.. to be disappointed that a racist received a standing ovation!

[NannaNoodleman]

Danny Baker: Standing ovation at first show since Twitter storm 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!

Donelikeakipper....I must say it's not unusual to not know too much about Megan. My elderly parents have very little interest in the royal family, and in fact if anything comes on the news about them, they switch off as they hate all the hype etc. They didn't watch the wedding either.

You're begging the question, LuckyLou

But when he sees a cute pic of a dressed-u chimp, all he sees is 'cute pic of dressed up chimp' because he likes chimps, he grew up with the PG Tips ads, and dressing up famous people, regardless of colour, as animals is one of his themes

He can like photos of a chimp dressed up all he wants. But when he posts a photo of one with the title “royal baby leaves hospital” and that baby is mixed race he should have thought about how it would cause offence because it would appear racist. But no he thought he was above reproach and that he could get away with it because “ he’s such a clever, media savvy left winger” who would never do such a nasty thing.

Tabby do you know much about history? Do your children? It's been a particular racist trope aimed at black people for hundreds of years. I think you're being disingenuous now, it's not a good look.

I dunno. I'm a New Zealander and never knew of the monkey /black people thing till my 20s, when I moved to Europe and read about bananas being thrown at a football match.

Danny Baker clearly does know of this trope and wrote as much in his apology.

Lifecraft
I would be horrified if my adult son didn't know who MM was, as it would suggest that he was completely out of touch with what is happening in the world.

Well they could name the prime minister, which apparently 20% of UK adults can't do. I'm slightly more horrified by that than ignorance over some pretty minor member of an outdated institution.

I know the royal family are big news on MN, but believe me, outside this bubble, millions of people just switch off whenever they are mentioned. They just don't care.

I refuse to believe that any British adult wouldn’t know who Meghan was.

Well it's you that's out of touch then. Out of touch with the complete apathy many people feel over the royal family. They don't know and they don't care.

Unless he has lived under a rock for most of his life I can't see how he could be so naive as to miss the racist connections of that photo.

out ‘I hate x people’ is still generally not ok, the middle class faux-ignorance ‘I didn’t realise that wasn’t ok’ type of racism is certainly more acceptable.

Not necessarily "faux" ignorance. It can be genuine lack of knowledge and not knowing something isn't OK. Black history wasn't covered at all at my schools in the 70s and 80s. Locally almost everyone was white but also open-minded. I've lived in more diverse places since then, but can see why not everyone is necessarily aware of what offends and why, if they've never heard of it or seen it happen.

I'm sorry but I just don't believe that people are so ignorant that they can't tell that Meghan is mixed race, or that they are unaware of the years and years of racial abuse comparing them to monkeys that black people have had to suffer.

Saying that it's racist to even be aware of the slur is just...I don't even have words. I showed the tweet to my 15 yr old son and he gasped, it was that shocking.

I'm trying to understand the mindset of people defending him. I wonder if sometimes it's because people are thinking, whether consciously or unconsciously, 'that could have been me.' So many of us are unconscious of our own racism. But we have a duty to examine our own attitudes carefully, especially those of us in a position of privilege who will never be targeted by a racist image or comment. If we don't look carefully at ourselves, whether or not we feel we're part of the problem, nothing will change for the people who need it to change. Racism is everyone's problem.

Deadwife...not being disingenuous at all. I did not make the link. Never seen anything in history where they made the link. I thought this was perhaps a new thing .

"The fact that Danny Baker has been in the media for 40 years doesn't mean he intended his tweet to be a racist comment. He's not your average media person. He doesn't even have a mobile phone"

Oh I bet he does have a mobile phone. He's also a prolific tweeter so is certainly social media savvy. He knew what it implied. Having been so involved in football for years too he would also be aware of the monkey insults that black people still get on the pitch to this day.

A few people on my Facebook feed posted mock up memes that were depicting a black baby with ginger hair. I hasten to say these idiots were immediately deleted by me and I was shocked that they thought that sort of post was acceptable.

Danny Baker is an intelligent bloke and it may have been a moment of madness but it shows his true feelings.

Anyone stating they have no idea about MM are lying. You have to be thick as fuck not to understand the racist undertones as the “chimp as child” thing. Have a word with yourself.

Danny Baker is an intelligent bloke and it may have been a moment of madness but it shows his true feelings.

It might show his true feelings. It might not. No one knows. Everyone is just guessing.

How about doing something real and positive in the world OP?

Do you know what I do for a living? Or what charities I support? Or who I am? Ridiculous thing to say!

didn't know her mother was black, I didn't watch the wedding. I thought MM looks Italian. I don't read articles on the royals either. I think it's feasible that a fair number didn't know until now.

... but Danny Baker DID know this!

But the idea that he's a closet racist who'd deliberately sacrifice his career for the sake of a silly joke just doesn't make sense.

I don't think he's a closet racist. I think he's a regular racist with ingrained ideas that he's superior due his his race (and sex). He was so busy thinking he's funny that he forgot most people don't like racism.

He knew the baby is mixed race. He posted a picture of a chimp.

There were no circus connotations.

He hasn't used a chimp to represent the white Cambridge children.

He lied.

Lifecraft..."everyone is just guessing"....yes, I agree. Only Danny knows what he meant.

Well it's you that's out of touch then. Out of touch with the complete apathy many people feel over the royal family.

Again, a ridiculous statement. I’m a total republican, but that doesn’t equate to not knowing who anyone in the royal family is, especially when it has been such a recent news piece. There is no correlation between ‘don’t like royal family’ and ‘completely ignorant of all media to do with royal family’.

I also feel a bit sorry for Danny Baker. I don’t know his motivations and I can see why people saw the tweet as racist, but from what I know of DB, it seems like a very foolish mistake.

PP said that MM has had surgery on her nose? Is that true, or another attack on her? It's just like her father's. She commented on 'the Markle nose' in a letter to him, thanking him for being her father. She's no Michael Jackson.

One of the depressing things about the way things are going is the number of harmless topics of conversation that are now out of bounds. 'Cheeky monkey' was a common term, with no racial connotations. Chimps in ads. Robertson's jam - yes, I do know about the Jim Crow era but when we were collecting labels or playing with black felt dolls, no one in the UK made the connection. Any minute now, bananas will be a racist fruit - as water melon is in some circles in the USA.

It feels like we're running away, giving into racists, not taking them on.

He hasn't used a chimp to represent the white Cambridge children.....maybe he just didn't get round to it.

SecretWitch

Again, two things being conflated here:

• knowing of the racist trope,
• spotting it instantly

Not everyone will spot it instantly.

Only Danny knows what he meant.

Doesn’t matter what he meant, he made a racist jibe regardless. It’s like suggesting that those who throw bananas at black footballers may not be racist, who knows they might have just thought the players were hungry?

Just because he’s not blatantly racist doesn’t mean he has underlying racist tendencies. If Nigel Farage had posted this there would be no question of his intentions and people would not be second guessing why he’d posted such a photo.