KCR, as a cross check. I’m a white and middle class man, I didn’t find anything offensive or racist in Alastairs tweet. I asked the wife who is from a completely different ethnicity to me what was her take on the tweet and to see if she would find it insulting. (Being African she may well pick up on the racial slur that bypassed me)

Whether you judge the Tweet to be offensive is surely about your knowledge of racist tropes and how that language has been used historically, not your heritage (or whether you are “middle class”!).
The fact your wife didn’t see any offence, kind of proves that point.

I would have assumed it was pretty obvious what was wrong with Stewart’s Tweet with the ape reference. I’d give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t set out to write something racist, and in the heat of the moment copy-pasted a quote that he is known to have used several times before. However, you would have thought that he would have twigged pretty quickly once the offensive nature of his words were pointed out, and just made an apology, but he doesn’t seem to have taken that option. The quoted ITN source made it clear the dismissal wasn’t just about one Tweet either. So as I said earlier, I think he has dug his own hole.

Woodster: BAME people are just as likely to be influenced by whitewashing as white people and perhaps don’t feel comfortable enough to challenge the dominant culture. Just because they don’t see insult in a comment doesn’t mean that it’s not there or that it has no detriment to them. You say that you are “middle class” I’m guessing that is to confirm that you are educated, however this gives you insulation from many of the more obvious adverse effects of racism. Unfortunately education can also entrench stereotypes into the psyche, ever studied the enlightenment? They all believed in the “science” behind eugenics and that there were different physiological classifications of humans, something I have been told is fact by the head of education at East Lothian Council.
Having read the thread in question it is clear that they were both argumentative (that’s the nature of twitter) however it looks like AS was trying to squeeze in an ambiguous insult. It’s a common tactic as they can then claim ignorance or lack of intent to offend, even if it does cause offence. However it does not only offend it causes detriment and harm as it embeds negative ideas into individuals and our society. The intent is negligible, especially when there’s no recognition of the damage caused.
Martin isn’t complaining about being offended, he’s complaining about the catastrophic outcomes caused to people by casual racism especially when it’s perpetuated by prominent people with influence.

More importantly, have we been given a clue into Percy’s real identity? *starts googling “ Alastair Panther”…*

More importantly, have we been given a clue into Percy’s real identity?

Perchy

by whitewashing as white people and perhaps don’t feel comfortable enough to challenge the dominant culture.

That’s a fantastic assumption on your part.  My black wife and all of her black friends don’t seem to have forgotten their identity at all, and none of them are coy about speaking up about their ethnicity in the slightest in anyone’s company.  I can’t imagine any of them missing the point of AS post.  Indeed, my wife is rolling her eyes at this issue because of course she gets its, but she also gets the point of an attention seeking individual who goes out of his way – with reference to his Twitter history – to highlight himself over the issue of white supremacy.

Black people in the main don’t like this, they as all of us do like to demonstrate success but hard working and standing in society being recognised, something they’ve fought for many years as we know.  They don’t want an idiot on Twitter stirring up a race row on their behalf to do so, because it inevitably paints a poor picture.   If indeed they have to “earn” equality – which they shouldn’t have to – this isn’t the way they want to do it.

e.g. Would you accept Katie Hopkins represents white people?  Yes she’s way more extreme by the example here – yet idiot internet warrior speaks up for her ethnic brethren by is cast aside for her methods and views aka we despise her and do not recognise her as a spokesperson in the slightest.

Katie Hopkins makes her living as a racist.
What’s your point?

That this statement is incorrect in my experience:

BAME people are just as likely to be influenced by whitewashing as white people and perhaps don’t feel comfortable enough to challenge the dominant culture.

Then this:

Martin isn’t complaining about being offended, he’s complaining about the catastrophic outcomes caused to people by casual racism especially when it’s perpetuated by prominent people with influence.

Is utter hypocritical BS based on the evidence of the individual who highlights himself – without the support of his peers – as an apparent casual racist (allegedly).

*pulls up chair and fetches popcorn in anticipation of a shibboleth-type scenario*

In Borneo we use the term orang utan or monkey regardless of race. Most people just have a laugh about it as it means the person is mischievous. As far as we know most of our orang utan has red hairs and so are our Proboscis monkey so not sure if that will be misinterpreted if they are refer to people with red hairs.

Ranga is quite the insult to ginger haired folk in Australia.
Edit: just checked I hadn’t got that wrong and found the urban dictionary definition of red pubic hair as “Fanta pants”. Still laughing at that with a guilty look on my face.
50 years of loving living with redheads.

eddiebaby
Ranga is quite the insult to ginger haired folk in Australia.

Like most Australian “endearments” context is all.

Well Australia is a fairly racist country (yes I realise I have been racist by saying that!)

1)

Well Australia is a fairly racist country (yes I realise I have been racist by saying that!)

Technically, xenophobic but not racist (Australian isn’t a race)

2) The tweet people have found isn’t really racist in context, and not being forced to tiptoe about things/avoid certain words is quite important.

3) Yeah, obviously that point 2 doesn’t mean Boris Johnstone’s previous columns weren’t racist, they massively were, they weren’t just quotes from Shakespeare FFS.

4) I reckon there will be stuff beyond that tweet, it sounds like he’s been a bit OTT in internet arguments. Using his real name in that context could well damage the brand he’s working for.

Next?