Have We All Become Too Sensitive?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3328879/Cigarettes-suffragettes-terribly-PC-cracker-prizes-appall-modern-sensibilities.html

Can anyone please explain how they consider the first illustration as a racist image, well on the part of black people at least?

/// Some of the crackers of the day would now be seen as offensively racist, using such terms as ‘sambo’ – while a Black And White collection for another company, Batger & Co, features an exaggerated minstrel-style entertainer. ///

Admittedly that 'S' term is no longer acceptable, but regarding the Black and White collection all one sees is a white person dressed as a 'clown' and the black person dressed as a 'toff'.

[Mosaic]

My brothers all got Smoking Sets - I got a nurses outfit. Sounds like a Pub Landlord joke.
I think AOG has a valid point, namely to question the apparent industry of being offended that we seem to exist in nowadays. And personally I believe that industry is fuelled by speculation about being compensated for said offence.
These historic examples all existed within the context of their times - and we all know they wouldn't be done like that now. AOG, the coloured guy is actually dressed as a music-hall comedy ***, where 'aping the gents' was a thing they were meant to do funnily, because everyone knew they couldn't be real gentlefolk. It's convoluted.

[Mamyalynne]

I also got a smoking set, we did think ourselves quite grown up.

Some things were too lifelike, the saw that came with my little brother's tool kit - he almost had my leg off.

[Mosaic]

and I bet AOG also remembers (as I do) those now-notorious penny-swallowing money boxes......

[Mamyalynne]

We had two, given by Aunts in USA , grotesque and extremely non PC names they had too.

[Zacs-Master]

Nicely brought back to the original debate there Mosaic.

Now, we're those money boxes offensive at all......?

[Zacs-Master]

Were

[anotheoldgit]

To say nothing of the Chemistry set that I once had, now it would most likely attract the attention of the anti-terrorist squads.

[Mamyalynne]

Chemistry sets oh yes , highly noxious aromas ensued.

The money boxes scared me when I was very small, I did not appreciate the message behind them at that time.

[Mosaic]

Girls couldn't have chemistry sets! How un-pc that would be now.

[anotheoldgit]

Mosaic

/// and I bet AOG also remembers (as I do) those now-notorious penny-swallowing money boxes. ///

Yes of course, and why did they always have to be a black boy? There's discrimination for you.

[Mamyalynne]

I did.

[Mosaic]

Zacs, to answer your point and be within topic, I think the money boxes were intended at the time to be grotesque, as it was seen as funny to have a grotesque figure of a black person in entertainment. Josephine Baker was a wonderfully talented dancer, but as a woman of colour was encouraged to goof about as that was 'what they did'.

[Zacs-Master]

It was a bit more than discrimination AOG.

[Mosaic]

Ah but Mamy you weren't in our house.... where gilrs couldn't (so many interesting and exciting things) and boys couldn't sew or have dolls.

[anotheoldgit]

Mosaic

/// Girls couldn't have chemistry sets! How un-pc that would be now. ///

I don't think they were actually banned from having them, I believe that they just were not interested in such things.

[Mosaic]

Girls not interested AOG....(muffled explosion of outrage....)
This girl ended up simply taking hold of the tools that interested her and doing it anyway, leading to being viewed as 'not really a girl' at the time, who 'nobody will marry'.
Different times, wrong stuff to do to kids, but like we discussed up above in the thread, all in the context of the times.

[anotheoldgit]

Mosaic

/// as it was seen as funny to have a grotesque figure of a black person in entertainment. Josephine Baker was a wonderfully talented dancer, but as a woman of colour was encouraged to goof about as that was 'what they did'. ///

You mentioned Josephine Baker, well I am far from being an expert on her, so I went on youtube and came up with this clip.

Rather than being encouraged to 'goof' in this it appears she has been perfectly accepted into white society, but when the beat of the drums started she couldn't wait to return to her roots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsOOWIuWI_o

[retrocop]

Entertainers will do what the punters like best and happy to pay for.
If people want slapstick they do not want Covent Garden.

[hc4361]

Josephine Baker gave up her American citizenship in protest at the huge discrimination she faced there even though she was a hugely popular artist in other countries.

[Mosaic]

Really enjoyed that clip AOG
It's such an insight into the mindset of the times when it was made. And it adds to the examples used in the thread, because in the time when it was made, a black or coloured man couldn't have had the 'serious romantic lead' that Baker had in that film. There's another layer of troubling association between black and coloured women, and the white-owned entertainments industry, but that's another thread altogether.
Boy, could she dance!