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Jan. 17th, 2007 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnny9fingersA few months ago I was in a debate/discussion with softside & I stated, unequivocally, that London, and by extension, England, was the least racist place I had ever encountered.
I feel I must retract that statement, and probably apologise to softside for misleading him in some specific ways.
I don't follow much telly, not often having the inclination to put down my reading to watch something vacuous - however the furore over 'Big Brother' has finally penetrated my hermitage and I felt I needed to do some research.
The Goody family, who are celebreties by virtue of Jade Goody's spectacular ignorance whilst appearing in a previous 'Big Brother' are as one would expect: the living definition of lumpen proletarians made good through accident and luck. Their attitudes are unreconstructed. They seem nasty, bullying, offensive, and so small minded it is no wonder that the tabloid papers have taken them to their heart - when two mentalities mirror each other so perfectly, it is impossible to imagine that the marriage between the Red-tops and the Goody family would not have been consecrated by yet further excesses of ignorance and stupidity.
Shilpa Shetty is a 'Bollywood' superstar. She is beautiful, educated, and ever-so-slightly superior: only one of which is acceptable in this democratic age.
It is acceptable to be beautiful, because that's an accident of birth, or down to surgery.
It is unacceptable to be clever or learned, because that shows you've read books, and wasted time you could otherwise have spent drinking yourself to the point of liver failure, or fighting, or having sex with your neighbour. Also reading makes you feel you're superior to people who may well be more beautiful than you, which is unacceptable in the modern world - because as we all know, the only things that count in this world are beauty, celebrity, and wealth, and if you have those you're allowed to be arrogant.
However, Shilpa is also more beautiful than the Goody's of this world.
I must admit to ignorance about both Bollywood superstars and minor Big Brother celebrities and their families.
But if the tabloids champion the Goody's ever again, I rather think they will be complicit in their bullying. Oh wait, it's the tabloids, they're the biggest bullies imaginable.
(What's even worse for me in particular is that Teddy Sheringham's other half (Danielle) has shown herself to be of a similar ilk to the Goodys. Sheringham being a Tottenham legend, despite having moved to other clubs over the years, and Spurs being my club.)
Amongst the middle and upper classes, and the educated working classes I've encountered almost (note) no racism. Big Brother is showing me life outside my sheltered enclave. If people in England devolve into these sort of characters I rather think the time has come for me to die.
Germaine Greer (whom I admire tremendously) called this country racist. I cannot now but agree with her: however, I'm trying to think of a less racist English speaking country, as a move may be preferable to death.
Australia - no.
The US - possibly.
Ireland - definitely not.
New Zealand looks to be possible, but I'll have to do more research.
Actually, a move probably isn't preferable to death.
My idea of England is worth dying for.
I feel I must retract that statement, and probably apologise to softside for misleading him in some specific ways.
I don't follow much telly, not often having the inclination to put down my reading to watch something vacuous - however the furore over 'Big Brother' has finally penetrated my hermitage and I felt I needed to do some research.
The Goody family, who are celebreties by virtue of Jade Goody's spectacular ignorance whilst appearing in a previous 'Big Brother' are as one would expect: the living definition of lumpen proletarians made good through accident and luck. Their attitudes are unreconstructed. They seem nasty, bullying, offensive, and so small minded it is no wonder that the tabloid papers have taken them to their heart - when two mentalities mirror each other so perfectly, it is impossible to imagine that the marriage between the Red-tops and the Goody family would not have been consecrated by yet further excesses of ignorance and stupidity.
Shilpa Shetty is a 'Bollywood' superstar. She is beautiful, educated, and ever-so-slightly superior: only one of which is acceptable in this democratic age.
It is acceptable to be beautiful, because that's an accident of birth, or down to surgery.
It is unacceptable to be clever or learned, because that shows you've read books, and wasted time you could otherwise have spent drinking yourself to the point of liver failure, or fighting, or having sex with your neighbour. Also reading makes you feel you're superior to people who may well be more beautiful than you, which is unacceptable in the modern world - because as we all know, the only things that count in this world are beauty, celebrity, and wealth, and if you have those you're allowed to be arrogant.
However, Shilpa is also more beautiful than the Goody's of this world.
I must admit to ignorance about both Bollywood superstars and minor Big Brother celebrities and their families.
But if the tabloids champion the Goody's ever again, I rather think they will be complicit in their bullying. Oh wait, it's the tabloids, they're the biggest bullies imaginable.
(What's even worse for me in particular is that Teddy Sheringham's other half (Danielle) has shown herself to be of a similar ilk to the Goodys. Sheringham being a Tottenham legend, despite having moved to other clubs over the years, and Spurs being my club.)
Amongst the middle and upper classes, and the educated working classes I've encountered almost (note) no racism. Big Brother is showing me life outside my sheltered enclave. If people in England devolve into these sort of characters I rather think the time has come for me to die.
Germaine Greer (whom I admire tremendously) called this country racist. I cannot now but agree with her: however, I'm trying to think of a less racist English speaking country, as a move may be preferable to death.
Australia - no.
The US - possibly.
Ireland - definitely not.
New Zealand looks to be possible, but I'll have to do more research.
Actually, a move probably isn't preferable to death.
My idea of England is worth dying for.
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Re: England IS a racist country
Date: 2007-01-17 01:54 pm (UTC)The name Johnny Ninefingers came from a semi-autobiographical novel I wrote some six or seven years ago.
My given patronym is Barnes, and I am technically one sixteenth Indian and one eighth Portuguese (and half Irish).
The Barnes's were a Derbyshire family, some of whom became Liverpool shippers in the 17th Cent. (The Lords Gorell are now the senior branch of the Family, but we don't talk to them.)
Liverpool shippers, as we know, were involved in the slave trade.
As well as trading in people, which is vile, they also traded with India - there have been Barnes's in India since the late C17th. For more than six generations we skipped between continents. My Grandfather, who died in 1926 when my father was three, was the last of these 'Boxwallahs'.
Guilt money paid for gentlemen's educations for us 'half-caste' types.
I have found the part of England with which I am familiar to be the least racist place I've been in. But that could be self-selecting, and down to a particular kind of education. Outside of that, as I pass for white, I am aware of how some white people think and talk amongst themselves, from the Clubs of St James' to the middle classes of Surrey. Alas, the Jade Goody's of this world are outside my ken, but in mine own milieu I know that most folk don't appear to be racist in any significant way - which is to say that the Welsh, Scots, Irish, French, Yanks, Aussies, Africans, Asians, and folk like me all get treated pretty much the same: piss gets taken for personal characteristics, rather than ethnic differences, though when the Rugger's on things can get a bit heated. (The Cricket can do as much, too.)
I don't know - sometimes I despair of people's idiocy.