Still claiming not to be racist, honest, pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins is still somewhere out there producing moderately bigoted videos for Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media outfit, still harbouring an irrational prejudice against London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and still devoting her every waking hour to figuring out ways to extricate herself from the financial black hole into which she pitched herself as a result of her own avoidable actions.
Viewers may still want to look away now
Hatey Katie’s latest target, other than when she finds Scary Muslims™ to go after, is actor Idris Elba, but not because he’s black, oh no. The problem she has is that a rumour is now gong the rounds that the next man to play James Bond may be him. And that is a worrying prospect for all the Whitey Power™ enthusiasts out there. They want a good old fashioned English Bond, even though four previous Bonds haven’t been.
Katie WHO?
Yes, four: Sean Connery is Scottish, George Lazenby Australian, Pierce Brosnan Irish, and Timothy Dalton was born in Wales. But back to Ms Hopkins and her horror at the thought of Bond not being white. “Please can someone on your team come up with their own material #IdrisElba? Must we perpetually crowbar-in gender or colour where it doesn’t fit or belong?” she pleaded, as if Elba was going to listen to her.
It got worse, and indeed more personal, as she sniped “many people love you, almost more than you do yourself”. Pot, meet kettle. But in the meantime, Right Wing Watch had nailed the racism at work chez Hopkins. “[Katie Hopkins] was outraged at the mere suggestion that a black man might be cast to play James Bond in the next 007 film. ‘It’s not because you’re a gentleman of color. It’s because James Bond isn’t.’”.
Did she say that? Because if she did, she’s crossed the bigotry median in no style at all. Well, not only did she Retweet the Right Wing Watch Tweet, she also, for good measure, repeated the offending observation. “‘No, Idris Elba. You cannot be #JamesBond, no matter how many tweets you put out fishing for attention. It’s not because you are a gentleman of colour. It’s because James Bond isn’t..’”
Then it got a lot worse still, as the temptation to have a go at another of those hated politicians took over - but it’s only a coincidence that the one in question is black, honestly - as she proclaimed the viewing figures for her first Elba bashing attempt, trilling “A quarter of a million views. Or with Dianne [sic] Abbot as M... two one hundred and five-ty lots”. Just in case you thought it wasn’t really racist, she made sure you knew it was.
And just to add insult to injury, Hatey Katie then approvingly quoted the far-right Rural Conservative Movement, who had voiced “A note of appreciation to Katie Hopkins for all the hard slog she continues to put in listening to ordinary people and voicing their concerns”, claiming this made her a Real Journalist. It didn’t, and listening to ordinary people is something she is incapable of doing. Although she talks at people well enough.
You thought it was only about Scary Muslims™? Her adventures in South Africa and now the intervention in the “Black Bond” debate show that where Katie Hopkins is coming from is old-fashioned racism. So old-fashioned it should be left in the dustbin of history.
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She's probably not going to be too happy when she discovers that James Bond was born in Scotland, to a Scottish dad and Swiss mum.
ReplyDeleteShe has form for this, unsurprisingly. A few years ago she laid into the BBC casting Sophie Okenedo in a prominent role in a Shakespeare adaptation they were doing. Miss Okenedo is of course black, and a damn fine actor.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is though that her outrage just showed her up for the philistine she is. Any theatregoer or fan of good drama will tell you that you cast the best person for the part, skin colour be damned. But she doesn't watch Shakespeare adaps. She thinks it's all still ruffs and tights and hey nonny nonny.
On the Bond score, best not mention that his best mate, blond Texan Felix Leiter has been twice played by a black actor. Or that the casting of Judi Dench, widely derided as PC crap by the usual suspects in 1995, was actually a nod to the appointment of Stella Rimington as head of MI5, and after a short amount of carping, the complaints dried up.
The Bond films move with the times. Hopkins seemingly can't.
While Hopkins wasn't prominent, perhaps not even invented then, I recall a similar manufactured outrage when a few black kids cropped up in the Harry Potter movies.
ReplyDeleteIt was difficult to pinpoint the nature of the outrage due to the poor spelling and punctuation, but the anger was palpable.
The whole shitshow reincarnated when the stage production cast an african actress in the role of Hermione.
Get a grip nativists, it's all made up stuff about spies and wizards.
As JKR said, "I specified frizzy hair and prominent teeth. Never said a thing about skin colour ".
DeleteHopkins is a standard 19th century stiff with tedious racist hang ups.
ReplyDeleteA sort of female Ian Paisley senior. A soap opera of bullshit and twisted nerves.
Hopkins has asked on twitter for anybody in Bradford (my birthplace) who would like to have a cuppa with her and a slag off of the city to join her. She is getting a right dressing down from the good people of that city. She's off with the usual 'no-go areas' bollocks.
ReplyDelete"Right Wind Watch " heh heh heh, Freudian typo.
ReplyDelete