Welshtel
Vital Football Hero
He's the centre of a new controversy. Should he resign? Is this latest faux pas enough of a reason to sack a very successful presenter and the centre figure of a programme that is broadcast worlwide? - 150 Million viewers worldwide.
The thing is, like myself, we were brought up with the 'Eeny Meeny Miny Mo' rhyme as children and people from my generation would not consider anything racist about it, because it was never used that way. The fact is that it has a now racist word in it that doesn't even register in most people's minds, our age. A simple rhyme that we say when picking something and making a choice between a few different items is a normal saying in many older people's minds and most don't even go as far as the second sentence. Ok, to say the 'N' word (the fact that I just avoided carefully saying the full thing shows how aware we are of it now), is reprehensible because there are so many in our society now who could be offended.
SO where do we go from here? If we are going to take this to it's logical conclusion, we should be thinking about not saying the 'eeny meeny miny mo' thing at all because it leads to the next sentence which is now wrong to express in a civilised world because the 'N' word is highly regarded as racistly offensive. But it's part of my childhood and part of so many people's childhood.
I often visit Uganda with our charity and people there are my friends and I couldn't bear the thought of anyone offending them. We have no barriers between us, they fully accept me and I them, so does Clarkson enrage me with his remarks? Frankly? NO. The guy's accepted as a Maverick who is also a bit of an idiot. He didn't really do anything on air so do we think he should be sacked by the BBC? For me that's a move too far. Surprised? Or have I, like the dreaded Clarkson, made a similar boo boo, (It's alright to say 'boo boo' isn't it?)
Answers on a postcard please to.......
The thing is, like myself, we were brought up with the 'Eeny Meeny Miny Mo' rhyme as children and people from my generation would not consider anything racist about it, because it was never used that way. The fact is that it has a now racist word in it that doesn't even register in most people's minds, our age. A simple rhyme that we say when picking something and making a choice between a few different items is a normal saying in many older people's minds and most don't even go as far as the second sentence. Ok, to say the 'N' word (the fact that I just avoided carefully saying the full thing shows how aware we are of it now), is reprehensible because there are so many in our society now who could be offended.
SO where do we go from here? If we are going to take this to it's logical conclusion, we should be thinking about not saying the 'eeny meeny miny mo' thing at all because it leads to the next sentence which is now wrong to express in a civilised world because the 'N' word is highly regarded as racistly offensive. But it's part of my childhood and part of so many people's childhood.
I often visit Uganda with our charity and people there are my friends and I couldn't bear the thought of anyone offending them. We have no barriers between us, they fully accept me and I them, so does Clarkson enrage me with his remarks? Frankly? NO. The guy's accepted as a Maverick who is also a bit of an idiot. He didn't really do anything on air so do we think he should be sacked by the BBC? For me that's a move too far. Surprised? Or have I, like the dreaded Clarkson, made a similar boo boo, (It's alright to say 'boo boo' isn't it?)
Answers on a postcard please to.......
