I don't doubt this for a minute

Grand

Journey into the west my friend.

According to the most racist person I know, a person my Romanian missus won't meet because of that reason (understandably), Danny Baker is an absolute massive racist now.

wut

Tempy wrote:

The BBC sacking is ridiculous, but I don't feel like the stuff i've seen him say about him taking it down are self censorship. More like he realised what it looked  like and thought "ah, maybe that does look bad and wasn't what I was going for?"

Just readng this one post and I will read others, I figure that being told 'hey that could be seen as .....' and then taking it down is self censorship, and the clearest example I've seen in a long time

Lord_Griff wrote:

"Live by the Monkey pic, die by the Monkey pic" is the family moto of the Bakers of Dagenham.

I'm intrigued what the Hislops of Clapham make of it

Andy wrote:

Tuppenceworth: it’s not only entirely possible, but entirely human to get so wrapped up in a certain thing that you forget the tangential link it has to a bad thing. His apology tweet makes it quite clear that while he is well aware of Meghan Markle’s ethnicity, and thus the baby’s ethnicity, he wasn’t thinking about them at the time. While he would also be well aware of monkey chants and bananas thrown at football matches, for example, he has probably also never, ever made the link between that type of racism and funny pictures of chimpanzees dressed in human clothes.

^ that there too

cockbeard wrote:

Actually fuck it, the issue argues with itself and requires a judgement call every time, that is the problem, and the funny (? not funny) thing is that everytime we let something innocuous make the pages we are ignoring something that wsa actually hateful

Speaking from the perspective where this has happened out here, in various versions, I find this the highly dubious take. 

Because:

1. The EXACT same defense is used for ACTUALLY HATEFUL stuff, every freakin time.

2. Those defending the act in question ALWAYS argue this current act isn't the "real" issue.

3. Those attacking people who disagree or mob up are virtually never on "the right side of history" when it comes to what folks would agree are ACTUAL issues.

See any of the stuff on Adam Goodes, the multiple times over DECADES that fans and administrators in our football codes have said and done stuff. (And yes, monkey and ape comments are part of it). See Australia Day and Anzac Day every freakin year.

THe farage comments above are fair, but guess what, you can basically do what Baker did here, get away with it, and have literal Nazis in the senate too. 

Don't slip into bothsidism because a dude got sacked who shouldn't have.

Defending Danny Baker, and not citing the fairly high profile Reggie Yates case (for which, Reggie Yates actually resigned), makes me wonder about how people are really thinking, when they take Danny Baker's side.

It's pretty much the same case, with the colours inverted.

For the record, I think Reggie kopped the right amount of flack too.
You can't be in that position, and actively encourage those kind of ideas.

Part of the problem with Baker, specifically, is that he's convinced he's done nothing wrong.

@dynamite - what did Reggie do?

Let's make a rainbow of this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41915241/dj-logan-sama-wont-present-1xtra-grime-show-after-making-offensive-comments

I mean, in Sama's case, the Tweets were like, 5 years old, or something.

Unlike the two cases above, however, while Sama can be a bit of a prick at times, he clearly was not being racist. Sexist though? Arguably. And almost imperceptibly, if even that.

But he was remorseful, and accepted quite a harsh punishment.

I'd argue out of the 3, only the outcome of Sama's case was unfair.

Taking a step aside from the media side of things, I'd be fucking livid if someone put that joke up in the staff room. I know a lot of people who would find it very offensive and I find it impossible that the racial context to this particular joke didn't at the very least pass through his mind.

Would it lead to a sacking? After dust has been let to settle probably not but I think an employee who did that would have a lot of explaining to do.

dynamiteReady wrote:

It's pretty much the same case, with the colours inverted.

It really isn’t.

Facewon wrote:

1. The EXACT same defense is used for ACTUALLY HATEFUL stuff, every freakin time.

2. Those defending the act in question ALWAYS argue this current act isn't the "real" issue.

3. Those attacking people who disagree or mob up are virtually never on "the right side of history" when it comes to what folks would agree are ACTUAL issues.

Don't slip into bothsidism because a dude got sacked who shouldn't have.

Won't argue with those points, still think that soshal meedja attracts all the wrong folk and searching for offence is a shitty thing to do

I'm usual quite amenable to your arguments Andy, but that's somewhat tenuous...
Before I take on your specific point, here are the similarities as I see them:

- They're both high profile broadcasters
- They both used a public forum to court a niche audience audience away from their 'day jobs'
- They were both 'unaware' of how their 'joke' would be perceived by their mainstream audiences, until the point was put to them
- In both cases, the comments they made appeared to be racist
- Heck, they even both work for the Beeb

I actually appreciate the subtle distinction you've made. Reggie applied a specific label to a minority group. People will try to argue the toss, and say that Danny Baker did not. 

No one though, has to be a media professional to understand how the symbolic interpretation of Danny Baker's commentary, and the timing of the joke, can be seen as wildly offensive.

That alone, can be seen as gross incompetence, and the grounds for dismissal in at least any workplace I know of.

And to clarify, do I think that Danny Baker is racist? Unlike Neeson, or what ever the fuck his name is, I'm not sure. But he definitely knows better, and should just concede that, instead of saying additionally offensive shit like "I didn't see the problem, because I don't have a mental disease".

Fucking (edit - over privileged... Tbf, dude's as working class as it gets) twat*.

* Danny Baker I mean, not you Andy, you're lovely, m8.