AIBU as the mother of mixed race children to be furious that Giles Coren’s article in The Times included the phrase “fuzzy-wuzzies”?

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Why did The Times even allow this to be published? I can remember when I heard this derogatory term being used as a racist insult in the playground during the late 80s. It makes me want to weep. I know Giles Coren has form where racism is concerned but FFS 🤦🏼‍♀️, it’s 2022, not 1922. This is not funny, arch satire and could have horrific consequences. He may as well have used the n word and no doubt people like him do in private company. I really fear for my young children and what they might be subjected to if this is acceptable in print.

(This is my first time posting here on Mumsnet so please be gentle! I know this issue is being discussed a lot of Twitter though and several anti-racism campaigners have commented.) Here is a link to the full article, which is behind a paywall: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/call-yourself-british-ill-be-the-judge-of-that-dwl3qp53w

I only read free online media so aren't too familiar with Giles Coren. I would take the article as satire, but it's very laboured. The trouble with trying to push disagreeable terms into the closet is that people will lose all sense of context (and understanding of the attitudes of the time) and thus get outraged. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a Rudyard Kipling poem-also very laboured-about the Sudan campaign during peak British Empire days. If you can bring yourself to read it, Kipling seems to have an admiration for them-or at least their fighting spirit. According to Wiki, Corporal Jones in Dads Army was fond of using the term-but that too would have been in context as the character he portrayed was an old soldier with an ingrained British Empire mentality. Personally, I have never heard the term used as an insult. It now seems too archaic for that. The poster who mentioned fuzzy wuzzy felts-they were called Fuzzy Felts. I had a box of them as a child---cute little animals, flowers, trees and the like.

Just because you know about something doesn't mean everyone else does. Try and imagine that lots of other people haven't had the same experiences as you and maybe come from a very different background.

I'm middle aged and I think I've only ever heard it used in that context a few times, and they were all on television shows set in an earlier era.

Is he being ironic? I'm not defending him because I actually can't stand him

Giles Coren knew it was a racist term. That's why he used it, because it is racist and he's a racist @MangyInseam. Anyone who read the article now knows its a racist term.

The faux naivete around it here is bollocks.

When I was at university in the early 90s I remember the mostly old Etonian members of one of the all male drinking societies at my college referring to people of colour as “fuzzies” or “spooks”. At one of the club’s parties I recall one of them braying very loudly that “We never have a hope of winning the inter college athletics as we don’t have enough fuzzies”. It is one of my big regrets that I didn’t call him out on it then.

But perhaps they were just cleverly satirising colonialist, racist attitudes rather than actually being racist. 🤔

@ObviouslyNotAFan - that was Fuzzy Felt.

Actually, it wasn’t “spooks” it was “sooties”. One of those boys used to use that term quite frequently and then laugh and laugh and laugh. They also used to black up at every opportunity and all came dressed as members of the KKK for a bad taste party.

The poster you are accusing of lying said she had never realized it could be used that way. Obviously she knows now.

Again, not everyone has had the same experience as you or has heard it before. It's pretty archaic at this point. Whether Coren knew really is irrelevant to anyone else does.

Why are you so caught up in the idea that everyone knows exactly the same things? It seems like it's just so you can accuse them of being wrong-thinkers.

That doesn't seem likely, but it also doesn't mean that Coren wasn't using it satirically.

You can think he shouldn't use it that way, but it doesn't mean it isn't what he was doing. And I think you will have to accept that not everyone will draw the same lines around the use of satire. That's just part of living in a society with other people. It doesn't mean they are horrible people.

IMO racists are wrong. And racism is wrong.🤷‍♀️

And Giles Coren is a horrible person. A really horrible person.

I don’t for a moment think they were being satirical, I think they were being racist.

I think he's mimicking attitudes from the time - that's exactly how some people saw the British Empire and the people from those colonies. By the way, I strongly dislike Giles Coren but am just saying I don't believe those are his views. He's describing the mentality that used to exist.

He is writing about now, not history.

It's satire!

You may not think it's funny. You may not like his persona.

But in this article the a) answers are clearly taking the piss out of the retired colonel stereotype's opinions. Do you think he actually calls gay men 'buggers' either?

Assume from the context that b) is closest to his actual opinions

I really wouldn't be surprised if Giles Coren does call gay men that.

It is meant to be racist. Read the context.

"faux naivete" it would help if people would actually read it properly

It's hard to believe that so many MNers are lacking in critical thinking and reading skills and can't read something in context.

It is very clearly satire. Sigh. It's in the Times, not the Daily Heil.

Maybe it's satire if you're Jay from Inbetweeners. It's GC putting aload of offensive words together in a not funny way with no point to make, and the Times paying him for it.

Giles Coren's actual opinions IRL are abhorrent. From his racism, antisemitism, misogyny to calling those who he's pissed off with "paedophiles" and threatening to go round and beat them up. Not to mention saying he wanted to rape and kill his neighbour's 12yo son.

The man thinks that the correct response to hearing about the death of a journalist was to crow over it, lie about her and hope she rotted in hell.

I don’t think it is satire, it is deeply deeply offensive - I am not sure its acceptable for someone with Giles’ privilege to try and be satirical about something so deeply insulting and racist to others - sure the very epitome of white entitlement no?
This is another one of his attempts at breaking barriers and kicking the establishment .
I stopped reading the times when it sunk into the depths of wokery and I won’t be reading it again any time soon.

How many people commenting have read the article? He's taking the piss out of people who think that way.

That said I haven't read many of his other articles as I don't really care for him as a writer so may have missed some back story.

I couldn’t bear his lockdown articles when he was threatening to kill his family. It’s a shame as a good journalist he didn’t pause and check out the DV stats exploding at the time - he is spiteful little weasel of a man and I have no idea how he has held on to any of his jobs apart from being the lame product of pure nepotism - its certainly not talent or intelligence.

I read it on Saturday in the print version and absolutely knew there'd be a thread about it. It is supposed to be satirical, the 3rd option on nearly all the quiz questions is "racist". Its 100% a piss take of those attitudes. Regardless of opinions on GC generally, this particular example is not as egregious as the OP seems to think .