Volkswagen Accused Of Racism.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270134/Volkswagen-accused-racism-Super-Bowl-ad-uses-white-actors-Jamaican-accents.html

How can a white person speaking in a Jamaican accent be considered racist?

If this was the case, then maybe Trevor Macdonald and Chris Eubank could also be similarly accused?

[Orderlimit]

"'Didn't anyone look at this? This is so racist,' she added'

How exactly?

[naomi24]

//I am sick of hearing about alleged racism, it's become an obsession in some quarters, looking for offence where there is none.//

I agree with Dave. ^^

What a troublemaker that meerkat is! ;o)

[anotheoldgit]

How many times are the English, the Scottish, The Welsh, the Irish, not to mention the "Brummies", the "Geordie" and the "Cockneys", are mimicked for the way they speak, with not a mention of offence or racism?

[sp1814]

AOG

Your reference to Trevor McDonald is little strange.

Have you actually listened to him?

He has a very obvious Trinidadian accent.

Surely you can hear it???

[sp1814]

You know what?

Have you ever noticed the number of stories the Daily Mail prints which have an underlying "Look, they're complaining about racism again" theme?

It's almost as if the paper has an agenda to suggest that black people cry wolf over racism all the time.

Weird huh?

[emmie]

his accent is not so obvious, if you are from Trinidad, or not been there for a while, to me he sounds more English now.

[Zeuhl]

/How many times are the English, the Scottish, The Welsh, the Irish, not to mention the "Brummies", the "Geordie" and the "Cockneys", are mimicked for the way they speak, with not a mention of offence or racism?/

Can you provide a few recent examples aog?

[Booldawg]

Ha!
"The 60-second commercial called 'racist' and 'off-putting' by prominent critics"- reads as 'professional whingers'.

It wasnt racist, but it was rubbish.

[emmie]

the English are always having the pee taken out of them, if you happen to come from Essex, hold on to your hat, or worse the East End, which is supposed to be inhabited by cockney wide boys, not remotely true of course.

[society]

Sometimes people make too much out of nothing for any stupid reason or for no reason at all.

[Orderlimit]

I still dont get it

"“It's just saying, ‘Black people are happy’”' complained Barbara Lippert, editor-at-large of Mediapost.com, on the Today show. “Didn't anyone look at this? This is so racist,” she added.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// It's almost as if the paper has an agenda to suggest that black people cry wolf over racism all the time. ///

And who could possibly think that is true?

[emmie]

some do, but suggest many don't, you only have to read what the brother of Stephen Lawrence goes through, the harassment because of his skin colour, surely that is not acceptable to anyone.

[sp1814]

I'm not from Trinidad, but if I closed my eyes and heard Trevor McDonald talking, I could absolutely hear his accent. It's really, really, really obvious to me.

[sp1814]

AOG

And who could possibly think that is true?

Only people who can see the pattern in reporting.

Hey - just thought of something...of the 500,000 people who have viewed the clip on YouTube, who have given it negative feedback?

The reason I ask is because the Daily Mail seem to have published this article based on the opinion of...three people.

Odd that.

I wonder why.

[emmie]

i know some who are, i reckon it's more that his accent has softened a lot, being here for so long..

[ABerrant]

Trevor MacDonald left Trinidad in 1969, age 30. Softening his accent was a calculated and crucial career move else he would not have progressed throughout the 70s and 80s to become one of the nation's favourite newsreaders. Regional accents were a distinct handicap for those wishing to reach the upper echelons of national TV presenting.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

Whilst on the subject of accents, can you answer me this?

Why is it that most black youngsters, born here and who along with their parents many who never been to Africa or the Caribbean, and have been educated in England, but speak in an entirely different way to their fellow country men?

[Booldawg]

Pffft. Tim Westwoods been getting away with it for years.

[emmie]

not wishing to denigrate the old boy, but i never liked him much, not as a newsreader, nor in his latest incarnation as a serious reporter with programmes like the latest one on inmates on death row in USA.