Whiteness

As noted on the Open Thread, the identity politics-obsessed BBC intends to broadcast a two-part TV series - a "social experiment" - called Whiteness. 

It will be presented by a divisive identity politics-obsessed left-wing commentator, Afua Hirsch. 

BBC Two is presently promoting an advert / invitation for it:

As Anonymous observed, "It's like one of those adverts for people to take part in experimental research into some condition or disease." 

It would probably be for the best if no one whatsoever answered it. 

Go Gentle

This is a thing now. Elderly (no-longer-young) people are thanking their lucky stars that they’ll soon be able to opt-out of Madness gawn Absolutely Mad. Enough already. Please, may we be excused?

Brendan O’Neill and Douglas Murray are not alone. Lots of us are exasperated by gender-non-specific individuals requiring plural pronouns and butchering language and grammar.  Then they add insult to injury by carelessly calling them/selves “I” rather than ‘we’. Even Afua Hirsch, an earnest supporter of the plural pronoun malarkey caught herself out by accidentally using the explicitly masculine terms “he” and “him” in the course of arguing the case for ‘them’ and ‘their’ We/I  am/are are not amused. None of us are. Including me.

Genuine question: What do they do about languages where inanimate objects have genders? Animals? What about, say, “La France”?  Must they be plural now? Are France plural?

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What about that virtue-signalling investigation into Islamophobia that the Conservative Party was bumped into announcing, live on TV? In particular, what about Boris “calling Muslim women ‘letter-boxes and gangsters’?“ Didn’t the lady from Vice UK (As per Craig’s piece about today’s Daily Politics) comprehend that  - for some serendipitous reason known only to him - Boris was arguing against the wretched Burka ban, and when he likened the appearance of the Muslim uniform to a letterbox (which, with its slits-for-eyeholes, it kind of is) he wasn’t actually calling Muslim women  letterboxes or bank robbers? 

Are people so terrified of causing offence that they’re actually arguing for a blasphemy law these days? No bloody wonder we see our hastening demise as a blessed release. 

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Here in Cornwall, there’s a tradition called “Darkie Day”. I haven’t witnessed it personally, but I heard that it was tagged ‘controversial’ some time ago and (to avoid being racist) was re-titled “Mummer’s Day” and granted a reprieve. (Not banned) 

“In spite of the fact that the police were brought in twice to film the events, and both times declared that there was no evidence of offensive behaviour, the spectacle of an entire town taking to the streets with blackened faces and singing about 'niggers' was understandably deemed by some to be inappropriate. In response, the festival organisers agreed to change the name of the event to Mummers Day (which brings it into alignment with England) and to try to change the songs back to the original Cornish ones.

We don’t know if the event is/was/will be currently permitted to go ahead, or if blacked-up revellers risk being convicted of hate crime.   

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Quick, Dial 999! I’ve had a racist /Islamophobic/transphobic/homophobic/politically incorrect thought and I want to turn myself in and maybe go gentle into that good night.

Extraordinary, yeah, yeah

For the many not the Afua

(h/t MB via StewGreen)

Referring all honourable ladies and gentleman to a piece I posted a few hours ago, where I noted that: 

Leading into his paper review this morning Andrew Marr talked of "a growing fear in Fleet Street that we are on the edge of a Corbyn-led labour government" and described the The Sunday Times as "going flat out for Corbyn" with its antisemitism story, and then, turning to the Mail on Sunday, said, "And look at this...an eight-page pullout, 'How to protect your cash from Corbyn'. 

What I didn't note there was the tone of voice Andrew Marr used when reading out the MoS's headline. It was delivered in an OTT style, and clearly meant mockingly. 

As you can see, Andrew was (thrice) signalling here that he didn't think much of these stories. He linked them to Fleet Street's "growing fear" of a Corbyn-led Labour government rather than taking them on their own terms, used language such as "going flat out" to describe The Sunday Times's extraordinary reporting of Labour antisemitism, and then sneered at the Mail on Sunday.

And paper reviewer Afua Hirsch pretty much echoed his point-of-view later, with Andrew adding a supportive 'Extraordinary, yeah, yeah' in the middle of her highly questionable comments.

Here's a transcript:

AFUA HIRSCH: The other half's clearly panicking about the likelihood of Corbyn getting more legitimacy. You've got these stories about him being a Marxist, about him being an anti-Semite, or presiding over an anti-Semitic party, how to protect your assets from Corbyn. 

ANDREW MARR: Extraordinary, yeah, yeah.  

AFUA HIRSCH: There is clearly a rising sense he needs to be taken seriously as someone who could be gaining ground out of this process.

Acceptable behaviour from Andrew Marr, do you think?

(If he's hoping this kind of thing will spare him the ire of the Corbynistas he's surely whistling in the wind).

"Teacher, what will the Angel Gabriel do if a woman says 'No' to sex with her husband?"

Talking about comparing and contrasting things, the difference between Sky News and BBC News in their reporting of terror chief Peter Clarke's report into the Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham is quite striking.

From the BBC's Sean Coughlan we get:

Teachers could face misconduct inquiries, she [Nicky Morgan] told the House of Commons, after Mr Clarke's report found a social media group called the "Park View Brotherhood" used by male senior staff at Park View School.

Mr Clarke's report said this included "grossly intolerant" messages.

He said the social media messages included "explicit homophobia; highly offensive comments about British service personnel; a stated ambition to increase segregation in the school; disparagement of strands of Islam; scepticism about the truth of reports of the murder of Lee Rigby and the Boston bombings; and a constant undercurrent of anti-western, anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment".

From Afua Hirsch of Sky News, however, we go beyond quotes to get some of the shocking details:

Clarke scrutinised 3,000 messages sent via a private, all-male group called the Park View Brotherhood on social networking app WhatsApp, characterising them as "highly offensive".

The messages included the claim that the murder of fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich was a "hoax", that gay people are "animals" and their attempts at marriage "Satanic" and that women belong in the kitchen and have a "perpetual role serving men".

Although these messages were sent in private between teachers, the report reveals a correlation between this ideology and changes in the curriculum at the schools concerned.

At Park View, the report says, all discussion concerning sexual orientation was removed from sex education lessons, and boys were told in a worksheet that: "If a woman said 'No' to sex with her husband, the Angel Gabriel would strike her down and condemn her to an eternity of hell."

Girls and boys were segregated and, at Nansen Primary School, the school day was considered inappropriate both for the young age of the children and for a secular school.

That said, if you want to get the shocking details in shocking detail you have to go to somewhere like...er, yes, the Daily Mail: 

Teachers at the centre of the 'Trojan Horse' plot to takeover Birmingham schools exchanged messages that the murder of soldier Lee Rigby was a hoax, it emerged today.

A damning report into Birmingham schools has unearthed 'compelling evidence' of an attempt by a group of hardline Muslims 'to gain control of governing bodies', Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said.

The investigation, led by former anti-terror chief Peter Clarke, revealed details of a WhatsApp group called The Park View Brotherhood which also included a description of homosexuals as 'animals' with 'satanic ways’.

Mr Clarke was called in to investigate claims that schools in Birmingham were taken over in a plot to impose hardline Islamic rule. His was one of four inquiries into the allegations.

During his probe he was handed a dossier of more than 3,000 messages posted in the WhatsApp group from April 2013 until it was shut down in March.

Some of the messages suggested the brutal murder of Lee Rigby and the Boston Marathon bombings were both faked.

One post above a YouTube link attributed to someone identified as Teacher L on 24 May last year said: 'ATTACK ON ISLAM! Plz watch and share ASAP before they remove it!!!!! London butcher incident; It’s is a hoax And this is the link to reveal it.'

A message sent by Teacher C on 19 April said: 'Watch PROOF! Boston Marathon Bombing is Staged Terror Attack on YouTube.'

In May last year Mr Faraz allegedly posted a link to a news article about gay marriage followed by the message: 'These animals are going out full force. As teachers we must be aware and counter their satanic ways of influencing young people.'

There was evidence of young people being encouraged to 'adopt an unquestioning attitude to a particular hardline strand of Sunni Islam'

As they say: 'Compare and contrast'.