David Lammy is usually a source of lightweight PC-buffoonery, but this time he's absolutely spot on. From the BBC:
Stacey Dooley has challenged MP David Lammy after he said "the world does not need any more white saviours" following her Comic Relief posts from Africa.
Clearly, he used the word "white" to refer to Westerners generally i.e. non-Africans, it was not a comment about the actual skin colour of Bono, Bob Geldof and their imitators. But she deliberately misinterprets it anyway:
She tweeted: "David, is the issue with me being white? (Genuine question)... because if that's the case, you could always go over there and try raise awareness?"
She's [sic] posted images on Instagram of her holding a young Ugandan child.
OK, David Lammy is "black" in a racial/skin colour sense, as his parents (or grandparents?) came here from Africa. But he is as English/Western as she is (which makes her comment pretty racist, even by my non-PC standards), and he shouldn't be posing with African orphans any more than she should.
And you don't need to go there to "raise awareness", those suffering already know it.
The example I like to use is all these charities asking for money to help save Indian tigers from extinction. How is that any of their business? If I were an Indian with a few bob to spare, I'd round up the last few tigers, fly them over and let them loose in the Home Counties.
Mr Lammy said: "This isn't personal and I don't question your good motives."
Clearly it wasn't personal, he was using her as an example, here's what he meant:
The Labour MP for Tottenham added: "My problem with British celebrities being flown out by Comic Relief to make these films is that it sends a distorted image of Africa which perpetuates an old idea from the colonial era."
Just to reinforce how out of touch these celebs are...
Dooley, who recently won Strictly Come Dancing and has made documentaries for the BBC on topics including fast fashion and an Isis sex slave, said: "Comic Relief have raised over £1bn since they started. I saw projects that were saving lives with the money. Kids' lives."
BBC documentary maker wins BBC dance competition, shock. Guess whose side the BBC will take...
OK, £1 billion sounds like a lot of money doesn't it? Averaged over 34 years, it's £30 million a year. That's about one per cent of the BBC's staggeringly bloated annual budget; about the same as the total annual salaries of the dozen highest paid BBC employees; about 0.2% of UK official aid payments each year, funded by UK taxpayers and spent by the UK government; or about 2.5p per capita per annum for each African.
Naff all, in other words.
Particularly puke making is these people climbing up Kilimanjaro "for Comic Relief". What is the point of that? How does it have any relation to the specific problems that certain African countries are facing? How is that a sensible use of anybody's money?
They'd have done far more good just sending a few ordinary families on nice normal holidays in African countries, putting some money into the real local economies; and making a programme about it on the cheap and thereby encouraging other viewers to go there as well?
Pondering assassination
47 minutes ago
14 comments:
@MW
Yep - he has a point.
"Clearly, he used the word "white" to refer to Westerners generally i.e. non-Africans, it was not a comment about the actual skin colour of Bono, Bob Geldof and their imitators."
However, I think you are cutting Lammy way too much slack - bet he wouldn't dis Lenny Henry in the same way.
As DL said himself:
'I am acutely aware that this is the first time in the history of the BBC that matters of diversity have been debated on the floor of this House.
'But this is certainly not a new issue, and I must begin by acknowledging those who have been calling for greater diversity in the arts and on television in particular for many years.
Can I first salute the work that my good friend Lenny Henry has done. Back in 2013 he rang me up and asked for my help as he grappled with the issue and in 2014 he set out his plan for the BBC to set aside money for black Asian and minority ethnic shows.
Earlier this year Idris Elba came to Parliament and spoke of the “disconnect between the real world and the TV world”, and the even bigger gap “between people who make TV, and people who watch TV”.'
Dave, fraternal greetings. From our shared, Labour Party, policy perspective, how about we just scrap the BBC license as another vile, anti-progressive tax on the working class of this country? Then reduce the BBC down to a free, 24 hour 'News Channel', so we can mostly ignore it? Knowing as we do, that it is a 'paid for channel', just broadcasting the British govenment line on - most issues - whichever 'right on', tos**er produces it that week.
Dave, is there a problem 'gap' between the makers of RT and folks like me, who have to pay the 'whitey', Oxbridge, c**nts at the BBC (if that 'identity' compound helps you) to legally watch our chosen Russian broadcaster?
As you say, 'this is certainly not a new issue'. But I don't get your framing of this old, fake, 'BBC universal public service' lie comrade!
As to Comic Reflief, Metro elite, BBC tossers, kicking dust each year, yep fuckem all, regardless of their age, gender, politics, race .
What's Lammy going to do on the skin colour front when he tumbles to the fact (long obvious to everyone else) that the Chinese are taking the place of those wicked white Europeans in Africa. Will he refer to the wickedness of all things yellow? I'm waiting with bated breath.
RM, the Chinese don't have the history of slaughter, conquest and exploitation that the (now largely ex-) imperial nations have. If they hadn't been so insular for centuries, they'd probably be ruling the world by now, if their C15th efforts at exploration are anything to go by, compared to the contemporary European ones. OTOH, by all accounts they are just as racist as us whites, if not more so.
Sh and MW, that all falls into the "lightweight pc buffoonery" category.
RM, it was the do-goodery he was criticising, you can hardly accuse the Chinese of that.
B, calling Chinese people racist is racist!
@MW#1
It ain't "light pc buffoonery" - the man's a f**king racist pure and simple but gets a free pass 'cos he's black. But that aside - he's on the money with this one.
@MW2
"Then reduce the BBC down to a free, 24 hour 'News Channel', so we can mostly ignore it" - doubleplusgood!!! Where do I sign up.
Sh, the BBC has a rolling 24 news channel, job done.
B, you've got me there.
How AID goes WRONG
A Cautionary Tale
A Quaker enterprise in the Ganges Delta
https://preview.tinyurl.com/y2ntmc9g
P, depressing but true.
RT, I meant in Africa. In any case, AFAIK, it was the Japanese who slaughtered, conquered and exploited the Chinese, not vice versa.
"Clearly, he used the word "white" to refer to Westerners generally i.e. non-Africans, it was not a comment about the actual skin colour of Bono, Bob Geldof and their imitators"
Given Lammy's history of race baiting, I think you're being far too generous here. In his world everything is filtered thought the black good/white bad filter, and there is no way that a black (but equally British and vapid) celebrity would have caused him to make the same comment.
S, yes, most of his output is pc nonsense, I said that right at the start of the post.
Would he ever make a similar comment about black luvvies like Lenny Henry? I doubt it.
"The example I like to use is all these charities asking for money to help save Indian tigers from extinction. How is that any of their business? "
Suppose Indians ask for help with saving the tiger? Would it be ok then?
I have been to Colombia where the main conservation organization is mainly funded by westerners - but no one is against the idea. The minority who are interested in conservation are pleased, the rest don't care don't have any objections to it.
I would guess it is the same in India.
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