Phligm Phlagm 3

[philmophlegm]

The best possible upgrade for your ebook reader.

Doctor Who to be moved to the Autumn (good idea).

Strike etiquette

The Maldives aren't sinking. But the Maldives government would like us to think they are. I wonder why...

Outrage over reaction to Clarkson reaction reactions.

Why does a caucasian dollhouse cost 70% more than an African-American dollhouse.

(Is African-American the proper term now? Apparently it isn't "coloured" any more, as Alan Hansen has just found out. Good grief. Am I the only person here who can remember when "coloured" was the politically correct word to use?)

Wind-powered car travels downwind faster than the wind. Which sounds unlikely I know...

The Blair government pressurised my alma mater into giving Colonel Gaddafi's son a place (presumably because of the close connections between Gaddafi's party and Labour). To their credit, Oxford told the government to **** off. LSE took the money and gave him a place. Remember that whenever you see any reports from LSE in future.

Sepp Blatter: "England hold grudge because of failed 2018 World Cup bid". (So it has nothing to do with your appalling corruption, misogyny, racism etc then Sepp...?)

Comments

[elmo-iscariot.livejournal.com]

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<i?(Is African-American the proper term now? Apparently it isn't "coloured" any more, as Alan Hansen has just found out. Good grief. Am I the only person here who can remember when "coloured" was the politically correct word to use?)</i>

In my experience, "African American" is loudly insisted on by white people who are afraid that "black" will offend somebody else, and who are unaware that black people can come from the Caribbean or live outside America.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

If we used that model on this side of the Atlantic, I wonder if we would differentiate between 'African-British' and 'African-West Indian*-British'.

Of course in South Africa, 'coloured' explicitly does not mean black, hence the title of this film:
http://www.capecoloured.com/

You know what though? I really, really wish that this sort of thing didn't matter. Alan Hansen was actually condemning racism when he used the word, but people see the word, not the sentiment. Those people who were so quick to criticise him are not helping the cause in my view.




* Over here, we would tend to use the term 'West Indian' rather than Caribbean to distinguish between the mostly black parts of the Caribbean (especially those in the Commonwealth) and the mostly hispanic parts.

[elmo-iscariot.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the politics of race. It's an awful lot of angst over a discredited Victorian anthropological pseudoscience, innit?