I wasn’t going to write another word on this matter, for fear (yes, we really are reaching that point) of attracting accusations of being racist or, at best, insensitive. Neither of which would be justifiable.
But having read that complaints to the BBC regarding the axing of Carol Thatcher have risen, thus far, to over 3000, I feel that I have to comment on this further.
For me, quite surprisingly, it was a pop star — albeit a very intelligent and articulate pop star — who managed to hit the nail on the head.
Whilst speaking on the BBC’s Question Time, Will Young referred to a “culture of timidity”. Those three words perfectly sum up my fears for the future of our country (and, yes, yet again I feel I must say that I do think it’s — at least potentially — as grave as I make it sound.) As I was saying to Mike earlier today, I would certainly not ordinarily choose to use the word that Carol Thatcher used. Except, possibly, in a cultural or historical reference. But my fundamental concern is that “offence” in general is daily becoming a truly serious issue.
This goes beyond racism. Let me rephrase that: my concerns go beyond racism. This is something that touches upon sexism, homophobia, disability rights — every aspect of an individual’s life, right down to the expressing of a contrary opinion (and this, incidentally, is often why some of my posts very deliberately take a slightly different view to the majority — because I really do think we have a growing tendency to want to follow the herd and not take chances by expressing rather more honest opinions.) There are some Christians reading this who no doubt find my quite vocal atheism offensive. Does this mean I should not speak about it? No, as I’m sure they will agree, it doesn’t — and, yes, this is admittedly rather different to the Carol Thatcher episode. Nonetheless, I truly believe that we need to be careful. We need to be careful because people like me, people who are usually very willing to express an opinion — and discuss it calmly and, hopefully, intelligently — are beginning to feel the weight of that “culture of timidity” to which Will Young referred.
Some words are vile. And I for one would certainly hope that people use them responsibly, as I try to do. But should such usage be judged solely on the words themselves? Absolutely not. Context. Intent. These too must be considered.
I very nearly didn’t write this.
Now I need to be honest and say that I don’t follow BBC, mainly because I’m in the US and right now my time is very limited. I did read the article you referenced in your post. I’m not really going to get into that matter at all, but I did want to comment on the “culture of timidity” that you mentioned.
Now that I’ve been interrupted 5 times since I started typing this and my train of thought that I was going to type up is lost, I’m going to simply say that I agree with you completely. I couldn’t of said it better myself.
And I’m very happy that you wrote this blog entry. You shouldn’t be afraid to share your opinions. That’s what blogs are for.
Thanks for that, Amber. I really appreciate your taking the time to comment.
Who would have thought that Will Young would come up with that cerebral gem? Especially given his speech impediment!
Like I said, Bruce, “Context. Intent. These too must be considered.” I am in no way, as I think I have made quite clear, condoning those who very deliberately go out of their way to offend but simply urging caution. Such things require coolheaded, considered handling not knee-jerk responses. The latter I can certainly understand but if we continue to respond in this way (and I must stress, I’m not speaking of the Carol Thatcher episode at this point) I am concerned about the impact it might have. For example, is it wrong to ever mention Will’s speech impediment? If you’d said “Isn’t it remarkable how well he sings given his speech impediment”, would that have been offensive? No, of course it wouldn’t — but someone out there might think so.
People say stupid things — not least, me! — and, yes, there must be accountability. But as I’ve said in one form or another before, I’d much rather live in a world where people can say the “wrong thing”, than a world where they can’t. Obviously, there are exceptions — the inciting of hatred, slander/liable etc.
I don’t claim to be right. I’m just thinking about this as thoroughly as I can, even if that means saying things that are sometimes challenging.
As Christopher Hitchens said: “Hatred will always find a way, and will certainly always be able to outpace linguistic correctness.” That doesn’t mean, of course, that we should blithely say whatever the hell we like. We should consider those around us, as much as we can.
Still right behind you, Gary. Context and intent are always relevant!
Keep writing about it! 😉
I shall… but maybe not for a day or two 😉