Greg Clarke

@Hooky feller if it was a one off use of the word coloured then it’d be a massive over reaction.
But it’s not an isolated incident and he doesn’t appear to have learned from his mistakes.

 

Lad I worked with who was Black dint like "coloured" as a description because it's not descriptive (as in white is also a colour) and therefore preferred to be called black .to quote him" because am Black"....

 

I dont think losing his job is sufficent, he should be shot or the very minimum life time imprisonment. What about the victims who have to get through each day of their lives now feeling distraught because he said it was a life choice.

There is no room for discrimination of any kind before anyone misinterprets my comments above.

 

Having seen the footage, it seems to me that as @Bossman says, he doesn't seem overtly racist or misogynistic and at first glance it would seem harsh to lose his job. Pretty well all of what he said would have been the norm 40 years ago but is clearly unacceptable today. If it were a first offence then it still seems harsh, however, since he has previous as pointed out by @Tyke_67, the man is not fit for office and has fallen on his sword rather than face being sacked. Nobody will miss him.

 

He’s in his early 60’s

 

No doubt already been done but I'm not reading all this ****

 

Laughest thou, wretch? Thy mirth shall turn to moan.

 

I have a teenage daughter. Her mother is Asian.
She has always identified as being of ‘mixed race’ and shuns sanitised nonsense such as ‘dual heritage’.
Her take is that she has the best of both worlds. She does both Barnsley and Pakistani accents brilliantly in humour, whilst somehow having a neutral accent herself.
She goes to a multi-cultural school where ethnicity just isn’t a big deal. She laughs rather than collapses in grief and hand wringing anguish at clumsy language.
She is of course a Reds fan, very sporty herself and in total agreement about not wanting to go in goal and have the ball blasted at her - that was always my job.
The industry that is diversity does us no favours by decreeing at whim what terminology is and is not acceptable and seeks to make racists/sexists of those who are anything but.
So please stop the mock horror, ignore the self appointed arbiters of language control and let us get on with living life outside the playground pettiness that presently persists.

 

I can't for the life of me understand why "coloured" is unacceptable but "people of colour" is hunky dory. Can someone explain what must be a very subtle difference.

 

I'd genuinely like to know what is acceptable myself. It's hard for me when faced by the scenario of describing people of varying ethnicity.

The other day one of the engineers wanted to know who was on security and the security guard that day was black and filling in so I didn't know his name. I told the engineer I didn't know and it was the coloured person. I was extremely uncomfortable to the point of stuttering because I was **** scared of saying Black guy.

In the end I still got it wrong.

 

Nail hit squarely on the head

 

Exactly.
It’s become a minefield of what is and is not acceptable - especially to those of a certain age.
If a black or Asian person had said that - would they be sacked?
Probably not.
If not - then that’s racism.
So IMO this involves white people beating up another white person to make them feel guilty - of something that is unacceptable in Britain - but acceptable in most other parts of the world.
And all what that will achieve is the continuation of stirring up certain sections of the white community to become more resentful.
Anti racism movement needs to be careful it is not being perceived as anti-white.

 

Frankly, neither is acceptable. Sadly, the latter is used in the US and has seeped into the UK.

 

Black is perfectly acceptable and accurate. "Coloured" is not and never should have been.

 

What's acceptable for Chinese and Indian/Pakistani people. Are they Asians?

 

Referring them by their specific nation is also perfectly fine. Its the shortened forms which were commonly used in slights and tropes that aren't. You could label someone from the continent as Asian. But then, there are some who identify less. Just like some British people will prefer to say they are English and wouldn't wish to be classed as European.

 

Plenty in this thread.

Leave means leave.

Brexit means Brexit.

Etc.

 

Cheers

 

Tis why I was talking about the term not the man. Not excusing him at all. In isolation I would have deemed an apology satisfactory. But the rest was dinosaur. As someone commented,
not summat I’d expect from a man of his years.