race. He certainly knew about the monkey taunts. But it's entirely possible, that at the time he sent the tweet, he didn't connect those facts

As I said before- is he unable to tie his own shoe laces too?

And the tweet was nothing to do with MM's race

That apology is utterly pathetic. He claims it was some sort of comment on inherited privilege and his "go to" picture for that purpose (which apparently he'd never felt the need to go to before)

If he knew MM is mixed race and he knew about the monkey taunts his inability to connect the 2 is either evidence of great stupidity or racism.

The apologism on this thread is in equal parts hilarious and depressing.

Suiker · 15/05/2019 20:14

That apology is utterly pathetic. He claims it was some sort of comment on inherited privilege and his "go to" picture for that purpose (which apparently he'd never felt the need to go to before)

How do you know? He didn't say that every time a posh baby is born, he tweets that picture. That's your extreme interpretation of it. Taking it more generally, he could mean it as one of the main images he has in his mind when he thinks of over privileged children and babies. Maybe he's sent it in an email to a friend, whatsapped it to his partner, etc.

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 20:18

he could mean it as one of the main images he has in his mind when he thinks of over privileged children and babies

Do you have any idea how unpleasant your attempts to defend him make him sound? What sort of person when hearing about the birth of a baby thinks of chimps.

Suiker · 15/05/2019 20:23

Do you have any idea how unpleasant your attempts to defend him make him sound? What sort of person when hearing about the birth of a baby thinks of chimps.

Do you really not understand metaphors, satire, or do you take everything so literally? As you must be aware, surely, the English language abounds with examples of references to apes and simians that are not intended literally - "cheeky monkey", "monkeying around", etc.

Thymeout · 15/05/2019 21:15

He said when he heard of the birth he thought of his father, the docker, and could hear him saying, large as life, (something like) 'That's another £250,000 that's got to come out of our wages.'

The posh bit are the two parents in posh clothes and the chimp is the performing monkey being paraded for the media circus. 'Not my monkeys, not my circus.'

Lots of Mumsnetters say the same sort of thing on royalty threads. There are a lot of republicans on the Left and DB has been a member of the LP forever. Pretty sure his dad would. have been a union man. It was practically impossible to be a docker if you weren't.

BringMeTea · 15/05/2019 21:21

I don't think for one second he intended the tweet in the racist way it has been interpreted. I feel sorry for him.

ChipSandwich · 15/05/2019 21:37

I don't think for one second he intended the tweet in the racist way it has been interpreted. I feel sorry for him
I absolutely agree. I've known of him and listened to him for years. Not one crumb of an iota of evidence of racism. I believe this tweet was about class, not race, but I can also understand why they had to fire him.

minou123 · 15/05/2019 22:30

This is what I dont understand. To all the people who have said
"I've listened to him for years/I've known him for years and I've not seen or heard one iota of racism before, so therefore he isn't a racist
Have you not learnt anything from recent history? When do we learn that we cannot know these celebrities based on their public work. You can not possible know someone based from listening to them on the radio.
"He raises so much money for charity, so he cant possible be a peodophile"
"I loved him in those action films, so he possible cant be anti-semetic"

You do not know what he says in private. I would argue that he has a public and personal persona. His personal (racist) views have now crossed the line into his public image and he is defensive because he got caught out.

All racism should be challenged, even if the person "didn't mean it".

LassOfFyvie · 15/05/2019 23:03

Do you really not understand metaphors, satire, or do you take everything so literally? As you must be aware, surely, the English language abounds with examples of references to apes and simians that are not intended literally - "cheeky monkey", "monkeying around", etc

Oh good grief. I'm bored with this. Every single person I've spoken to about this was shocked by this and at best thought he was an idiot , at worst racist.

Your fangirl apologism is ridiculous and risible.

ChipSandwich · 15/05/2019 23:31

I've listened to him for years and he's not stupid enough to wreck his own career. That's my opinion.

ChipSandwich · 15/05/2019 23:34

Most people I've spoken to don't believe it was intended as a racist tweet. We do see how it could be interpreted as such. We just don't believe such a sharp witted intelligent man would wreck his career on purpose. And we don't believe he's racist. Our opinion is as valid as the next.

SerenDippitty · 15/05/2019 23:36

Have you not learnt anything from recent history? When do we learn that we cannot know these celebrities based on their public work. You can not possible know someone based from listening to them on the radio.

Yet you claim to know him well enough to know that he is a racist and always has been based on one tweet.

Cailleach1 · 16/05/2019 00:28

Nurse.... some people don't watch the BBC or Sky News for that reason. We hate celeb and royal twaddle.

Much easier to get news online.

That very news online is where I read about football players who have to endure some spectators making monkey noises. Maybe they are just commenting on the media circus of highly paid football players. Just some football players, mind. It is obviously a perfectly plausible excuse now. That we are being asked to believe.

minou123 · 16/05/2019 00:31

Yet you claim to know him well enough to know that he is a racist and always has been based on one tweet.

No I didn't. I did not say that at all.
Point out where I said I knew him?

If you tweet something racist (which it is, regardless of intent or that that the picture meant something else) , then you are a racist. He may not like to admit this. But if it walks like a duck.

My point, celebrities know their image is important to keep their jobs.
We never fully know them because they try to e careful to hide their dirty secrets.
As we all know from high profile cases, sometimes thier true nature comes out. My arguement, is that this is what has happened here.

btw, this applies to everyone, not just Danny Baker. If, for example the Pope tweeted the same meme, I would be saying the exact same thing.

And, I dont know the Pope either

BringMeTea · 16/05/2019 08:19

That is rubbish. A picture of a chimpanzee is not 'racist, regardless of intent'.

RiversDisguise · 16/05/2019 09:47

Cailleach... that was me you quoted. I was talking about royal/celeb bullshit. Perfectly easy to avoid it all online if you read good news sources, which tends to mean foreign (non-UK) ones.

A lot of posters here have spat quite vociferously that it was impossible not to have known that Meghan was black. But the heritage and ethnicity of a celeb marrying another celeb, while undoubtedly HUGE NEWS to some, will just pass many others by completely. We don't care.

I understand Meghan's a well-known actress, which probably makes her 373838377373 times more interesting than any other royal brides since Grace Kelly, but as I haven't seen her work, I never got interested in her. The royals can all take a running jump as far as I'm concerned.

minou123 · 16/05/2019 10:47

That is rubbish. A picture of a chimpanzee is not 'racist, regardless of intent

Oh holy hell, it's like banging your head off a brick wall with some people.

Of course, a picture of a chimpanzee is not racist, in itself. The fact he wrote "royal baby leaves hosiptal" next to it, changes the meaning. Just because you don't realise something you said, did or tweet is racist doesn't mean that you get a free pass and shouldn't be called out on your racism.

Thymeout · 16/05/2019 10:53

When the baby was born, the BBC did an interview in Brixton with a DJ who runs a charity for bored teenagers. M&H had visited his studio to promote the scheme.

He said he was surprised about how little mention in the press there'd been about Meghan's racial background, because in Brixton everyone was celebrating, as they did with Obama.

He's right, I think. It's been a bit 'Don't mention the war'. Some veiled comments about culture and adjustments needing to be made - especially in the Mail, which seems to have it in for her, making her out as some alien interloper ruffling royal feathers. Some of the wedding coverage was a bit snide about the celebrant and the choir. Zara Tindall smirking in the chapel. Princess Michael's brooch. But that's about it and there's not been any serious discussion. Or I've missed it.

And, as pps have said, and got called racist for saying it, it's not obvious in photographs if you're just flicking/scrolling through to the sports page.

I think there's so much news these days that, ironically, we're less informed when it comes to general knowledge. We stay in our specialist bubbles and think what we know is common knowledge, when it really isn't.

There's a thread about celebrity crushes. I read the first page and hadn't heard of any of them, tho' I read a lot of newspapers on line and follow the main news bulletins.