Carol Thatcher dropped by BBC for racist word

[ComeWhineWithMe]

Don't lnow if anyone has already posted (have checked can't see anything) .

I am shocked that she even thought using the term was acceptable .

Silly silly ignorant woman.

uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090203/tuk-carol-dropped-for-golliwog-remark-6323e80.html

only 12 people watch channel 4

Ginger; would you also agree that sexual swearwords in the workplace are acceptable? I don't know of an office in the land that isn't buzzing with bad language all day long. I bed Childs, Brand and the entire bunch are cussing like navies in the pub after work - not that they would broadcast it of course. Oh no! But no-one labels them or judges them for it, but as soon as someone oversteps the mark in the racist camp then it's 'oh, I'm really offended now, my ears are suddenly hurting' and 'oh that comment you just made obviously exposes you as the poisonous snake you so obviously are. Please ignore everything about sex, lesbians, slags, old people, short people, fat people, blondes, gingers, civil servants, unochs, dwarfs, northerners, the French, vegetarians etc that I've just been laughing at over my beer for the last hour. Someone has said something about Golliwogs... I just can't cope.'

A BBC green room is a place of work - they aren't only at work when on air.
If it was deemed OK for CT to liken someone to a golliwog at work, then it would be OK for every other BBC employee to do so....and we'd be right back to the days when black people did expect to contend with racism day in day out in British institutions. Also - how could you POSSIBLY expect equal opps promotions and employment among a workforce allowed to use langiuage like thast in a workplace?

Dennis Thatcher used to be a Director of a company which manufactured and exported shackles to be used on (black) human beings in S Africa, during the apartheid era. That shouldn't be used against his children, of course, but you would think if she had ANY understanding or intent or willingness to understand, she would do all she could to disassociate herself from racist crap. And if anyone else wants sacking, it's her agent for not talking some sense into her and getting her to apologise. The indignity of making your money representing someone llike that!

I agree it is VERY sad that it has brought the word as an insult to the forefront.

"I bed Childs, Brand and the entire bunch are cussing like navies in the pub after work - not that they would broadcast it of course."

In the pub is completely different - they are not on BBC premises operating in their role as BBC employees, as Thatcher was. It doesn't matter that she wasn't being broadcast at the time, she was still operating in her professional capacity and interacting with guests.

Also a host/reporter/journalist has a duty of impartiality and a role of "representing" the broadcaster that a comedian or guest doesn't. If someone says offensive things as a guest on a talkshow then you just think "what a prat".

But a reporter says something offensive then it tarnishes the organisation who is employing them, because by continuing to use them, the broadcaster is tacitly supporting their comments.

Anyway I think the point is that Thatcher's language has shown that she's at odds with the professional image that the BBC wants to present, and her refusal to apologise shows that it runs deeper than a thoughtless, off-the-cuff remark. As such they're completely entitled to decide that someone else would better represent the ethos of the show for the time being.

Omid Djalili is the best comedian around atm...you lot should check him out...

er, no..2nd thoughts, you'd need a sense of humour to understand him.

??
would I have fallen about laughing at CT and her golliwog comment had I had a sense of humour, then? It was funny?

penny drops.

didn't think you'd ever heard of him blu...kinda obvious

You mean you didn't

lol
rofl and
pysl

@ X is a Gollywog, blu?

You humourless bint, you.

I really do feel I'm stuck in the 1970s sometimes- will we ever reach a time when everyone knows that racism is wrong?

I am fine, rhuby. You?

You mean you didn't

lol
rofl and
pysl

@ X is a Gollywog, blu?

You humourless bint, you.

I really do feel I'm stuck in the 1970s sometimes- will we ever reach a time when everyone knows that racism is wrong?

I am fine, rhuby. You?

oops

Ha ha ha ha ha I have WORKED with him!

My post, daftpunk, was about my sense of humour.

Anyway.....you carry on.

Actually, it would be interesting to know what kind of workplace you are employed in? (or were, if SAHM), re what is accepted by employers, generally.

Anyone who uses the word 'gollywog' is clearly a fool and, on balance, racist.

Anyone who uses the word 'gollywog' AND is in the public eye AND works for the BBC is all of the above and also a complete twat who deserves everything they get.

However...let us spare a thought for her sad origins. I expect she learnt it from her dear father who was quaffing gin and sealing a deal with some nice man from de Beers (or some such)in Apartheid SA while cracking 'jokes' about gollywogs and the blicks.

I blame the parents.

wow blu, that's cool!

but doesn't that make you a hypocrite..if you work with a comedian who basically takes the piss out of anyone and everything....and yet you cry over the word gollywog?..you confuse me.

(i'm a sahm btw, but i wouldn't sack someone for using that word...totally ott imo, but i'm not very PC, which is more than ob to the whole of mumsnet)

but DP, Carol Thatcher is not a comedian.

It's a bit like saying "Well it's ok for David Walliams to wear a naked fat suit and do fake nude wrestling on Little Britain, so it's equally ok for Jeremy Paxman to do it on Newsnight"

Also, she hasn't been sacked, that particular show has just decided not to use her any more. She is still free to work on any other bbc show as far as I know.

plus what they are cross about is not really her using the term, but her refusing to apologise for the offence she caused. According to what teh Radio 1 controller said on the Today programme, they seemed to have been happy to continue working with her if she made a public apology for the offence caused - but she refused.

She shoudl realise that whatever the rights and wrongs of the particular term, if you have collectively offended a fairly large group of people then you shoudl probably apologise for your behaviour rather than seeking to justify it as ok because it was in "private".

yeah i know, she should have apologised there & then i guess, but maybe she didn't think she'd said anything wrong...she might be a little naive, but she's hardly a prominant member of the BNP is she?

anyway, gotta do school run...bye

I didn't grow up here, but isn't 'Golliwog' a doll?

If I said that my DD's hair looked like, for instance, Raggedy Ann (an American doll) that wouldn't be problematic....

Silly woman! It is bad enough that she thinks that way but to think it is acceptable to say it in the presence of others just shows how ignorant she really is.

Ilove - this is a Golliwog - not the same as a Raggedy Ann!

I didn't cry over the word gw, I think it is inappropriate for a workplace, as explained in my post below.

Comedy has different rules from RL - just as boxing does! In boxing you can hit people - it is the whole point. You can't hit people in RL, you get sacked or imprisoned for it. But even in boxing there are ruules to stop people getting damaged - no hitting below the belt. Good reason why that is used as an expression for things like personal comments and, indeed, comedy.

The likelihood is that if the word gw cropped up in a comedy sketch it would say as much or more about the character using the word...we DON@T generally find old-style viscious racist jokes funny any more, do we? New generation 'edgy' comedians have subverted that genre, imo.

TC calling someone a gw in RL, is different from Jo Brand - as a fat person - taking the piss out of fat person-ness. Jo Brand talking about fat people / eating is a million miles, say, from a job interviewer laughing at a fat candidate during the interview.

She did apologise - in an email, she said the remark was made "in jest" .

I'm not surprised she won't make a "public" apology - she didn't say anything to the public at large, and in any case a forced apology is no apology at all, in my book.

Sorry, that's to daftpunk and spaceman.