You seem to be saying that it's OK to feel insulted if your race is slighted, but not if your nationality is.

Personally, I think people are far too quick to take offence on behalf of someone else. The word (whichever one) itself is not offensive (how can it be when young Asians and Blacks use these words daily) , but the manner in which it is used may be. People should take a deep breath before accusing someone of racism.

exclusive preview of anton's costume for saturday's show...

Good old Brucie!

would that be good old brucie who's just had to put this out to ahem "clarify" his earlier comments?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8297488.stm

Well I guess that makes it OK that he finds it funny to call her racist names doesn't it.

Does that make it better or worse?

Yup quite agree,

I agree. He means "get over it like we used to be able to do" back when black people could be called the n word and nobody (except them) minded. Ah happy days.

Sadly I expect Bruce to have that view because of his age. He probably misses 70s classics like "Love thy Neighbour" too.

I don't expect anyone in the early 40s to have the P word on standby for a "comedy moment". Then again I wouldn't ask an Asian person I'd just met if they were a terrorist, so maybe I'm just out of step with the comedy musings of Tony Beak.

Still Brucie leads by example - didn't he laugh off and ignore the "doddery" jibe? Oops my mistake - he argues against it with a catchphrase. Hmm - Maybe he'll work the P word into it now. Brucie's a great one to talk about laughing things off!

Actually people should take a deep breath before shouting out the catchphrases of the BNP

Reading thru this thread and the du Beke one I find it quite depressing that certain things haven't changed in decades. One of them is the brush it under the carpet and forget about it as inconvenient to life enjoyment mentality. Let's not upset the applecart. Apologies are words spoken after the fact. Back in the day it was humourous? We thought of it as humourous? It was never humourous. And what's all this "we" crap, because it wasn't used humourously, it was used with intent. It was everyday popular culture access all areas, television programmes such as Black And White Minstrel Show, LTN, g*llyw*gs on jam jars, in literature, everyday common speech, P***s, w*gs, books at school, colours such as n****r brown when it would have been equally as descriptive to have used other words, descriptions such as "n****r in the woodpile" in Roget's Thesaurus, which is still in verbal use in the 21st century, check out the usage from Wikipedia and the old politicians who still use it.

It's in the past and should stay there, but it doesn't, and won't, because for some it's not just discrimination.

Sigh.

Anyone remember the dancing?

Putting a wink smiley at the end of that doesn't make it acceptable....

Or any less lazy as a statement.

Typical for a lentil-eating, Guardian reading, Lesbian Peace Slipper wearing, internet forum warrior.

...Vaguely

As others have said Bruce`s point is a valid one.....when I was growing up I can actually remember Pakistani`s referring to themselves as $%&i`s...Amazing but true.....Just like we call ourselves Brits.However times have changed and it is now deemed to be offensive.....I suppose that`s because as racial tensions increased the word was used in a derogatory fashion or as an insult.Even though I grew up in an era when this abbreviation was not deemed to be offensive I would never use the word now because it`s just not part of my day to day vocabulary.....That said if I was Bruce I would just have kept my mouth shut....What Anton said is his problem...not Bruce`s;so no matter how well meaning his intentions he`s just entwining himself in someone else's problem....It`s just not worth the hassle...but then I suppose he`s old and rich enough that he does`t give a give a toss what others think.

It's quite simple really P*** is racist N***** is racist ,Scot is not. I personally don't like pommie as it is often accompanied by barsteward and if an englishman tells an Irish joke around my dad he punches them out

.....

Brucie is just a harmless dinosaur - not a rascist by any means! When in the public spotlight every last word needs to be thought about - tell that to Carol Thatcher & Ron Atkinson.

BTW - I was an early teen when Love Thy Neighbour was first shown & I thought it was hilarious - both giving as good as they got - seemed harmless at the time - how times change!

What it boils down to is this:

Anyone can call a white skinned person from virtually any country you wish to name, what you like. It is not racist.

Call anyone non-white by any sort of word except that which the very PC brigade have deemed acceptable on that day, then it is racist.

If you are white racism don't apply to you, you can be called what anyone wants, so get a life and get on with it.

Failing that vote out the people who want to get this country even more PC - it's your choice, it's a democracy.

No. Where have all the sanctimonious Mary Whitehouse brigade come from?

Here's what Brucie said.

"Nor do I in any way excuse or condone the use of such language. To be absolutely clear, the use of racially offensive language is never either funny or acceptable.

"However, there is a major difference between this and racist comments which are malicious in intent and whilst I accept that we live in a world of extraordinary political correctness, we should keep things in perspective."

That seems like a reasonably logical and clear statement to me. He's saying Beke is wrong but has apologised and that we should move on.

People seem to want to wilfully turn this into a witch hunt. Is it so hard to grasp that a decent person can have a slip of the tongue, in jest, apologise, be forgiven, and move on, and not be a racist? I mean has that never happened to anyone here???

Why does everyone let the papers do their thinking for them nowadays? It means they're in a state of 24/7 moral outrage.

i would love to see the old man walk up to a pakistani and call him a p*** and say it was humurous back in the day


In the words of kevin keegan i would absolutely love it. go on old man demonstrate the hilarity of such a word.


i am telling you right now that the old man nor anton would dare utter such a word to a pakistani. And they know it.

heh

There is some truth in this. That white people can be called most things whereas coloured not. However, in my view, we should be prepared to accept this due to :

1. The way we have treated other races in the past and

2. Other races don't seem have an ability to call us names with such a propensity to hate which we certainly have.

Why should it be OK forany white person have to accept racism against them when they have not committed it themselves?

And I'm sure other races DO have more of a propensity to hate us whites sometimes - have you ever seen the news when some Arabs have been buring effiges and flags, and chanting for us to be beheaded?! You dont get much more hatred than that!!

I thought it was going to be a hairshirt

This Has to be a wind-up.

Like Laila I grew up in 1970's Britain and I am of Indian origin. I have no doubt that Anton meant his comment in jest and I respect Laila for being able to move on from this.

Many people on the forum and elsewhere are suggesting that those who find the word offensive lack a sense of humour and if I could be totally rational about the matter I would probably agree. However as much as I would like to be cool-headed about it I cannot. The word p*** was used to describe me and my family, to separate us from our peers, throughout my childhood by children and adults alike. It was used in a campaign to prevent my parents buying a house in a white area, it was screamed at me by groups of kids who pelted me and my mother with rocks as we walked to the shops, it was even being hurled at a friend two years ago by racists who beat him up, knocked him to the floor, ran him over in their car and then reversed over him leaving him for dead - apparantly they had decided to have a night of p*** bashing.

I suspect Laila has also been on the receiving end of such abuse too many times and was horrified and humiliated to have been faced with the term again especially in front of her fellow contestants. Anton was right to apologise and Brucie was completely out of order in attempting to justify the incident as a bit of a laugh.

For those of you think that the term is no different to abbreviations such as Scot or Aussie I would just like to point out that for those of us who have been on the receiving end this word has the power to wound very deeply indeed.