Selective racism

[GrumpyPom]

I was watching an episode of QI (here in NZ so may have been on in the UK some time ago) and a question about Karl Benz came up which prompted various impersonations of the man in German accents which everyone (including me) found amusing. It then occured to me that if this had been an ozzie, french, Italian american etc accent that they had been taking off the reaction would have been the same. However had it been a Pakistani or Indian accent they were doing all hell would have been unleashed. Why is this?
A TV presenter over here has had to resign because he laughed at the name dik$hit.

[sp1814]

Paul Henry did nit merely laugh at her surname.

He laughed a number of times as he mispronounced her surname, which sounds closer to "Dixit" in English, and said her name was "appropriate because she's Indian".

Can you explain what he meant by that?

[GrumpyPom]

I suppose only Paul Henry could answer that.
But my point is would the reaction have been the same if it was an English person's name he was laughing at?

[sp1814]

With regards to why a white person imitating an Indian accent is seen by some as distasteful is because of selective racism...there's always been a correlation between those who take the mickey out of Asians by imitating their accents and those who despise them (in the UK at least).

I found a similar thing in Australia where there's a remarkably high intolerance of Asians (Japanese).

The same level of hate doesn't arise for Italians, French etc.

[sp1814]

GrumpyPom

It wasn't JUST the name...think about what he said!!!

[sp1814]

GrumpyPom

Let me clarify something - you can easily take the mickey out of unfamiliar name without coming across as a come richard. For example, my company has a lot of Indian staff work on IT development projects. One chap I recently worked with has a name that is something like Senthilkumar Peranthilkumar-Sujathanamasiviyam Raviakella Manikandan.

In fact, I've just checked on my work laptop, and that IS the correct spelling. When he first started working in the office I told him that his name was worth about a million points in Scrabble and asked him how he managed to get it all in credit cards.

THAT is how you can take the rise without coming across like a...well, I won't use the word in polite company.

[sp1814]

"would the reaction have been the same if it was an English person's name he was laughing at?"

If he were talking about someone from England called David Kidrape and had said, "That's appropriate for a British man", I guarantee the British tabloids would have a field day.

[NOX]

Besides which GrumpyPom I've heard people do Indian accents who are clearly NOT racists (Paul Merton saying something a la Ghandi springs to mind) so it's all a bit of a non starter. It's not so much what you say or indeed the accent it's said in, it's the overall intention and your newscaster bloke was a total merchant banker and deserved sacking because that WAS racially abusive.

[237SJ]

A friend of mine always said that one can get away with taking the p*ss out of someone regardless of their nationality, as long as they`re white. If the person on the end of the ridiculing has a different skin colour, then it`s frowned upon., He didn`t condone taking the p*ss out of anyone, it was just an observation. Maybe he had a point.

[GrumpyPom]

Maybe me mentioning Paul Henry was taking away from my original point about the QI impersonations.

[sp1814]

Nox

You make a very valid point - David Walliams blacked up in the last series of Little Britain without a murmur of complaint anywhere....because we know where he's coming from. However, I bet if Jim Davidson did the same, there would be an uproar.

[sp1814]

237SJ

I advise your friend to watch an episode of Family Guy, Malcolm In The Middle or 30 Rock,

Prime examples of non-whites being the butt if white humour and vice versa.

Also, nearly forgot - Peep Show.

Oh, and The Office.

And Extras.

All quality programmes and all freely available at www.amazon.com, and no-one complains, because they're all intelligently written and well acted comedies.

[Gromit]

I wonder if the BBC or ABC would ever screen this again? It may possibly be racist, but I always loved this sketch. Media URL: http://vodpod.com/watch/3829745-youtube-spike-milligan-pakistani-daleks
Description:

[Gromit]

Daleks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n88tZQc4Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[mosesg]

I think the Australian high intolerance of the Japanese may be a throw back to WWII. there are a lot of people in the world that have naver forgiven them for the way they treated their prisoners of war and their brutality. I know my granfather who fought in the war said he could forgive the Germans but never the Japanese. He got really angry when I made friend with my friends Japanese flat mate.

[modeller]

There is a big difference between taking the micky and outright hatred. People don't take the micky out of the Japanese , . In many peoples eyes the the Japs are bejond the Pale. They are just hated. ,They brutalised thousands for 25 years over much of Asia. What is more even today they venerate many of those who carried out the brutality. It is a part of their culture .