Making an effort to know as little as possible about the Royal Family whilst sharing pictures on social media solely about the Royal Family. I get it's possible but seems hugely unlikely to me.
Has political correctness actually gone mad?
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Making an effort to know as little as possible about the Royal Family whilst sharing pictures on social media solely about the Royal Family. I get it's possible but seems hugely unlikely to me.
It is unlikely. But you'd have to admit that it's even less likely that he would decide that it would be funny (and acceptable) to portray a mixed race baby as a chimpanzee, because he sees a comedic resemblance between black people and primates. So you have to apply Occam's Razor here.
Maybe look at what he posted when, is it Prince William and Kate Middleton had a baby. I'm not well up on the royals and have to think of Harry's brothers name and not sure if it is Katie or is this her sister's name.
Perhaps they've had two or three, no idea. I zone out with royal news possibly due to the non-stop coverage of Diana while she was alive. Really sad looking back how invasive it was.
Perhaps they've had two or three, no idea. I zone out with royal news possibly due to the non-stop coverage of Diana while she was alive. Really sad looking back how invasive it was.
His excuse makes sense to me (comparing the royals to performing circus animals), proper short sighted though that's a given.
I dont think anyone is that dumb if they stop and actually think. The problem with Twitter is thinking before you post isnt actually mandatory, or even common practice. Posting something impulsively without stopping to think how it might be seen seems quite believable.
I'm sorry but either he is beyond stupid or he is around people who are just generally racist so he sees it as OK.
Both of those situations mean he should be fired. There's no defending that.
Both of those situations mean he should be fired. There's no defending that.
I don't like the man at all, think he's completely charmless and arrogant. That said he's not stupid, and you have to think if there was any racist intent or insinuation in the picture he posted then he would not be stupid enough to put it out in the ether and expect anything but a disgusted reaction.
No room for nuance or context or benefit of the doubt once the online mobs start to smell blood, everything is 2D to them so they can get another person fired from their job like that actually achieves something. Quite funny though, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
No room for nuance or context or benefit of the doubt once the online mobs start to smell blood, everything is 2D to them so they can get another person fired from their job like that actually achieves something. Quite funny though, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
Well of course he loses his job, cause that's what happens when you offend a small group of people 
What a lovely world
Then again, I have little sympathy for anyone who uses Twitter. If you want to be part of that circle of complete fecking bellends then this is what happens. You know as a public figure you're treading on eggshells with everything you say/do.
Don't think the punishment fits the "crime", but then again, no employer has the balls to stand up to social media controversy. This is kind of why I've come to enjoy Trump when it comes to his silly tweets, just cause it fecks everyone off and they can't do anything about it
What a lovely world Then again, I have little sympathy for anyone who uses Twitter. If you want to be part of that circle of complete fecking bellends then this is what happens. You know as a public figure you're treading on eggshells with everything you say/do.
Don't think the punishment fits the "crime", but then again, no employer has the balls to stand up to social media controversy. This is kind of why I've come to enjoy Trump when it comes to his silly tweets, just cause it fecks everyone off and they can't do anything about it
Come on. The guy posted a monkey in a suit. Are you kidding me? What's nuanced about that?
The problem is that obviously him and the people around him are OK making such jokes, and don't think about consequences. So he was expecting everyone else to react the same way him and his friends in the media to act.
Racism isn't a joke and if someone in the public eye can't immediately understand that something like this is hugely offensive then we really have a problem in this country.
Unless he's racist, which is kind of the point
A racist comedian who kept it hidden for many decades living in the public eye, only to let it slip with the most blatantly racist (and public) joke you could possibly imagine.
Again, you're going with an unlikely scenario.
Well there's at least two ways it could be taken.
a) he thinks it's funny to portray a mixed race child as an ape
b) he thinks it's funny to portray the royal family as circus animals dressed up in fancy clothes, paraded for our amusement.
I'd say there's enough nuance there to think twice before deciding he is definitely racist.
The funniest thing about this is that Meghan is half black and doesn't really look anywhere near dark enough to be compared to a monkey, and she's just had a kid with a white fella even further diluting any of her african heritage. The kid itself is basically as white as white can be at this point.
Yet still, even with the intent most likely being purely about the "circus" aspect of it all (and not with any specific intent of comparing the child to a monkey because of it's heritage), it's still giving everyone the shits because the kids grandmum was black.
Couldn't make it up really, what a bunch of pillocks
Yet still, even with the intent most likely being purely about the "circus" aspect of it all (and not with any specific intent of comparing the child to a monkey because of it's heritage), it's still giving everyone the shits because the kids grandmum was black.
Couldn't make it up really, what a bunch of pillocks
Despite all of that she still gets a shit tonne of racial abuse online.
Anyway the Circus argument is a load of bollocks particularly coming from a Millwall fan. His response has been terrible, even worse than the actual image itself. Should have just come clean and said it slipped his mind what the image might infer to instead of going on this weird rant about online mobs etc.
You really think he purposely looked for a picture of a monkey in a suit so he could poke fun at a baby because his Mum is mixed race? To make such a disgusting comparison? For all the world to see? Ask yourself why he would do that. Because he thought it's be great bants? Come on now. He is a clever guy who makes a living through talking to public audiences, it's much more likely that he was careless enough to not see how it could have looked, rather than moronic enough to a) think such a awful thing would be funny and b) to then think it a good idea to share it with the world.
Not everyone in the world sees racism at the forefront of every single thing that happens, people can be forgiven for not realising how someone else could and mistakenly interpret something they say, write or do. He is naive at worst.
What else did he post? I just saw the one tweet where he apologized. Yeah the simplest thing would be to say the truth, but sometimes people under fire react emotionally and it's probably quite annoying to have a bunch of twats call you racist if you're not and then subsequently lose your job.
All for some kind of satirical commentary on the royal family being interpreted as him calling the baby a monkey cause of some diluted black heritage he probably forgot about or didn't consider.
It's just fecking retarded. He shouldn't have been fired and Twitter is full of silly cnuts and self-righteous loons. New's just in and all that I guess...
And yet the BBC welcomes Farage to Question Time this evening. Sigh...
Yeah because mixed raced people aren't discriminated againstThe funniest thing about this is that Meghan is half black and doesn't really look anywhere near dark enough to be compared to a monkey, and she's just had a kid with a white fella even further diluting any of her african heritage. The kid itself is basically as white as white can be at this point.
Yet still, even with the intent most likely being purely about the "circus" aspect of it all (and not with any specific intent of comparing the child to a monkey because of it's heritage), it's still giving everyone the shits because the kids grandmum was black.
Couldn't make it up really, what a bunch of pillocks
Megan Markle herself has been on the end of some pretty hard treatment herself, with a lot of it seemingly sparked by prejudice. But because she's of a light complexion, it should be ignored right?
He shouldn't be fired because the BBC already have no problem putting up people who have made dodgy comments like Alan Sugar or actual racists like Nigel Farage or Mel Phillips. But he does have himself to blame so he can't really be a dickhead about it.
And the satirical comment doesn't work when most people would automatically equate a picture of a monkey as racially motivated no matter how you personally judge how black someone is. Especially given Markle gets a lot of abuse and the kid naturally will as well.
I don't think he meant it that way but that is based on past experience listening to Danny Baker.
Yeah because mixed raced people aren't discriminated against
Megan Markle herself has been on the end of some pretty hard treatment herself, with a lot of it seemingly sparked by prejudice. But because she's of a light complexion, it should be ignored right?
Oh yeah go ahead and make a strawman out of my post. I'm just laughing at this baby
being compared to a monkey is being called racist
The amount of people in this thread that don't know the difference between monkeys and apes is depressing.
I get my back up about this because I always think intent is what matters and I believe his intent was not racist. Yet, because he made a fumble and forgot to consider how his post may be interpreted and even worse, forgot twitter is full of cnuts thirsting for blood in these matters, he had to face an inevitable sacking. It's just not right really.
We pander to this minority of shitheads over and over, as soon as a little crowd cause a stir it's over for whoever the target is.
It's like, you really tread such a fine line that saying or doing anything that could offend anyone is almost not worth saying, and that really is a tragedy.
To be honest given he works in the media and would be full aware of the racist abuse Markle gets, he is either absolutely thick or it was meant as a racist joke. We are naturally assuming it's not the latter but he is not confessing to the former.
Like I said he shouldn't be fired but that is largely due to the hypocrisy of his employer than anything he has done.
Or that primates includes humans too.
BBC will just say that they don't want to shut down legitimate political speech or political figures.
Oh yeah go ahead and make a strawman out of my post. I'm just laughing at this baby
being compared to a monkey is being called racist
I’m on Danny Baker’s side here but you can’t seriously be arguing that a kid with a black grandmother is immune to racism because they (at birth) don’t have a very dark complexion?
That’s nuts. Even more so when you consider that the mum of that child has already been the victim of a load of racists memes/abuse online. Danny Baker may not have intended to racially abuse the child but you can be 100% certain that a load of other twats will from here on in. First mixed race royal ever. Their heritage will be constantly fecking referenced by racists.
Strawman? You're implying that just because the child is of fair skin (by the way, Baker has already acknowledged that he hadn't even seen the baby, so your defence doesn't even hold up) is somehow immune to racist abuse? That doesn't make any sense and there's tonnes of evidence to back that up. You're coming across as extremely ignorant here.Oh yeah go ahead and make a strawman out of my post. I'm just laughing at this baby
being compared to a monkey is being called racist
Obama was mixed race.
Well you're right there aren't ya. Guess I just find it absurd how someone can look at a baby (that if you had no prior knowledge of would assume is just white) and compare it to a monkey with racist intent. Like it's so silly it's hard to take seriously. I mean it is serious, it's just so stupid, you know what I mean?
Yes I genuinely believe that people in the uk are so used to racism that they make these jokes with their friends and colleagues. They all have the same mentality so no one tells them its wrong so they think its ok. Its not until they make jokes like this to the wider world that they realise how bad it is.
Did you ever see the stuff lord suger posted? Hes far brighter than this Baker guy yet made a ridiculous racist comment on social media because he thought it was funny.
Oh yeah go ahead and make a strawman out of my post. I'm just laughing at this baby
being compared to a monkey is being called racist
Come on CAF your better than this.
I can't even be bothered to explain the history of mixed people in societies like the UK and US. This is embarrassing
PS my grandma is mixed and her normal skin colour is as light as a white person. Do you think anyone treated her better when they knew she had a black mother?
@redshaw had it right earlier on when s/he suggested looking to see what he'd posted when William's kids were born.
After all Baker reckons he'd use that picture for any royal birth and with 3 from Will in recent years plus others (like Zara Tindall) he's had plenty of opportunities.
After all Baker reckons he'd use that picture for any royal birth and with 3 from Will in recent years plus others (like Zara Tindall) he's had plenty of opportunities.
I think you're way off target with this one mate, now all of a sudden everyone in the UK has a racist mentality? Compared to where exactly? I wouldn't really call Lord Sugar far brighter than Danny Baker myself, probably the exact opposite if anything, but who am I to say..
Nah, he reckons he would use that picture. Didn’t say he had. For all we know he stumbled across that picture last night and thought it would be a funny analogy for the way a royal baby is presented to the press. It’s bonkers to demand evidence of a joke being used in the past as proof there’s no bad intention in it being made today.
Certainly.
The one thing I do have to ask though, is why so many celebs play the social media game and get it so fecking wrong time and time again?
God help us if that is seen to be a good and valid point.
Sugar is not far brighter than Baker who is, famously, highly intelligent.
For the record, I'm quite certain his excuse is genuine. He is not making a racist joke nor has he become acclimatised due to hanging around racists.
He's an old school leftist working class punk who was trying to make an edgy joke about celebrity culture and the public interaction with it. I genuinely believe the connotations never occurred to him. That is bloody dumb but, given his history and track record his explanation is more plausible that a sudden unprecedented bout of public racism.
Live by the sword, die by the sword!
Fair enough. I misread his comment on this and thought he said he had used it before. Was a little confused why there was so much debate over something so easy to prove.
I've no idea if Danny Baker is secretly racist but if he's dumb enough to post that picture without considering how it may be interpreted he's too bloody stupid to be on air anyway.
It's not the first time an older white man has made inappropriate jokes about another race. It's not the first time they have got called out on it.
Yes many of these jokes are made behind closed doors and sometimes they squeeze out these spaces into the public. This is not people being too PC. This is calling out someone who made a stupid and racist joke. If he is highly intelligent he wouldn't have posted it in the first place.