For fuck’s sake…Oops. I hope that hasn’t offended any minority group who might conclude that I am anti-feminist, anti-Christian, anti-auntie…But I’m afraid I must repeat – for fuck’s sake.
I’m referring, of course, to the Mind Your Language brigade and their tireless hunt after people who use words that are Simply Unacceptable, since they reveal that the person is…well, you name it. Ken Livingstone is anti-Semite because he used words to refer to an historical event – the early 1930s, when Nazis worked with Zionists to transfer Jews to a new home in the Middle East. Gerry Adams is racist because he used the n-word…Oh for fuck’s sake – the word is nigger – in a comparison of the experiences of Django Unchained to that of nationalists and republicans in the north of Ireland.
I’m old enough to remember reading novels where characters would say ” My G-d, Jennings, I’ll be blowed!” and “D-m it, Fotheringay, what is the world coming to?” You might argue that using the name of G-d – or God – your Creator in a loose fashion, or to casually refer to the terrible notion of being consigned to everlasting punishment is more heinous than to be disrespectful to people of another faith or race. But you’d be wrong, because for God’s sake, use of God’s name doesn’t mean I’m an atheist or a devil-worshipper, and saying I’ll be damned doesn’t mean I plan to spend eternity in flames. Likewise referring to a historical event doesn’t mean you’re pro-Nazi or anti-Semite, and using the word ‘nigger’ isn’t always a sign of racism. If it were, Quentin Tarantino and the actors in Django Unchained would be racists, as would Spike Lee and virtually all of the actors in all of the films he’s directed.
So would the Morality Police for fuck’s sake take a rest and stop hunting down people who on isolated occasions use words that they – the Morality Police – then weave into a horror-show attitude to the world and selected groups of people in it. The parish priest going round after the dances beating the ditches with his blackthorn stick to dislodge coorting couples was never in it. I mean, for fuck’s sake, guys…
God’s Holy Trousers , Jude ….and me arse on a bandbox , but i typed up something of a similar vein earlier in the day…gadzooks and touche!!!
God’s teeth, PK – great minds etc (I hope that’s not viewed as an attack on those working in mental health…)
I can’t understand why people are focusing on Adams’ use of the N-word rather than his equation of African American slaves with nationalists in pre-Troubles Northern Ireland, which reveals far more about the man than him saying ‘nigger’.
Sorry, MT – I don’t get it.
I think MT means that when Gerry Adams reduces the plight of black people in the southern states to being no worse than that of a white guy living in Ballymurphy in the sixties it makes his declared anti-racism look more like an opportunistic appropriation of someone else’s struggle. And that’s a bit racist.
BYC/MT, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Jesse Jackson wouldn’t agree with you, nor would Nelson Mandela, all Black Leaders who campaigned for equality and civil rights for black people. All three have met Gerry Adams, Gerry Adams was even Nelson Mandela’s pallbearer at his funeral, hardly a position given to any Tom, Dick or Harry. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was asked what he thought of Gerry Adams and he replied: “He’s a Freedom Fighter”.
Obviously BYC/MT you both would disagree with Adams comparison of the civil rights movement for Catholics with the African American one because it was your community that demands were made of to implement fairness, equality and an end to discrimination in jobs and housing. White Supremacists and the kind of people who denied civil rights to Black people also down played the injustices Black people were suffering as I’m sure you will when it comes to the discrimination and sectarian policies pursued by the Unionist Government against the Catholic community. Its important to remember the DUP was founded as the PUP: The Protestant Unionist Party and their chief policies were favouritism in jobs/housing for Protestants. Sir Basil Brookeborough, NI Prime Minister, even openly encouraged discrimination against Catholics and was backed by his Cabinet when he was criticized. I could go on.
BTW, how is Adams “racist” when he compared a white man from Ballymurphy to a black man in, say, Alabama being discriminated against?
I think you show your ignorance when you infer that ‘white guys living in Ballymurphy in the 1960s’ suffered less than black people in America. Lots of people living in Ballymurphy suffered horrendously with family members murdered in cold blood as well as all the day to day discrimination. If you can’t see the obvious comparisons then that says more about your sheltered white middleclass upbringing.
“I think you show your ignorance when you infer that ‘white guys living in Ballymurphy in the 1960s’ suffered less than black people in America. Lots of people living in Ballymurphy suffered horrendously with family members murdered in cold blood as well as all the day to day discrimination.”
How many people in Ballymurphy had family members murdered in cold blood in the 1960s? This is news to me.
How did the standard of living compare for people in Ballymurphy in the 1960s and blacks in Alabama? What was the relative provision of health and social services? Housing standards? Unemployment rate? Voting rights? Access to legal services? Pension provision? Education provision?
How many black civil rights activists tell us in their memoirs how they attended boxing clubs in white neighbourhoods and are tacky enough to brag that the first girls they got off with were white girls?
Ryan – A sense of proportion isn’t “playing things down”. It’s just pointing out that Gerry plays things up like a pantomime Widow Twankey. Bonnie Greer’s pointing it out. Tim Brannigan’s pointing it out. Hopefully they’re not too white and middle class for Emmett to dismiss them.
What this is really showing – again – is that Gerry has no pitch control. He’ll reach for any level of hyperbole and hypocrisy to justify his part in the war against his neighbours. His southern ambitions are more important than northern reconciliation and Martin’s having to try clean up after him again this morning.
It says a lot about the PIRA campaign if even Adams has to resort to portraying nationalists aa on a par with African Americans in the Deep.South in order to justify it? More pointedly still, we might remember that African American in the Deep South didn’t resort to a terror campaign but protested peacefully.
I’m glad you admit your ignorance MT. Not hard to answer your questions, start with google.
If it’s not hard, answer then.
Truth is, you can’t. And if you did the data would demonstrate how ridiculous your claims were.
Find it difficult to reason why Gerry handed his opponents this big stick to beat him with, he’s bound to have known that the media and politicos and general smart arses would pretend to be offended. Gerry is no racist (see nelson Mandela funeral) but at most the remark was cheesy!
There’s some things you can’t do or say in the public sphere Dr C and Adams should know better.
I’m as politically correct as Alf Garnett and loathe the over the top PC brigade but I know when to reel it in (mostly), Adams is the most prolific politician on the island and should have a better grasp of the fall-out.
Well AG, if loathe thePC brigade, why do we blame those who are their quarry?
Because usually their quarry are smart enough to know the consequences of so blatantly sticking their heads above the trench, can you imagine if it were Boris Johnston or David Cameron who said this?
Maybe if more people had the guts to use terminology that is justified by the context, this morality charade would collapse. I remember teaching ‘Huckleberry Finn’, at a time when thousands of N American morons were campaigning to have it banned because there was a character called Nigger Jim….Sweet God, give me patience…
Your gonna need a lot of patience when it comes to people brainwashed by political correctness Jude. That’s not to insult the people, its not their fault they think the way they do, they are surrounded by political correctness 24/7, through the TV, Internet, other people, false information, etc.
Rationality, Truth, Logic, Consideration, Fairness, Free Speech and sense of REALITY are all things that have been absent from the Western World and its people since the end of the Second World War.
Philosophy is hailed by many to be the cure.
“can you imagine if it were Boris Johnston or David Cameron who said this?”
Boris Johnston:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/23/london.race
“Boris Johnson has apologised for referring to black people as “piccaninnies” and talking about “watermelon smiles”.
David Cameron:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/03/tories-party-islamophobic-london-mayoral-campaign-sadiq-khan
“David Cameron used parliamentary privilege to link Khan to Gani…falsely smeared him as a supporter of Isis. It transpired Gani is actually a Conservative, having fallen out with Khan over equal marriage, who has repeatedly shared platforms with Tory MPs and activists, been photographed with Goldsmith, and was actually asked to recruit other Muslims for a Conservative meeting.”
More Tories? No problem.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/london-mayor-race-conservatives-game-religious-and-racial-divisions-538083247
“Goldsmith’s campaign for mayor has become the most repulsive I have ever seen as a political reporter…Goldsmith could have fought his Labour opponent on the issues had he wanted… However, Goldsmith has not done this. His campaign has concentrated on Khan’s religion,”
I know and you know he didn’t mean anything by it. However that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a crass and stupid thing to put in a tweet. Along with the myriad other inane tweets he issues I think it’s time someone took his phone away. Didn’t he realise the ammunition he was providing for anti republican media outlets. As Del Boy once said. What a plonker
Words do have power as we all know. The n word became taboo because of its history as a term of abuse by the powerful against the weak.
For an old white guy to use it is just arrogant and stupid.
It is no surprise that Adams is now apologising.
Tim Brannigan reports someone shouting the n word at him after he expressed his disapproval of Gerry’s comments. But what would he know eh!
More damage limitation for Shinners to do,thanks to Gerry’s bumbling.
Mary Lou must be cringing.
yrs ago every district had a dog called nigger,blackey,darkie.youd be afraid now to call the dogs name now in the park.its just a name ffs like the paki garage the lithos car wash ect.the first blackman i saw was in a foot patrol of the green jackets n an oul doll shouting at him;is this what we give the black baby money in school for;as she launched a bin lid at him.
Aye …was it that great old Sunday afternoon british film-standard ,”The Dambusters” which featured the hero’s dog “Nigger” …I wonder have the powers that be edited that out or maybe re-named the little canine “Chocolate” or somesuch….?
I find your use profanity rather interesting Jude, and your disdain for political correctness. Interestingly a few short days ago you challenged me for using the term “Bastards” on a previous post stating, “Glenn, I welcome your point of view but maybe a little less of the bastards-talk. It diminishes your argument, I think. The same of course goes for all of us”.
You seem to have a short memory and can change your view and argument to suit the particular point you wish to make that day, but that has been a trait of yours from, forever.
As for your disdain PC language I suppose it is now fine for those who wish to use the term “fenian” or “taig” will now be welcomed on your blog????
Context. If I say I am an unrepentant fenian bastard no reasonable person will be offended. If I get called a fenian bastard different intention. Did Gerry mean to offend, no. Reasonable people won’t be offended, let the others have time to get over it.
Ha haa , Glenn – well done for the attempt to trip me up with my own words. I think there’s a slight difference here, since the debate is over whether GA should have used the word in question. (See what I didn’t do there??) So you say I “can change your view and argument to suit the particular point you wish to make that day, but that has been a trait of yours from, forever.” How long have you known me, Glenn? And how well? I think a moment will tell you that your judgement is just a teensy bit overblown. I think the use of abusive language directed at people in an effort to belittle them is wrong. I may indeed have been guilty of it in the past, but saint-like though I be, that doesn’t mean it’s right. If you’re discussing the use of the word ‘nigger’, it’s a bit much to demand you don’t use it. I completely take how important language is, and how it can shape our attitudes (why do you think the British went to the bother of Anglicizing all the place-names in Ireland?). But I also feel there’s a Morality Squad out there who would be the first to tell ministers of religion (esp Catholic priests) to take a running jump if they urged them not to use a particular word -e.g. ‘Jesus’ – in their speech; but at the same time they congratulate themselves on their alertness in hunting down examples of people using words so awful, they can’t even say them themselves, but use little kindergarten dashes. Pompous self-satisfaction are words that spring to mind…But hey. Thanks for your comment. Look at all the thinking it made me do…
Is saying the word nigger, ever justified ? In any sense ? I believe it is. It’s the intention and manner in which the word is used that defines racism.
Using nigger in an obvious satirical manner to draw attention to inequalities is not racist. It is a contrived outrage similar to Ken Livingstone last week. The substance is ignored in an effort to play political games.
“Quentin Tarantino and the actors in Django Unchained would be racists”
Actually Jude you will be surprised to hear (or maybe not….) Quentin Tarantino HAS been accused of being a racist, why? because so many of his movies have characters who use the word “Nigger” often, usually by black people. Watch Pulp Fiction and 99% of the time when “Nigger” is used is used by a black man. So yes, even a brilliant Film Director like Tarantino isn’t safe from the extreme political correctness that exists today in the Western World. The actor Samuel L Jackson came out and defended the Director against these accusations.
Gerry Adams is just the latest victim of political correctness, this thing that currently infects our society that if certain “racist” or “misogynist” words are said then society suddenly turns hysterical and acts like Walter Mitty. But the agenda here isn’t about stamping out racism or misogyny (which, unfortunately, will always exist no matter what), its about silencing people, so that people wont dare speak their mind on specific topics publically or they will face the consequences. What consequences? Well just looked at what happened to Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Tim Hunt. Hunt said women should be kept from the Lab because “they cry when criticized and fall in love with you”. I don’t agree with what he said (but there again I don’t work in a Lab, so I’m sure he knows better than me) but this brilliant man was barraged and his name blackened. I don’t know if he lost his job or not but I’m sure if it was a lesser known scientist but who was no less brilliant maybe he would’ve been signing on the dole.
If we live in a true democracy then people should be judged not on specific words but what their overall message and tone is. There should be no intimidation, there should be no hysteria just because someone has a view that isn’t politically correct. But the reality is we don’t live in a true democracy, its an ILLUSION of a true democracy, as Noam Chomsky said.
Have we now reached a situation where reverse racism is politically acceptable whereas racism is not?
It seems that it is perfectly okay for a coloured person (do I have to define which colour?) to refer to another (of possibly the same colour, or possibly any colour but white) using the ‘N’ word, but not for a white person to do so!
In the interests of equality should a white person have the ability to legally challenge this restriction on their freedom of speech, which said coloured person can use at any time?
Talking to a fella today who said “Adams is a w….r” in relation to his tweet. I watched the same fella in a west Belfast pub sing along to a song which included the line “sad orange bastards”. So it’s OK to be sectarian but never use the N word even if it’s in a proper context. Did I tell him he was a hypocrite, no, just had a wry smile to myself.
Jimbo, I’ve been In and Out of pubs in West Belfast all my life buddy and trust me the odds are that same guy who called Gerry Adams a w*****r most likely still votes Sinn Fein.
I’m sure its the same with East Belfast pubs in relation to the DUP. In fact due to the amount of negative comments from Unionists about the DUP I’m surprised they still even have voters but yet they are still the largest Unionist party………
With your new found fondness for everything non PC you will enjoy this Jude.
That’s a very silly comment, Glenn. ‘Everything non-PC’ – there’s a difference between having concern for sensitivities and tying your tongue in a knot in case the Morality Police come knocking.
Imagine Jude, that Adams had tweeted ‘kike’ or ‘jewboy’. Now that WOULD have been a crime against humanity – and I suspect Gerry and Sinn Fein would be ‘toast’ now.
Perspective is amazing isn’t it ?
Gerry made a comparison, he didn’t say that it was exactly the same, no two struggles are – but there were certain similarities that make the comparison valid. The reaction has been the same as the politically hyped reaction to Ken Livingstone, its appears that in this new age of right wing political hegemony, facts are not relevant and in reality the political discourse seems to be a case of, you believe me or you believe your lying eyes……in times past the victors wrote ( rewrote ) history, that was at least known and could be combated, now the present is being rewritten and as a result its vital that those opposed to such tactics should not fall for the, “is Ken Livingstone and therefore all left wing labour MPs anti semites or GA a racist ? ” line of questioning as its a fairly obvious trap designed, not to deal with facts, but to raise certain political thought to a point of no opposition ( sounds a bit fascist doesn’t it ? ) and discredit and associate certain political opponents or movements with repugnant ideas. I
The Tally-ho Brigade in full flight, Esteemed Blogmeister, is something – what’s the word ? – else. Only those who are dull of soul, fat of head, and insipid of spirit cannot but thrill to the shrill of the chase.
The celebrations in the pubs of Leicester are nothing but limp-wristed gestures compared to the ballyhoo taking place in the blind alleys, death valleys and pep rallies in bubbly Dublin by the unspeakable in full pursuit of the eminently critique-able.
Even as one taps the keyboad, stirrup cups are being upped to the rousing toast of:
-Gerry’s done it again ! He’s gone and put his dirty big thirty-two size foot in it again !
Meanwhile, the freed slave Django (played by Jamie Foxx of Leicester, not) has travelled from Daughtrey , which is near El Paso (played by Dundalk) to Candyland. This is the plantation where his wife Broomhilde had been transported. And later, captured while trying to escape, she had been essentially interned,.
Locked in fact in the Hot Box (played by, erm, H. Block), a metal pit on the plantation grounds, padlocked indeed by a loyal house-slave and trusted trustee foreman, Stephen (played not, oddly enough, by Stephen Collins of The Unionist Times, but by Samuel L. Jackson).
Where this interchange of polite conversation in fluent Tarantino takes place between Django and Stephen:
(Spoilsport: alert: this may contain some references to both the n-word and the m-words)
Django: You said in 76 years on this plantation, you’ve seen all manner of shit done to niggers but I notice you didn’t mention kneecapping.
(Django shoots Stephen in the knee)
Stephen: Oh, God! Motherfucker ! Damn it !
Django: 76 years, Stephen. How many niggers you seen come and go? Seven thousand ? Eight thousand? Nine thousand ? Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine? Every word that came out of Calvin Candie’s mouth was nothing but horseshit but he was right about one thing: I am that one nigger in ten thousand.
(He shoots Stephen in the other knee)
Stephen: Oh, you son of a bitch ! Oh, you motherfucker ! Oh, sweet Jesus, let me kill this nigger !
Meanwhile, back down on a celebratory Liffeyside, and even though it was a day off on a delayed May Day, RTE’s one and only Madame Defarge, the conscience of the station, made herself available, as ever, to take umbrage on behalf of a mock-shocked nation.
In a scene reminiscent of A Tale of Two Cities, One Ethics Committee, Yawnya Lawlor (for it was she !) interrogated, oops, interviewed Gerrorist-cum-Racist of the Soil Adams on Laganside by phone .
The opening consisted of a pause of astonishingly Beckettian proportions.
After briskly introducing the interogatee, oops , interviewee, the pause which ensued and which only lasted but a nanny, oops nano second and a half, said it all, while saying nothing. It positively pulsated with perfect pitchiness and was followed by the opening q. which purred with another p-word instantly suggestive of the d-word.
-What. Possessed. You. ?
In that devilishly clever three-word question was concentrated every drop of morsupial* outrage which the special Kangaroo Court on Liffeyside has cultivated (assiduously) ever since the Troubles bubbled over from Foyleside to Laganside in 1969.
Later.
Madame Defarge: How will this affect Sinn Fein’s fund raising efforts in the USA?
(subtext: How will this selfless and courageous reporting for duty on a day off affect Madame Defarge’s fund raising efforts in RTE ?)
It is just as well that the uppity Fenian from Ballymurphy did not tweet the name of Django’s sweetheart:
-Broomhilde Von Shaft.
Put it back in de mud, Django.
(* morsupial is in no way to be confused with marsupial. Morsupial is derived from Moral Superiority. Put that in your pouch, Mopett !).
Oh Perkin – I can’t think which I laughed at more, your first sentence or the extended piece of dialogue from the movie. Hillllllaaaaarious.!
I don’t think he counts as racist but it is unbelievable that a leader of a party is old fashioned enough to write nigger on the internet and try to pass it off as a joke
Jude you are defending the indefensible. Ask any black person.
Sorry, Brian – must disagree. I’m not defending anyone. I’m considering what constitutes racism/anti-Semitism. And I’m totally convinced KL is not anti-Semitic and that GA is not racist. The first faux outrage was to destabilize Jeremy Corbyn and the latter to destabilize the SF leader and his party, a couple of days out from an election. Should they have said what they did? Perhaps not (there’s also a case to be made for them saying what they did). But despite the Morality Police howls neither man is what they are charged as being. It’s truly absurd, not to say depressing.
Jude
In all seriousness how can you keep deflecting the cause of the problem from the people who initiated it?
If anyone is destabilising SF it is Gerry by putting his foot in it every time he opens his mouth.
Of course their opponents will make the most of it as would the Shinners if it were the other way around.
The naivety is breathtaking.
“In all seriousness how can you keep deflecting the cause of the problem from the people who initiated it?” – dear dear. Must I repeat myself? Do you blame the person who wears a tight dress for her assault? A child who’s been beaten for saying a naughty word? Response to KL and GA totally disproportionate. But then some people only do disproportionate, esp when they’re registered with the Morality Police.
Firstly I am not referring to Ken Livingstone. I believe Ken Livingstone was the victim of a well-orchestrated campaign by pro-Zionist elements in his own party. You yourself have demonstrated that there is not a single syllable of ‘anti-semitism’ (itself a problematic term) in anything Ken wrote or said. Neither do I accuse GA of racism, merely of crassness and hyperbole. It is unusual to see someone like yourself whom I would cosider to be of a generally leftist and tolerant tendency to attack ‘political correctness’. We usually hear it denounced by tormented geniuses like David McNarry or Henry (O’) Reilly.And Katie Hopkins of course. In my own view ‘PC’ is simply tolerance,good manners and tact projected into social, political and media discourse. Had I a disabled child I would be hurt to hear her/him referred to as a ‘spastic’.If I was the father of a special needs child I would cringe at the ‘Ulster Scots’ ‘translation’, “wee dafties”. Downs Syndrome is preferable to Mongol. ‘Spic’, Polack, Yid, TowelheadNigger, Chink, Mick/Paddy, Paki, Frog, Kraut, Nordie,’Mexican’ (the latter when used by morons about somone from the 26 counties) all reek of ,at very best patronage, at worst notions of ethnic superiority and even racial hatred. So I fully approve of political correctness if it involves consigning such terms to the trash-can they merit. And I make no accusation of racism against Gerry. But it has to be conceded that someone who can hand the DUP (South African arms shipments, support of Apartheid in South Africa and Israel, Robinson’s Muslim message boys, Sammy Wilson’s ‘ethnics’, Arlene Foster ‘Rogues and renegades’, Gregory Yoghurt, Edwin ‘Caleb’ Poots), someone who can hand that odious crew the high moral ground is either a priceless asset or a total liability. Chose.
He could be both, actually, BP – priceless in one area and a liability in another. But howandever: by and large I don’t think people should use insulting language to others.But I’d suggest that using ‘niggers’ in an oblique reference to Django Unchained obviously wasn’t intended as insulting and there are parallels in terms of systemic injustice (no, they’re not the same, in scale or depth, but the parallels still are there). I’m getting a little weary of the Morality Crew who pile onto anyone who says a particular word, regardless of how that person has or does conduct(ed) themselves. I agree there are words which can indicate a mind-set but I think most people know as you say that GA and KL aren’t of the mindset in question. So it’s a bit like someone not closing their mouth when they’re chewing: I’d rather they didn’t do it but I’m not going to develop an ethical hernia if they do.
Gary Younge in The Guardian –
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/04/racism-gerry-adams-n-word-fetishise-bloopers-cumberbatch
‘To judge Adams, who has a life’s work of internationalism and antiracist solidarity, by a single tweet borders on the grotesque. People should be assessed on the body of their work, not just on a single off-colour statement. That doesn’t mean the statement should be ignored. But to fetishise it above a person’s record does a disservice not just to the person but to the issue.’
First-class summing up – thanks for that, RJC
RJC
“The body of their work” is an unfortunate phrase to use in regard to Gerry Adams.
To quote the late George Carlin;
“Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor said the word ‘nigger’ all the time, and they weren’t racists.
Why? Because they were niggers.”
Context stupid, context.