[granted08]

Originally Posted by ultimatums

Actually it doesn't. The way it was written was racist and offensive -- equating a black baby to shit.

Its so much easier to make it not racist. And, if he made a mistake, why didn't he just correct it. He didn't so he meant it as it was intended -- to be offensive at least, racist at worst.

This. At least he calls the baby a child and not an "it"

[Xassy]

He's an idiot but not racist. Some people try to see racism in anything and everything. To call this a racist attack is demeaning those who have genuinely suffered racist abuse.

[Chip Popple]

Originally Posted by Xassy

He's an idiot but not racist. Some people try to see racism in anything and everything. To call this a racist attack is demeaning those who have genuinely suffered racist abuse.

That is a very good point, totally agree.

[zx50]

Originally Posted by *Clem*

Eh, he deliberately made a 'mistake', that was the whole point of the joke. I didn't read it as racist but I can see how people could read it as being so.

I think it's only because he never used commas that it might look as though it's racist. It's obvious that it's not racist when placing commas in the right places.

[egghead1]

Hmm having considered the tweet again Im puzzled as to why he wrote the correction ,why not backspace and delete "bought". No-one wirtes like that.

"Whats that sh*t -oops meant rubbish your posting"

[Unigal07]

I think Lily misinterpreted what was being said, but I can see why. It's up to the soldier's seniors to decide what happens to him, nothing to do with Lily. She reported something she found offensive. That's all.

[abarthman]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

She hasn't adopted any baby. She has given birth to one and is expecting another. It was a 'joke' involving people making up a rumour about her and then everyone tweeting her about it.

Ahhh, I didn't know that. I don't read many celebrity news stories.

[Chip Popple]

Just had a peep at Lily Allen's Twitter page - she's been tweeting about it about it again #attentionseeker

If, like some people have mentioned, she misread the comment, why keep on retweeting messages? Come off Twitter altogether would be a better idea, at least for a few days. Talk about fanning the flames.

[TootlesTheTaxi]

Originally Posted by dorydaryl

I do get the grammatical thing- what may have been intended wasn't how it came across. All the same, what a stupid thing to tweet and what a crass wind up for targeting someone whose problems with having children (yes, I know she's a mum now but went to hell and back to get there) is well documented. This from someone who doesn't particularly care for Lily Allen or her music.
He is a moron, whichever way you look at it.
Not remotely funny, in the wind up sense, either, whoever's idea it was.

That was my first thought too, that the rumour was in poor taste , considering Lily Allen's history of miscarriages etc.

[lexi22]

Originally Posted by PerkyPerkins

The tweet that Harry Wilson sent said 'all the best with your new family just seen you bought sh** I meant adopted a child from Africa'.

To me it is obvious that Lily has jumped to the wrong assumption and has been too quick to accuse him of racism. I believe the original tweet was missing punctuation and should have read 'Just seen you bought - sh** - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'. If anything he's mocking celebrities who use their riches and fame to fast-track adoptions from the third world.

I read it exactly the way you did. Not a racist comment, just a sarcastic one. As in, you could substitute the word 'er' or 'oops' or 'pardon me' for 'sh**' - with 'bought' and 'adopted' being the operative words. The 'sh**' in effect means a sarcastic 'sorry' here, and is not referring to this hypothetical child: eg.

'Just seen you bought - er - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - oops - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - pardon me - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

Some people really should stay away from twitter. I'm not sure which is worse: those who post their stupidity on it, or those who misinterpret it and make a big deal out of it.

[Chip Popple]

Originally Posted by lexi22

I read it exactly the way you did. Not a racist comment, just a sarcastic one. As in, you could substitute the word 'er' or 'oops' or 'pardon me' for 'sh**' - with'bought' and 'adopted' being the operative words here:

'Just seen you bought - er - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - oops - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - pardon me - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

Some people really should stay away from twitter. I'm not sure which is worse: those who post their stupidity on it, or those who misinterpret it and make a big deal out of it.

I've just been reading up Lily Allen's history on Twitter - she's a repeat offender when it comes to public spats, either with celebs and now members of the public.

Was really pleased for her when she had her daughter, I've now come to the conclusion that she's a gobby cow who never seems to learn the error of her ways.

Particularly after the scrapes she's got herself into in the past -

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...KichRpseiJCD8g

[habanala]

The mans an idiot for tweeting her abuse in the first place but it wasnt racists whatsoever! It will be a shame if he loses his career because some stupid cow and a load of bandwagon jumping idiots scream racism!

[Jerrica09]

Originally Posted by lexi22

I read it exactly the way you did. Not a racist comment, just a sarcastic one. As in, you could substitute the word 'er' or 'oops' or 'pardon me' for 'sh**' - with 'bought' and 'adopted' being the operative words. The 'sh**' in effect means a sarcastic 'sorry' here, and is not referring to this hypothetical child: eg.

'Just seen you bought - er - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - oops - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - pardon me - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

Some people really should stay away from twitter. I'm not sure which is worse: those who post their stupidity on it, or those who misinterpret it and make a big deal out of it.

Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to the tweeters that punctuation does actually serve an important purpose!

[babybutch]

Originally Posted by lexi22

I read it exactly the way you did. Not a racist comment, just a sarcastic one. As in, you could substitute the word 'er' or 'oops' or 'pardon me' for 'sh**' - with 'bought' and 'adopted' being the operative words. The 'sh**' in effect means a sarcastic 'sorry' here, and is not referring to this hypothetical child: eg.

'Just seen you bought - er - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - oops - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

'Just seen you bought - pardon me - I meant, adopted a child from Africa'

Some people really should stay away from twitter. I'm not sure which is worse: those who post their stupidity on it, or those who misinterpret it and make a big deal out of it.

The above makes the most sense to me as well.
If people are easily offended then twitter is the last place to be.

[gpk]

Originally Posted by Jerrica09

Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to the tweeters that punctuation does actually serve an important purpose!

its twitter though. grammar and punctuation are not a strong points on twitter from what i have seen.

there is a bigger issue here though that needs to be addressed. in all honesty, i don't believe that tweet was racist. however, it is interesting to find some posters offended by this tweet. especially considering, i have read people making sexist remarks amongst other derogatory terms with their own twitter accounts. abuse is rife on twitter and that is one of the reasons why i wouldn't sign up for an account there. i think lily overacted in this instance and its seems like a joke that has gone badly wrong.

unfortunately, i have read far worse there though and twitter can be very dark in places. really, there should be more moderation and controls in place. its amazing to think that you can communicate with people successful in entertainment or whatever, but unfortunately that is often open to abuse.

[mickmars]

nothing racist in the tweet at all - a nasty sarcastic comment yes,racist no
It's quite frightening how some are so desperate to find racism in everything.

[*Sparkle*]

Even if we all give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn't intend anything racist in his comments, there's no getting away from the fact he was being deliberately nasty just for kicks. No amount of commas will make the tweet anything other than willfully abusive.

I'm amazed how many people are very quick to presume, then forgive the soldier for writing something misleading, but are also quick to criticise the reader for not knowing to insert punctuation. When you add into the fact that Lily is likely to be more sensitive than most when it comes to the subject of pregnancy and babies, then I don't blame her at all for taking the tweet at face value and getting angry about it.

Ultimately, if the man's career is "ruined", it's because his employers think that what he did was out of order. If what he did was obviously not racist, and if the army think it's OK for one of their employees to abuse celebrities in a public medium whilst describing themselves as one of their soldiers, then he'll suffer no ill consequences.

These wind-up merchants are all idiots. I'd be worried if he had any serious army career to start with, and I can't imagine anyone with a decent career would get involved with this sort of idiocy, but as they get together in the hope of provoking a reaction, they can't really complain when they get one.

[daveskey69]

Originally Posted by *Sparkle*

Even if we all give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn't intend anything racist in his comments, there's no getting away from the fact he was being deliberately nasty just for kicks. No amount of commas will make the tweet anything other than willfully abusive.

I'm amazed how many people are very quick to presume, then forgive the soldier for writing something misleading, but are also quick to criticise the reader for not knowing to insert punctuation. When you add into the fact that Lily is likely to be more sensitive than most when it comes to the subject of pregnancy and babies, then I don't blame her at all for taking the tweet at face value and getting angry about it.

Ultimately, if the man's career is "ruined", it's because his employers think that what he did was out of order. If what he did was obviously not racist, and if the army think it's OK for one of their employees to abuse celebrities in a public medium whilst describing themselves as one of their soldiers, then he'll suffer no ill consequences.

These wind-up merchants are all idiots. I'd be worried if he had any serious army career to start with, and I can't imagine anyone with a decent career would get involved with this sort of idiocy, but as they get together in the hope of provoking a reaction, they can't really complain when they get one.

Quoted for TRUTH!

[dorydaryl]

Originally Posted by daveskey69

Quoted for TRUTH!

Seconded

[HungerCult]

Originally Posted by downtonfan

Innocent remarks?

Doesn't matter if the remarks were innocent or not, last time I checked freedom of speech covered ALL remarks.

[Chip Popple]

Latest tweet from Lily Allen

Ok I'm leaving twitter for a few days,hmmmm maybe hours, we'll see. The stupidity of some people on here is astounding.

Let's see if she can keep her promise - oh wait, she posted another tweet 2 hours later #can'tkeepherbigmouthshut

What really gets me about her, is rather than admit she made a mistake, she mentions the stupidity of people on Twitter - if that isn't inflammatory.

If she hadn't started retweeting the abuse and answering the other abusive tweets, she wouldn't have had such grief - it's not rocket science, just ignore it.

[Chip Popple]

Originally Posted by *Sparkle*

Even if we all give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn't intend anything racist in his comments, there's no getting away from the fact he was being deliberately nasty just for kicks. No amount of commas will make the tweet anything other than willfully abusive.

I'm amazed how many people are very quick to presume, then forgive the soldier for writing something misleading, but are also quick to criticise the reader for not knowing to insert punctuation. When you add into the fact that Lily is likely to be more sensitive than most when it comes to the subject of pregnancy and babies, then I don't blame her at all for taking the tweet at face value and getting angry about it.

Ultimately, if the man's career is "ruined", it's because his employers think that what he did was out of order. If what he did was obviously not racist, and if the army think it's OK for one of their employees to abuse celebrities in a public medium whilst describing themselves as one of their soldiers, then he'll suffer no ill consequences.

These wind-up merchants are all idiots. I'd be worried if he had any serious army career to start with, and I can't imagine anyone with a decent career would get involved with this sort of idiocy, but as they get together in the hope of provoking a reaction, they can't really complain when they get one.

No one is defending the soldier for making stupid comments, I think everyone is of the opinion that he was out of order.

But that isn't the point, the point is he was reported by Lily for a RACIST comment, which has far more serious implications. It wasn't racist, Lily made a mistake and overreacted.

Celebrities who have a Twitter account lay themselves open to comments that they may find offensive, unfortunately that's the world we live in.

[grilli]

Originally Posted by Chip Popple

Latest tweet from Lily Allen

Ok I'm leaving twitter for a few days,hmmmm maybe hours, we'll see. The stupidity of some people on here is astounding.

Let's see if she can keep her promise - oh wait, she posted another tweet 2 hours later #can'tkeepherbigmouthshut

What really gets me about her, is rather than admit she made a mistake, she mentions the stupidity of people on Twitter - if that isn't inflammatory.

If she hadn't started retweeting the abuse and answering the other abusive tweets, she wouldn't have had such grief - it's not rocket science, just ignore it.

if you dont like what she says, dont follow her, same as anyone else, same principle as if you dont want something to be misconstrued/interpreted the wrong way whatever you want to call it, dont do it in the first place! she hasnt made a mistake, they bloke who sent the tweet did. it made me laugh how someone retweeted a comment she made about everyone on jeremy kyle being a brummie and accused her of being racist against brummies! the stupidity of some people knows no bounds.

[Chip Popple]

Originally Posted by grilli

if you dont like what she says, dont follow her, same as anyone else, same principle as if you dont want something to be misconstrued/interpreted the wrong way whatever you want to call it, dont do it in the first place! she hasnt made a mistake, they bloke who sent the tweet did. it made me laugh how someone retweeted a comment she made about everyone on jeremy kyle being a brummie and accused her of being racist against brummies! the stupidity of some people knows no bounds.

I don't follow her, you don't need to follow her to read her Twitter page - I looked out of curiosity, because I'd read she'd left Twitter.

Both the soldier AND Lily Allen made a mistake imo, the difference is one is probably going to get punished, the other won't.

[Betty Britain]

Apparently the soldier has sent Lily flowers and an apology and they both want the matter finished