Quote: gary numan "Who said media conspiricy? i said the media hadn't latched onto it yet. Just like in the seventies when racist jokes and programmes (love thy neighbour etc..) were acceptable until momentum built up in the media etc.. that socirty (quite rightly) decided that it no longer found it acceptable. The same happened with homophobic views, the same happened to irish jokes and the same will happen to weight and hair colour and whatever society/media get round to next. No doubt in the seventies mocking people for their skin colour was ordinary and not frowned upon to the degree it is now. BUT it was still wrong. It was wrong before the clampdown and it was wrong after. When the media/sociry get round to clamping down on subjects that you find ok to use as weapons at the moment, my guess is you will go along with the flow of opinion. This is why i say forget history, think for yourself is it right to discriminate on who we think needs to be defended and others should laugh off the insults?
Regerding 'flavour of the month' comment ,i'm not trivialisng the subjects, i hope my previous paragraph explains the term.'"
No, it wont. And it isnt because society hasnt bothered getting round to it that chants about James Grahams hair arent treated as seriously as Racism and homophobia, its simply because they arent as important.
Racist jokes werent clamped down on because they were 'flavour of the month' or that society decided one day that you couldnt make fun of someones colour. They were clamped down on because of a long and hard struggle for equality. These jokes werent the problem, it was they hate and the stereotyping they expressed that was. It was the words and phrases used which were indicative of actual racial hatred, of real and public beliefs of prominent people within society which were always, even then, abhorrent.
Homophobia has, and is travelling a similar line.
The battle against racism and homophobia isnt yet won. And this is why racism and homophobia are treated differently. Its niave to think that it isnt taking different forms, that the language isnt changing but still expressing the same meaning,that there isnt real unapologetic hatred of minorities and homosexuals out there. That there arent still lies and propaganda out there, trading on fear to divide people. And this is why racism and homophobia are treated differently, not because Gays or minorities have any more of a right to be protected from offence, but because these attitudes are still out there, because the hate is still out there, and thats what we, as a society, as a whole, need to protect all of us from. We cant let racist and homophobic attitudes go unpunished, not so gays arent offended but so the real hate is obvious, so the real hate cant hide behind a thin veneer of 'comedy' like Bernard Manning or practicalities like the BNP attempt.
Ginger, fatty, w@nker, whatever word you want to throw in there and label as discrimination isnt even relevant.
