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Royal Racist?
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In case the hot news hasn’t reached Ireland’s south: the queen of England’s grandson,
Prince Harry, used the word “Paki” to describe a Pakistani colleague.I’m interested in finding out what the intelligent and discerning members of PI think.
I know it’s off-topic in many ways, but here goes….1. Royal families – are they a good thing?
2. Is the word used more or less offensive than (say) Jock for a Scot, Paddy for an Irishman etc.?
3. It happened 3 years ago – is it relevant now?I presume this goes under the same folder as that one who called Obama “suntanned”……..
:(Gizzo wrote:
I presume this goes under the same folder as that one who called Obama “suntanned”……..
:(It would make you squirm in a similar way, wouldn’t it?
The problem with racism is that it is quite hard to nail down.
You are an Italian in Ireland, I’m a Welshman. Hauke’s German,
Stoycho is Bulgarian. We have probably
all felt like outsiders at times, but I certainly wouldn’t claim to have
suffered racism. If someone calls me Taffy, it’s not going to upset me.
If someone calls me a Welsh B
it wouldn’t annoy me much either.
But treating people differently solely because their skin is a different colour
is another matter altogether.What do you make of royal families?!
jb7 wrote:
Nappy headed ho’s?
I missed that one. It wasn’t an Irish politician?
Gizzo admires his Prez as much as I admire Prince Harry
“But treating people differently solely because their skin is a different colour
is another matter altogether. “I just dont get it! Black/white racism really boils my blood.
A friend of my girlfriends daughter named their dog N****R because
the dog was black.Such a minor thing they thought, but it is just not right and they
probably dont think anything of it.Royal families make me sick, what are the benefits to a country of
having a royal family, what purpose do they really serve?Shag all really if you ask me, although we have one in ireland too . . .
FF
Calling someone a Paki? Have a look at his family history…one of his ancestors had 8 wives allegedly and beheaded some of them. Yet another example of the PC-ness of society going to the dogs…sorry, canines
.
I worked on Sealink, now Stenaline many years ago. The Welsh were Taffy, the Irish Paddys. Nobody got stabbed or shot, no one fell out. Hell, it’s alleged we could even leave our doors open at night. We’d get drunk together and arrange return visits to either side of the pond. Now we’ve gone HYPER sensitive and there are some that would go to lengths to preserve “dignity”.As for Royal families – I feel sorry for them – they’re still human but born to a life less ordinary.
Alan
People take words too seriously.. of course, the media helps them thinking that words can be evil.
I am often being asked, Are you Hungry? … and as a Hungarian I could get upset… but I won’t, I just ignore the abuse and look into the brighter future.
Royal Families
To me they it is an out-dated and corrupt concept. I object that some (albeit very small) amount of my taxes goes to keeping the UK one in such opulent luxury.
Ever seen Windosr castle – huge. There is a homeless problem in England. How come, when there are so many empty rooms?
The Irish socilaist in me finds that abhorent.
The Irish capitalist in me finds ownership of such wealth in the absence of honest endeavour to be offensive.
PeteTheBloke wrote:
It would make you squirm in a similar way, wouldn’t it?
well, something like that. with a couple of differencies. Young Harry is (well not anymore) young. Ok, over 20 but still he’s not King or even Prime Minister.
His title it’s there just because his grandmother is the Queen. No-one voted him.
Can you see what I mean?
People in Italy voted B. as prime minister 3 times.
who is he? check out….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi#The_.22judicial_persecution.22
Prince Henry will have time to redeem, and probably won’t achieve any political position that really matters.
We will continue to hear from him just because he’s extremely rude and ignorant.
(like that silly uniform)PeteTheBloke wrote:
The problem with racism is that it is quite hard to nail down.
You are an Italian in Ireland, I’m a Welshman. Hauke’s German,
Stoycho is Bulgarian. We have probably
all felt like outsiders at times, but I certainly wouldn’t claim to have
suffered racism. If someone calls me Taffy, it’s not going to upset me.
If someone calls me a Welsh B
it wouldn’t annoy me much either.
But treating people differently solely because their skin is a different colour
is another matter altogether.yes I feel outsider. If you do, that you speak the same language (well some sort :P) imagine me.
I can’t get all your jokes, if I don’t pay extremely attention I am not able to follow complex discussions and so on and so forth.
plus, I presume the whole “mafia” thingy -which is real and actual.. not just a memory from Mario Puzo’s books- plays a funny stereotype with I learned to live with.
But I presume Ireland and Irish still keep a good bit of that humble mentality that comes from times when they were emigrants.
Something that us italians we lost a good while ago, and now we refere to africans that work in our tomato fields as “negri”.
The average-Irish mentality, I was saying, is clever enough and I never felt “aparthized”PeteTheBloke wrote:
What do you make of royal families?!
personally, I think time for Kings/Queens is over.
we have a story concerning Italy’s last King (well the one before the last). it’s told that the only advice the King Umberto I ever gave his heir (later Victor Emmanuel III) was “Remember: to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse”.
I think it’s enough said ;)BM wrote:
… oh, and a lot of them don’t pay income tax.
ssssh!!!!!
The Pope does not either!!!Gizzo wrote:
BM wrote:
… oh, and a lot of them don’t pay income tax.
ssssh!!!!!
The Pope does not either!!!another corrupt and out of date institution?
I’ve been thinking a bit since I put this up – and I’ve heard another few
radio discussions on the subject. As aoluain says, racism is so stupid and
illogical, yet it’s also widespread if not ubiquitous. Casual use of terms that
offend is certainly rude, if not racist. I think the difference between me
being “Taffy” and a Pakistani (or, quite often, an Indian) being a “Paki”
is that I don’t carry my race around visibly. I could even try to learn a
perfect Derry accent and become integrated, if I wished.The thing a white person can never know, is what it feels like to be non-white
in a western, white-dominated country. Maybe the red-haired, the spotty, the smelly,
the thick, the clever, the Welsh, the Scots, the Irish, the Americans etc. do get
teased/abused, but in a different way: as members of the same ‘race’.If I’m ever confined to a wheelchair, I’ll happily call myself a cripple. That’s because
the doublespeak of political correctness annoys me enormously. Likewise, I don’t see the
sense in calling Indians black. But I wouldn’t call them anything that I suspected might
cause offence, however harmless it may seem to me.I can’t believe we still have a royal family in England (and, hence, Wales). It’s simply for
want of something better, I assume. They look at the corruption associated with
elected heads of state and come to the conclusion that the current system will do for
a while. What happens if that nutter Charles becomes king, I don’t know.BM wrote:
another corrupt and out of date institution?
I hope not.
What I can say it’s that at least in my country what the Church says is heavily politically exploited.
Ireland has, AFAIK, Fine Gael as “Catholic party”. We have a party called Christian Democracy. Can you see the difference?
I respect religion (which is something personal) as long as don’t interfere with political life (that regards everyone).
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