[News] POLL TIME - Danny Baker’s tweet

[Easy 10]

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming round to the thought that it hadn't even occurred to DB that Meghan (and so of course her child) are of mixed race. Its not entirely inconceivable that he was completely unaware of the “race issue” surrounding her. Maybe he doesn’t follow the news particularly closely when it comes to the royals, I know I don't.

Like I say, I was completely unaware that Meghan's mother was african-american until I actually saw her on the news at the wedding. Then of course the media make a big thing about her being the first person of mixed race to be a part of the royal family (as if thats supposedly some kind of big deal). That could all have passed Baker by, hence why he thought it was a completely innocuous tweet - until its brought to his attention that her mum is black. By then though, the damage is already done, its out there.

I feel sorry for the bloke, he must be thumping his head on the wall as we type. I hope he’s not considered damaged goods now in a Ron Atkinson kind of way. It would be very sad and IMO entirely unjust if this actually ended his career as a broadcaster.

 

[portlock seagull]

Ive met him at a mutual friends party though not enough to comment on his personality and i also know somebody who heard him shout 'run fashanu you lazy ba*stard, prerend you've just nicked a purse' id suggest that unless you're a close friend of his ,you know the sanitised , media friendly , danny baker.

So that’s what just the 35 years, maybe more, ago...In other news, we don’t hate the Germans anymore but were once at war with and said some really bad things about them...even killed a few!

FFS

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

If he meant it in a racist way, there is no way he would have tweeted it. It's just blown out of all proportion.

 

[the right footed denilson]

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming round to the thought that it hadn't even occurred to DB that Meghan (and so of course her child) are of mixed race. Its not entirely inconceivable that he was completely unaware of the “race issue” surrounding her. Maybe he doesn’t follow the news particularly closely when it comes to the royals, I know I don't.

Like I say, I was completely unaware that Meghan's mother was african-american until I actually saw her on the news at the wedding. Then of course the media make a big thing about her being the first person of mixed race to be a part of the royal family (as if thats supposedly some kind of big deal). That could all have passed Baker by, hence why he thought it was a completely innocuous tweet - until its brought to his attention that her mum is black. By then though, the damage is already done, its out there.

I feel sorry for the bloke, he must be thumping his head on the wall as we type. I hope he’s not considered damaged goods now in a Ron Atkinson kind of way. It would be very sad and IMO entirely unjust if this actually ended his career as a broadcaster.

It has to be naivety- if he did know (about Markle) he would also know he'd be sacked.
Still, he really can be a gobshite these days, especially on Twitter.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

If he meant it in a racist way, there is no way he would have tweeted it. .

And there's the answer.

The world is mad.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I was watching Bernard Manning This is Your Life from 1991 on You Tube the other day, Jim Davidson came on and stated Bernard was the greatest stand up comedian this country has ever produced.

Jim then went and sat down next to coloured comedian Charlie Williams, and Bernard said "You've upset him now by saying that Jim, he wished he'd bought his blowpipe with him"

BBC One broadcast that at 7pm in the evening.

I doubt they would now........

I think you’ll find that Jim Davidson is a self confessed racist.

I met him at a Masonic do and...I’m telling you...he is whip fast with the wit but is happy to denigrate anyone who ain’t white.

 

[lawros left foot]

Personally, I don’t know if Danny Baker is a racist or not, but, I find it difficult to understand why the BBC who’s prime radio station continues to play at least 2 songs with racist lyrics, can be an arbitrator of racist language/behaviour.

More than a whiff of hypocrisy, about it.

 

[Nixonator]

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming round to the thought that it hadn't even occurred to DB that Meghan (and so of course her child) are of mixed race. Its not entirely inconceivable that he was completely unaware of the “race issue” surrounding her. Maybe he doesn’t follow the news particularly closely when it comes to the royals, I know I don't.

Like I say, I was completely unaware that Meghan's mother was african-american until I actually saw her on the news at the wedding. Then of course the media make a big thing about her being the first person of mixed race to be a part of the royal family (as if thats supposedly some kind of big deal). That could all have passed Baker by, hence why he thought it was a completely innocuous tweet - until its brought to his attention that her mum is black. By then though, the damage is already done, its out there.

I feel sorry for the bloke, he must be thumping his head on the wall as we type. I hope he’s not considered damaged goods now in a Ron Atkinson kind of way. It would be very sad and IMO entirely unjust if this actually ended his career as a broadcaster.

This. Had absolutely no clue she was mixed-race. I pay zero attention to this kind of stuff.

 

[GJN1]

Sacked for a chimp joke.

It's PG gone mad.

I laughed at that when I saw it on Twitter this morning too...
https://twitter.com/GladysSteptoe/status/1126422764833865728

 

[Lenny Rider]

I think you’ll find that Jim Davidson is a self confessed racist.

I met him at a Masonic do and...I’m telling you...he is whip fast with the wit but is happy to denigrate anyone who ain’t white.

But wasn't his character Chalky based on a school friend?

 

[Fungus]

It's just an odd one though isn't it? Just say black. Nothing offensive about calling a black person black. Coloured doesn't even make sense, we're all a colour.

I didn't say it was racism, I agree, it's more generational ignorance, just not a word you see much nowadays.

I agree that "coloured" makes little sense, but it suggests a range or spectrum - "black" people aren't black, any more than others are "white". I don't think "mixed race" tells you much either - which "races"?

We're all just different migrations out of Africa. If we need to distinguish at all (why?), I don't know what labels are most helpful - I certainly don't think of CH as "black" or "mixed-race" or anything other than "our manager".

 

[father_and_son]

So not considering how some people might view a tweet completely differently to how it was obviously intended is now a sackable offence? Nonsense. Maybe he should have thought about it before posting - I certainly didn't think about it in any racist way until it was pointed out. When he realised, he deleted it and apologised. Are we really going to SACK people once they have apologised for something that has been misconstrued. I hate this world sometimes. Oh and this is the same BBC who have f***ing Farage on Question Time tonight for the 33rd time. Lunacy.

So your suggestion is not a million miles from the Wayne Hennessey scenario, where the "Oh, I'm so stupid I didn't know what I was doing was a Nazi salute and this might be offensive" is a legitimate excuse that can give you a Get Out of Jail card for any behaviour. Allow that and there is a point at which genuinely racist statements would be made openly and some feeble excuse offered every time they are called out.

There has to be a line at which reasonable people are expected not to cross and if they do, the take the consequences on the chin. DB crossed it. IMO WH crossed it too and should have faced the consequences.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

The more I think about it, the more I'm coming round to the thought that it hadn't even occurred to DB that Meghan (and so of course her child) are of mixed race. Its not entirely inconceivable that he was completely unaware of the “race issue” surrounding her. Maybe he doesn’t follow the news particularly closely when it comes to the royals, I know I don't.

Like I say, I was completely unaware that Meghan's mother was african-american until I actually saw her on the news at the wedding. Then of course the media make a big thing about her being the first person of mixed race to be a part of the royal family (as if thats supposedly some kind of big deal). That could all have passed Baker by, hence why he thought it was a completely innocuous tweet - until its brought to his attention that her mum is black. By then though, the damage is already done, its out there.

I feel sorry for the bloke, he must be thumping his head on the wall as we type. I hope he’s not considered damaged goods now in a Ron Atkinson kind of way. It would be very sad and IMO entirely unjust if this actually ended his career as a broadcaster.

This.
If there was a family fortune's question "One word or phrase to describe Meghan Markle" . Mixed-race would be a 0 - 3 pointer

 

[Is it PotG?]

Passionate interview on Sky news

 

[Fungus]

So your suggestion is not a million miles from the Wayne Hennessey scenario, where the "Oh, I'm so stupid I didn't know what I was doing was a Nazi salute and this might be offensive" is a legitimate excuse that can give you a Get Out of Jail card for any behaviour. Allow that and there is a point at which genuinely racist statements would be made openly and some feeble excuse offered every time they are called out.

There has to be a line at which reasonable people are expected not to cross and if they do, the take the consequences on the chin. DB crossed it. IMO WH crossed it too and should have faced the consequences.

There has to be a line at which reasonable people are expected not to cross and if they do, the take the consequences on the chin - apologising, and moving on. Everyone is going to cross the line accidentally at some point, but save the severe consequences for those that cross it intentionally.

(I'm not guessing whether Baker did it accidentally or intentionally.)

 

[father_and_son]

This. Had absolutely no clue she was mixed-race. I pay zero attention to this kind of stuff.

Which is fair enough... You didn't choose to tweet about it to [insert number here] followers.
If you are ignorant on a subject you (should) keep quiet about it rather than leap in with both feet in your mouth with something deliberately provocative...

Which is was! Maybe not in the way the media/public are seeing it but it was deliberately intended as either a republican/royalist or upper/working class insult. I suspect, given his comments on other things, it was the latter, but it is still, even without the racism, is a statement inferring that the upper classes are no more than smartly dressed monkeys.

Which ever way you cut this, he intended to insult someone for his own self promotion and it back fired.

 

[Eeyore]

I was watching Bernard Manning This is Your Life from 1991 on You Tube the other day, Jim Davidson came on and stated Bernard was the greatest stand up comedian this country has ever produced.

Jim then went and sat down next to coloured comedian Charlie Williams, and Bernard said "You've upset him now by saying that Jim, he wished he'd bought his blowpipe with him"

BBC One broadcast that at 7pm in the evening.

I doubt they would now........

The annoying thing about Bernard Manning was that his 'clean' act was hilarious. He, in that genre only, probably was the greatest stand up this country has ever produced.

Of course, in those days it wasn't so much acceptable as tolerated to include prejudice in comedy.

I watched one of the old Seaside Specials from 1976 from when I was in Paignton. They came to Torbay regularly and some of the stuff on there makes you wince.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

It's just an odd one though isn't it? Just say black. Nothing offensive about calling a black person black. Coloured doesn't even make sense, we're all a colour.

'fraid not. In 2019, the only people actually possessing colour are 'people of colour' - geddit?

The fact that their lobbying body in the USA is called 'The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People' is just there to demonstrate beyond all doubt that Americans simply don't do irony.

 

[Nottseagull]

The word 'literally' has changed definition and can now be used in such a context.

No it can't. Stop condoning the idiots who abuse this word because if we lose its meaning, then there is nothing left to replace it with .

Toe the party line.
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/toe+the+line

You'd have thought somebody with the initials TOW might have known that!

Thank you, Sir.

It's 'madam'.

You wish?

He will go to a Public School, faff around in the Armed Forces for a couple of years so that he can wear a uniform and medals on the balcony with the rest of them,

Prince Harry risked his life in firefights with the Taliban. I doubt if you would.

 

[Questions]

Personally, I don’t know if Danny Baker is a racist or not, but, I find it difficult to understand why the BBC who’s prime radio station continues to play at least 2 songs with racist lyrics, can be an arbitrator of racist language/behaviour.

More than a whiff of hypocrisy, about it.

That'll be Rap or Hiphop then.