A photo opportunity with a world leader is never really casual; the politician always has a motive or communicative intent, the pendulum swinging between a wish to be seen as leader or wo/man of the people.Or just a chap trying to eat a bacon sandwich (and failing)…
In our modern world, much continues to be done in the name of culture and tradition that could be deemed inappropriate, if not unacceptable.By anyone we should pay heed to, Lola? Or just by your racehustling chums?
Is the prime minister an expert in the complicated and obscure history of blacking up in Morris dancing?Well, are you..?
That neither he nor the PR team overseeing this shot on civvy street didn’t, and couldn’t, see its racist resonances is a stretch. Rather, this tells us something about where the prime minister would now like to position himself in the public imagination.As someone who doesn’t dance to the tune of the Sisters of Perpetual Grievance, I’d hope…
Two factors may explain Cameron’s easy pose. The surge in support for Ukip and the call for English votes for English laws that was sparked by the Scottish referendum are game-changers. Ostensibly, this is a time to endorse English values and an English cultural identity. That black people may be offended or, indeed, intimidated by this climate, no longer matters. Gone are the days of being, to quote Cameron, squeamish and bashful about patriotism.Well, quite! Why assume, Lola, that ‘black people’ can’t be patriotic, unless it’s to a ‘home country’ that some of them may never have even visited?
Isn’t that just a tiny bit racist of you?
… last Friday, we woke up to discover that the “fruitcakes and loonies”, as Cameron once called Ukip, now have their own member of parliament. Three days later, our leader has the temerity to pose with blacked-up Morris dancers. I know I’m not the only one feeling left out and isolated by this renewed zeal for Englishness. Clearly, only certain citizens belong or matter.Yup. The ones that matter are the ones that don’t have a chip on both shoulders & seek to look at everything through the prism of their own identity politics.
Those, we can well do without.
Why is an African speaking English and writing for a newspaper instead of making clicking sounds, wearing a loin cloth and collecting berries on the savannah?
ReplyDeleteStop whiting up, you racist.
Poor Dutch have had to abandon St Nicholas' assistant Black Peter, a coal miner, who doles out goodies or lumps of coal according to the accounts of each child's behaviour in the Golden Book.
ReplyDeleteBunny
ReplyDeleteShe is claiming to be British but is ignorant of the 'Black Laws' an anti-Jacobite law which the morris dancers' blacking of faces comes from. She probably thinks that it refers to the Black and White minstrel show. Simple answer do some proper research and stop being such a prima-donna either that or move to Africa and complain to people there that the nasty English didn't like you very much so you moved back. Then you'd find out that the Africans think you're a bloody idiot too.
I (American here) was under the impression that Morris Dancing was something to do with mining, hence the black (coal dusted) faces. Since an expert has told me that it is RAcissstttt11!!11!, I will.. well actually why the fu** do I care? Just another professional black proving that the deep seated feeling of inferiority she carries around like an anchor is justified.
ReplyDeleteShe better steer clear of Bury St Edmunds Christmas market - one of the highlights is the Molly Dancing. The blacking up is a disguise so the lord of the manor doesn't recognised them - it's a brilliant bit of BRITISH culture.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mo7DBJqC18
So people asserting Englishness leaves you left out and feeling isolated. Now you know how the English feel in their own country...
ReplyDeleteYY I know I’m not the only one feeling left out and isolated by this renewed zeal for Englishness. YY
ReplyDeleteAye?
So that is the Notting Hill carnival fucked then, Hate to distress the local white minority by acting all nigger-like.
Morris Dancing goes all the way back to the 15th century in England. It is a corruption of the word Moorish Dancing, from Whirling Dervishes etc and was a tribute not a racial slur.I have never met, or even heard of a person of the Black persuasion who has ever taken offence at the practice, well apart from Lola of course.
ReplyDeleteIt did develop a distinct English character of course. :-)
https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A7x9Un5UCUxUqwkA9v13Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsYWhiN2NvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-avast-001&va=bill+the+cloggies&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-001
During the 1980s Clive James presented a tv show which revealed how johnny foreigner did telly. I well recall a clip from a Kenyan, maybe Ugandan, court room drama. The judge was supposed to be a white man. No suitable white actors, solution; white up an Idi Amin alike with flour paste. Such brilliant makeup that his copious sweat under the lights left leopard stripes down his face. Not hilarious, humbling actually, still funny in a strange kind of way.
ReplyDelete"Poor Dutch have had to abandon St Nicholas' assistant Black Peter..."
ReplyDeleteI saw. Ridiculous kow-towing to the grievance industry :/
"Just another professional black proving that the deep seated feeling of inferiority she carries around like an anchor is justified."
Spot on!
"I have never met, or even heard of a person of the Black persuasion who has ever taken offence at the practice..."
You've clearly never spent much time in the rarefied air of the 'Guardian' offices... ;)
"Not hilarious, humbling actually, still funny in a strange kind of way."
I really miss Clive James.