What was weird about Mammy in the UK is I always took her to be Toms owner, not a maid. Obviously I didnt know what a Mammy was either.

Mammy is the reason I'm not called Thomas though, so theres that.

Lol

cockbeard wrote:

Unlikely wrote:

I can remember Golliwog marmalade.  Collect labels and send away for Golliwog (I don't think we did).

Mother collected those, I don;t have anything of hers but if I could choose anything it would be that selection of pins from Robinsons jam, they were brilliant and you could see the trades change through the decades, from farmer golly, to spaceman golly

That's the stuff (I think).  Each jar label had a Golliwog character on it.  I don't remember pin badges but now that I think about it there may have been a doll in the house at some point.  Not sure whether it was related to the marmalade.

the Guardian wrote:

Blackface is the joke that comforts white Americans who, consciously or otherwise, are terrified of nonwhite people, as Ellison knew. It lives on like a comfort food. The critic Elias Cannetti argued, in Crowds and Power, that laughter allows us to take power over the one we laugh at; perhaps this is why, even now, blackface still exists, a crude, cruel attempt by certain white Americans to retain a sense of racial superiority. Blackface is a ghost we may never be able to exorcise; it is too deeply, painfully American.

Black Pete from the Netherlands and Belgium says: 'hallo'!

She's right about one thing though, Blackface is a cultural manifestation of trying to quell unease (fear?) for the other by ridiculing 'it' in order to make 'them' appear less threatening. Nothing takes away the sting of fear better than laughing at it. It's all a mostly subconscious effort so people weren't (aren't?) even aware they were (are?) doing it or why. It's like an automated defensive reflex to the reality of a segregated racialised society where race determines class.

Sadly, people today are still clueless on the above and still love Blackface due to the clownishness of it all. Hence the popularity of Black Pete in the Netherlands. And all the kids love Black Pete because he's so disarming. For a big black guy.

'He's harmless and the little ones adore (fear?) him so why not keep him around?' is something you'll often hear from the locals.

Note: Historically, in RC Europe the role of St. Nicolas' helper has always been that of a helper which instills fear in the hearts of naughty childeren. Naughty childeren get punished while good childeren get treats and presents. Not surprising in certain regions with a colonial past that role was eventually passed on to a big (black) guy in black face attire.

Did I miss something, has something new happened?

Facewon wrote:

Did I miss something, has something new happened?

Dooley (reasonably and surprisingly decent doc maker for BBC three) did one of the Comic Relief African kids are dying campaign pieces.
Lammy claims its white saviour stuff and Comic Relief should focus on the burgeoning middle class in Africa.

Comic Relief claim they have asked Lammy to do a piece for them but he has never replied.

Personally I think Lammy has a point to a degree but hes gone about it all hamfisted. Attacking Dooley is proper tight, she is alright, there are worse celebs going out there for more selfish reasons. At the very least go after Richard Curtis or just the charity itself.
Also if he wanted Comic Relief to highlight something a better way would be to offer to do a piece on that for them.

There is a genuine element of white saviour about Comic Relief. It's been going about 30 years now, it's either not all that effective in the grand scheme of things or exists to make white and otherwise privileged people feel good.
Either way its aims are good and attacking it is a bit poor, better to get involved and help guide it.

It's a storm in a Twitter cup.

LivDiv wrote:

Also if he wanted Comic Relief to highlight something a better way would be to offer to do a piece on that for them.

David Lammy wrote:

You continue to miss the point. Flying me, a British politician, out to speak for citizens of a continent I have never lived on is more of the same patronising fluff. Please invite an African filmmaker, celebrity, farmer, teacher or businessperson to make a film in my place.

I think this is a perfectly reasonable response tbh.

Some guy was shot yesterday with a starter pistol. The police think it's race related. Boom tish.

LivDiv wrote:

...Attacking Dooley is proper tight, she is alright, there are worse celebs going out there for more selfish reasons... There is a genuine element of white saviour about Comic Relief. It's been going about 30 years now, it's either not all that effective in the grand scheme of things or exists to make white and otherwise privileged people feel good. Either way its aims are good and attacking it is a bit poor...

Exactly. The timing is bad, and the way he's singled out Dooley is a little unfair. 
She's just doing her job. 

She, tbf, maintains an equally smarmy, overprivileged and condescending tone with people of all creeds and classes... ~_~

That aside, if someone really wants to make a point of this, they should probably start with the wider context (corruption, western exploitation, and Chinese commerce), and then demonstrate how the patronising point scoring is probably detrimental to the idealised objective (of improving living conditions across the continent).

I thought Ade Adipitan's documentary was probably a step in the right direction, with some of the ideas it tried to break down for a mainstream audience. 

I mean, ok... It skipped British weapon sales and mining operations in the Congo, as well as the details of a number of other questionable socio-political programs that take place on the continent, but it was worthy programming... 

The same mofos who commissioned that, probably had something to do with Dooley being out in Sudan... So I think Lammy could have done much better than he has done in this case.
 
And to be fair, he has done so in the past on a range of other subjects.

But that, frankly, was a straw man attack on Dooley (who for the record, I hold in the same esteem as Jeremy Kyle, Russell Brand, Justin Bieber and Joey Barton, to name a few).

He should have aimed a little higher up.

It's pretty hard to get over general corruption I guess. The only thing that seems to work these days is the empowerment of women and if you can start that then you're on the way somewhere. Miserable Western capitalism probably, but at least the kids aren't starving.

Lanny's a fud anyhoo

I dunno, message seemed clear and fairly valid to me, regardless of how well it was conveyed.

I don't even know who Dooley is or what we're talking about

nick_md wrote:

I dunno, message seemed clear and fairly valid to me, regardless of how well it was conveyed.

Maybe if it was the first thing he said.
It came after a social media tiff though.

I dont care about the article Dante. I care about what actually happened.

I dont live in this bizarre world of arguing through links that you and some others here live in. And shockingly Labour MPs can fuck up and do on the regular. It's not all a conspiracy.

dooley doesn't come across as smarmy to me. Last thing I watched was pollution into the water in India