This morning, Gammon
Emeritus Nick Ferrari has turned up for his LBC show as if nothing were untoward. That’s the same LBC that told listeners that it would observe a minute’s silence on Monday evening as a mark of respect for George Floyd, murdered by a now former Police officer in Minneapolis. But while LBC acknowledges another victim of racism in the USA, it has no problem employing a blatantly racist presenter.
Carry on being racist
Because Nick Ferrari is a racist. He has
demonstrated his racism on an edition of Sky News’
The Pledge. What happened has been much discussed, and can be put directly. His co-host Afua Hirsch had told “
All over the world, statues are coming down … now it’s time to take a long, hard look at problematic figures that we continue to glorify”.
Afua Hirsch
At this point, some of her co-hosts began to bristle. “
Such as Horatio Nelson [groaning], Cecil Rhodes, and, yes, Winston Churchill”. Ferrari had his head in his hand; Carole Malone appeared irritated. Ms Hirsch stuck to her task. “
Doing nothing, burying our heads in the sand, and hoping this debate will go away is simply no longer an option”.
So who was going to reply to her? Yes, it was Ferrari. “
I really like you, but” he began. And it was a big but. And then he said it. “
Why do you stay in this country?” WHAT? He doubled down. “
If it offends you so much, how do you manage to stay here?”. I say, uppity black person, if you don’t like OUR country, why don’t you go elsewhere?
Ms Hirsch later told her followers “
In a former life, when I thought you [could] politely persuade people not to be racist. Their response? ‘If you don't like it here, LEAVE’. Which I'm yet to hear said to a white British person. Racism is telling black people who have a critique of their own country, they should leave”.
Ms Hirsch recalled that incident on the same day that LBC - the broadcaster where Nick Ferrari is being allowed to carry on as normal today - reported that “
A group of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters were told to ‘go back to Africa’ during a demonstration in rural Hertfordshire yesterday”. Those behind that remark can always cite Ferrari in their defence.
1950s and 60s racism still there, still being peddled, still legitimised by a national broadcaster and further legitimised by another national broadcaster allowing the perpetrator to carry on presenting. And that’s the wider problem: Nick Ferrari’s racism is not merely his problem - it is a problem for the media establishment itself.
Why so? Consider who has reported Ms Hirsch's concerns. The
Express ran an item. And of the mainstream media, that’s it. Sure, new media outlets, particularly left-leaning ones, have covered it, but not those that form part of the establishment. But perhaps Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago, will be along to excuse Ferrari.
And that is the reality: racism is, for the media establishment, still acceptable to the extent that those indulging in it can just carry on as if nothing has happened. There is not even a mention on their Twitter feeds of Ms Hirsch's concerns from any of the other co-hosts of The Pledge. It’s all been tidied away and forgotten about.
The problem for the media establishment is not just the racism. It’s that those indulging in it are allowed to not only do it, but to get away with it.
And that’s not good enough.
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13 comments:
It was pointed out to me that the clip is from 2018 ( link posted below), they have left a racist in position for 2 years
Forgot to add the link
https://youtu.be/OnswK-vfOSA
The problem is nuance is getting lost in all this (on both sides I think). It is possible to respect Churchill as a wartime leader who did a great deal to bring this country through a very dark time, while also acknowledging that the man was almost certainly a racist and did some pretty terrible things in the name of "empire". You should be able to hold both these opinions at the same time and not be a "bad person" to either the Nick Ferrari's or Afua Hirsch's of this world.
Ferrari's behaviour is an utterly sickening example of deep-rooted evil racism. Malone too. But, rotten as they are, they are only symptoms.
There can be no surprise when oppressed people - whatever their skin colour - finally strike out after hundreds of years of genocidal
murder, lies, hypocrisy and propaganda. Especially when one of the excuses is "nuance". There's nothing "nuanced" about enslavement of any kind. Or when thousands of innocent human beings are deliberately killed or die in the most awful circumstances.
What kind of morally corrupt society whines piteously when, incredible patience finally exhausted, a monument to a mass murderer is rightly dumped in water? Or produces someone as openly evil as Ferrari or the "nuanced" racist moron Malone? This, in spite of evidence accumulated over the years by outstanding academics like David Olesuga, and supported and expressed by admirable Afua Hirsch.
For engaging in industrialised slavery, Britain has much to be ashamed of and much to apologise for. As have most European nations and the USA. Governments public acknowledgement of this is the very least to be done. Without it we will continue to see the lousy spectacle of malevolent idiots and ignoramuses like Ferrari and Malone, to say nothing of utter fascist crackpots like Farage and Johnson.
It's worth bearing in mind too the words of John Kennedy that "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
True justice has waited long enough. And it NEVER sleeps.
Ferrari - good British name. See also Farage and Francois.
At least one of Nick Ferrari's ancestors must have emigrated to the UK from Italy, unless his dad was a car fetishist who changed his name by deed poll. As a white bloke I strongly resent gammons and pound shop fascists harping on about "our" country and arrogating the right to decide who lives here. You are not the absolute rulers or owners of this country, so just STFU.
PS I live in an area that was (a) a complete shithole and (b) all white when we moved here in 1997; since then people from different African, Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries have moved in. The streets are noticeably cleaner; people (including the white English residents who stayed or moved in later) are friendlier; crime has gone down (one street was in the Top 10 most burgled streets in England); kids play on the street and are polite to adults; since the lockdown residents have organised a socially distanced VE-Day party and regular front garden Bingo sessions, and are keeping an eye on vulnerable neighbours. We do not miss our former white neighbours who as well as being racist were mostly into petty crime, drinking, and domestic violence.
Bob, I believe it's spelt François! :D As for Farage, he looks like a cheese salesman from Normandy who is trying to get rid of a large consignment of Camembert long past its sell by date.
Farage looks like he is eating large amounts of said consignment, for fear of waste, and is now constantly releasing hyper-dense camembert infused farts that follow him wherever he goes.
The exact same thing is happening in some of the worst parts of Rochdale.
Anonymous@12:03
Ah so everyone is always 100% right or 100% wrong? If you believe this, you are no better than Ferrari and his ilk. A world without some give and take is a hateful cruel and bitter world. The journey to freedom and social justice is just that - a journey - you take a bit at a time, sometimes you win sometimes you lose ground, but you keep trying. The world you describe seems to be "we must win all now or we are morally corrupt". That's the politics of the schoolground and might make you feel better, but will never result in real change.
If I have mis-represented you then I apologise, but if we live in a world where people are "all good" or "all bad", then you're going to find 99% of real people end up classified as "bad".
I am not defending Ferrari, I can't stand the miserable old racist.
I don't understand why racists are complaining about the trashing of statues of slavers. After all, it was the those slavers who were responsible for bringing an enormous number of Africans into Britain in the first place! So why do they moan about black people in Britain, and constantly tell them to go back to Africa in the street, and yet want to defend the statues of those slavers who are responsible for their angst?
I just don't understand the logic of those people.
RodJ - Problem with getting the cedilla at the time. Shall we give him his full name: Mark Gino François
@16:51.
Yes, you misrepresented.
Morons usually do.
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