I’ll comment rather more fully on the background to my somewhat (deliberately) confrontational spoof of the Tories ‘Sort-It’ website, but before doing so I think it about time that I put the shit-stirrer-in-chief, PragueTory, firmly in his place (the sewer) by explaining a little about how this whole thing unfolded.

Oh, and can I say a big hello to the Stirrer, who’ve picked the story up and are running with the absurd headline ‘RACE ROW OVER CAMERON SATIRE’ - sorry guys, it’s not really a ‘race row’ at all, just a bit of piss poor political opportunism that’s about to backfire.

So where does out story begin. Well the spoof image was posted here in the early hours of Thursday morning and was picked up by Bob Piper and posted on his blog the following evening.

So far, so good.

Kaz, the first person to ‘complain’ about the image, put in her first appearance here, at 3:51pm on Friday, when she posted:

“take it off”

Thank’s Kaz, plenty to go there…

She then popped up at Bob’s site at 4:06pm, with:

“I don’t like this posting and I am surprised that you have used this picture.”

However, look above Kaz’s first post at Bob’s and you’ll see that PragueTory, who’s been squealing like a stuck pig about this fromt he last two days, had already posted a comment on this same thread.

This is what PragueTory had to say at 3:40pm that day:

“Bureaucracy Bob - Home Office and Dept of Education and Dept of Health edicts driving people who want to nurse, educate or catch criminals out of their chosen profession. Just take a look at any of the police bloggers in my blogroll that the authorities are trying to silence.”

PT doesn’t appear particularly shocked by the image contained in the post he’s just commented on here, does he? I mean, if he found the image shocking, as he later claims, then why not say something straight away.

No, you see PT doesn’t become ’shocked’ by the image - publicly at least - until two hours after he made that comment at Bob’s site, and only after Kaz has ‘complained’. And even then, he prefers a little showboating at his own blog to trying to debate the matter directly with either Bob or myself.

And here the plot thickens, because this is a screenshot taken of PT’s blog at around 6pm that day, which shows his original comments - you’ll see why I’m using screenshots in a moment.

Now, you’ll note that PT states very clearly that Kaz is a BME Councillor in Birmingham - which is a hell of statement to make on the strength of contributions to the discussion, thus far, that amount to ‘take it down’ and ‘I don’t like this posting and I am surprised that you have used this picture’.

At this point, it seemed to me that there were two possibilities

- either Kaz really is a BME councillor in Birmingham, and has either contacted PT or been contacted by him to confirm here identity, and a quick scan through the councillors pages on Birmingham City Council’s website does turn up a Black, Liberal Democrat councillor by the name of Karen Hamilton, who might just fit the bill of being ‘Kaz’, or

- PragueTory has seen what he thinks is an opportunity to embarrass a Labour councillor, and being the idiot he is, thinks that ‘gilding the lily’ by claiming that Kaz is both from a BME community AND and elected representative of the people, will make things look far worse for Bob than it would if Kaz is a just an ordinary visitor.

How do we find out which of these two possibilities it is?

Well, at 6:51pm, I posted this at Bob’s site:

Should just point out that ‘Kaz’, from info provided by PragueTory, is Lib Dem councillor for Perry Barr, Karen Hamilton.

And shortly afterward, my (and Bob’s) esteemed local blogging comrade, PoliticalHack, made this comment at PT’s blog:

Kaz is a BME councillor in Brum?

Well, she isn’t a Tory. ‘Cos all of them are white (and most are male).

And got this reply from PT:

Did I say she was a Tory?

So maybe our mystery ‘Kaz’ is indeed a Liberal Democrat councillor for Perry Barr, except that at 8:07pm, Kaz posted again at Bob’s blog:

Bob not complaining about you having a go at the Tories, just the way that you and the Ministry of Truth have done it.

Don’t like the ministrel thing and the wording…it’s insulting. Ask a couple of black people what they think. Let me know what they say. I stand to be corrected.

Plus that Praguetory person has given you dodgy information about who I am.

Now this is an interesting comment for two reasons.

First, it very strongly suggests that Kaz is NOT Black.

Why? Well if she were, would she really say, ‘Don’t like the ministrel thing and the wording…it’s insulting. Ask a couple of black people what they think. Let me know what they say. I stand to be corrected.’?

Of course not. Why would she suggest that Bob get an opinion from a couple of black people if she were, herself, black. Why not just say, ‘I’m Black (or that she’s from another minority community) and I’m offended’ and then we can get on with having a proper debate.

He statemate simply doesn’t fit PragueTory’s claims for her identity.

She also point out that, ‘that Praguetory person has given you dodgy information about who I am’ - which seems to confirm both that she isn’t Karen Hamilton and, more importantly the that she doesn’t know PT and has not had any contact with him ‘behind the scenes’.

So how is that PT is claiming that Kaz is a BME Councillor in Birmingham when the Kaz that actually posted on Bob Piper’s site, doesn’t appear to be Black and doesn’t know him from Adam?

There is an all too obvious answer, which I’ll leave you to work out for yourselves.
I’ll throw in the next sequence of posts from Bob Piper’s blog almost verbatim - I’m omitted only one irrelevant post from the middle of the conversation, which has nothing really to do with the main thread of this narrative, but what we will see is PT’s little fiction unravel even further:

Unity said: December 8, 2006 8:32 PM

Thanks for that info - so PragueTory is basically shit-stirring.

Good, that’ll make my upcoming remarks even more interesting.

BTW - as the point seems to be escaping you entirely, yes that image is offensive…

…because I devised it specifically to cause offence and with a clear purpose in mind.

That last comment is what would rightly be called ‘dropping the bait’ - the image, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, is intended to offend Tories, for reasons and purposes too convoluted to go into here in detail, but whihc I may get back to at the end.
And a mere 18 minutes later, PT bites:

Praguetory said: December 8, 2006 8:50 PM

Unity, you jumped to your own conclusions about Kaz’s identity. As I have blogged, I think it is perfectly understandable that she is offended. The words and images you and Bob have used to score a political point are disgraceful.

There is a wider point. You Socialists in Birmingham seem very quick to accuse Tories of being racist. This doesn’t contribute to good race relations and actually drives a wedge between communities. I am afraid these postings are a typical example and if this is what you are prepared to say in public, God knows what you say in private.

But PT - you didn’t just say that she is offended. You said that Kaz is a BME Councillor in Birmingham, despite it being patently obvious that you have no idea at all who she really is. So why make the claim in the first place? It can only be because you think that such a claim would be more embarrassing for Bob, especially as you’d contrived to claim that he’d committed the heinous political sin of offending a Black person.

To make matters even more interesting, a quick visit to PT’s blog immediately after reading this comment, showed that his original post had been quietly stealth edited, and now read…

So by now its Kaz who (may or may not be) a BME Councillor, just to cover PT’s tracks, and whoops there goes his little fiction, which is now heading inexorably towards the toilet bowl.

So I composed another reply - which is why I didn’t notice that Kaz had been back, again, at Bob’s site and posted this comment:

Kaz said: December 8, 2006 9:10 PM

So Unity who exactly are you trying to offend?
You need to explain it to me.

Do you think the Tories are going to be bothered about what you have done?

I think the amount of faux outrage and general whinging coming from PT’s direction answers that last question. But that’s by the by as I posted this reply to PragueTory, noting that I had, indeed, spotted the stealth edit on his post.

Unity said: December 8, 2006 9:15 PM

Guess what - I’ve got plenty to say and its going to get said in public - and don’t think I haven’t spotted the edit on your post, either.

To which I got this reply…

Praguetory said: December 8, 2006 9:28 PM

You guys made the guess that Kaz is Karen Hamilton. Before you pointed the finger, I had no idea who Karen Hamilton was. I can understand that Kaz wants to protect her identity - why not - why should she reveal her identity. Her points remian valid - as do mine. Stop bullying people.

Translated, this amounts to nothing more than, ‘Oh shit. I’ve been rumbled - quick how can I cover my arse’?

Kaz may well want to protect her identity, although having posted here I have both an e-mail address and IP address for her, both of which indicate that she’s local, but there still no evidence whatsoever to sustantiate PT’s claim that she’s a BME councillor in Birmingham.

PragueTory has since reverted back to his claim that Kaz is a BME Councillor in Birmingham, (and AGAIN, the post has been stealth edited) even though her comments and manner of writing suggest that its extremely unlikely that she’s anything of the sort (and she, herself, has not made a claim to this effect either) and that PragueTory certainly hadn’t got a clue who she was at the time he made claims about her identity, so its looks for all the world as if he’s just made up the claim about her being a BME Councillor in Birmingham because he thought it might cause Bob (and perhaps even myself) a bit more embarrassment and make this more of an issue that it really is.

Last word on PragueTory - at 1:06pm on Saturday, he posted this comment at Bob’s site in response to my remarks about him stealth editing his site.

Guys - this is well out of my control now - you are the story, not me.

PS - Unity, I’m looking forward to your future “piece” on my edits. Other than the section titled update, I made no significant change.

That last comment is, of course, a complete load of rubbish, as the screenshots taken from his site and displayed above nicely demonstrate. Oh, and before PT tries the old ‘but he’s know’s how to use photoshop’ gambit, I’ll just point out that I do have the full screenshots, showing the exact time they were taken, sat here on my PC.

And still, he persists in claiming that ‘Kaz’ is a BME councillor in Birmingham despite offering no evidence whatsoever to substantiate that claim.
As a final comment, I’ll take on the supposed issue of my use of the phrase ‘Yo Niggah!’, which PT stupidly renders in his own comments as ‘Niggar’, which suggest either poor eysight or a piss poor effort (again) to make things appear worse, in his eyes, than reality actually merits.

Actually the ‘H’ in ‘Niggahs’ is entirely superfluous as its more normally spelt simply ‘Nigga’ and, as anyone with a love of the comedy of Richard Pryor (who was also a screenwriter on Mel Brooks’ satire on racism, Blazing Saddles’ and wrote the majority of the ‘Nigga/Nigger’ jokes in the film) or Chris Rock’s ball-achingly funny routine ‘Niggas vs Black People’, its use and context, though admittedly controversial, is for the most part rather different from that of the perjorative ‘Nigger’ from it was derived.

One of more interesting illustrations of how the context of the two terms differ (in some circles, as the term is not universally liked) was attributed to the Black American (and deceased) rapper, Tupac Shakur.

NIGGER- a black man with a slavery chain around his neck.

NIGGA- a black man with a gold chain on his neck.

It’s use in this particular context is in much the same vein as that explored by the California Punk band, The Offspring, in their song, ‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy‘:

He needs some cool tunes, not just any will suffice
But they didn’t have Ice Cube so he bought Vanilla Ice
Now cruising in his Pinto, he sees homies as he pass
But if he looks twice, they’re gonna kick his lilly ass!
So don’t deflate, play it straight
You know he really doesn’t get it anyway
Gonna play the field, keep it real
For you know a way, for you know a way
So if you don’t break, just over compensate
At least you know you can always go on Ricky Lake
The world loves wannabes
Hey, hey, do the trendy thing!

It’s about the absurdities that arise when white people attempt to imitate Black culture, and especially Black street/youth culture, despite being ignorant of its own unique social and culture mores (and the actual reference point for this is Cameron’s comments earlier this year about the BBC playing ‘Gangsta’ rap). Interestingly, ‘Pretty Fly’ is the Offspring’s only No.1 single in the UK and attracted no controversy at all on release, depite playing with much the same kind of issues.

Urban Dictionary, an online dictionary of urban slang, lists seven different definitions of ‘Nigga’, from that ascribed to Tupac to this one, from ‘DJWhiteBoy’, which I think nicely illustrates the confusion the term causes:

Nigga

Something I would get my ass kicked for saying.

Me to Black person: What up my nigga!
Black person: You better run whiteboy!

Especially when juxtaposed with this definition:

Nigga

Slang term for homie, friend, buddy, etc., used primarily by African-Americans but has spread to other races as well;

“‘Sup my nigga?” “How’s it hanging my nigga?” “Yo, nigga wassup?”

There is an even more illustrative definition offered, that does manage to be both utterly confused and almost certainly racist at the same time, which is worth pointing out.

Nigga

A derogatory word used by black people to retain (and exploit) their ancestors past as slaves. Many blacks claim it’s a term of endearment (akin to brother, homie, etc), but in no way can it be as its root meaning is ignorance. It’s another double standard of racism in our current time.

White guy “what up nigga”
Black guy “nigga?”
White guy “you know what I mean bro”
Black guy “you mean I’m a nigger”
White guy “Nah man, it ain’t like that”
Black guy punches the white guy.
Black guy gets arrested for assault and released without charges because the white guy is accused of using racial slurs (that the Black guy uses everyday in his vocabulary with his “brothers” that he has no idea if he’s actually related to)

Now do you see what I mean about context?

Tell you what, lets take this question a little further, by looking at two different sets of lyrics from Hip Hop songs.

First, there’s this:

Yeah nigga, MC Ren up in this motherfucker
(West West y’all)
Yeah, L.A. niggaz
L.A. niggaz rule the world nigga
Y’all niggaz gotta recognize, yaknahmsayin?
Niggaz don’t wanna peep game, yaknahmsayin?
But this shit come all the way back around here
My nigga Dre, droppin heat box on y’all bitch-ass
Yaknahmsayin? You gotta recognize
L.A. niggaz, connected all over the motherfuckin world, nigga
Recognize this

And then this:

I’m like santa clause, i deliver niggas grams raw
straight from panama, they eat it up like hannibal
and my dons, they appear like magic wands
i sell em to the crack of dawn, and destroy every track im on
plus i have a clan packed in the back of vans
more raw than the taliban, murk you for a half a gram
i get bboy a truck, yo truck in the river
fuck some doe, he be like “thats my nigga fo real”

Thats my nigga fo real
Thats my nigga fo real
Thats my nigga fo real

The first song (’some LA Niggas) is by Dr Dre, the second (’That’s my Nigga fo Real’) by another black rapper, Young Zee, but written by Dre’s (very) white protoge, Marshall Bruce Mathers III - or Eminem as he’s more widely known - and features on the soundtrack to Eminem’s semi-autobiographical film, ‘8 Mile’.

Does Eminem having written a song that uses the word ‘Nigga’ repeatedly, make him racist, even though the song is written for and performed by a Black artist?

You see, here’s a very curious thing.

There are several instances of songs written by Eminem and which feature Eminem as a performer. in which the word ‘Nigga’ is used and used prominently - at yet never, so far as I’ve been able to ascertain, by Eminem personally, despite his having written the lyrics.

The same applies to Quentin Taratino’s screenplay for Pulp Fiction, which resulted in Tarantino receiving heavy (and unjustified) criticism from Spike Lee, for its use of the word ‘Nigga’, even though, again, its only (so far as I can recall) the characters of Jules Winfield and Marsellus Wallace (played by Samuel L Jackson and Ving Rhames) who ever use the word in conversation.

The ‘offence’ in the use of the phrase ‘Yo Niggahs!’ in this particular image lies specifically in its juxtaposition with the image of Cameron in ‘Blackface’, another example of white culture imitating Black culture in a poorly conceived and racist manner - to suggest its possible use outside of its accepted (in some circles) context. This is, of course, alluded to most obviously in the use, also, of the phrase ‘Is it because I’s Black’, which refers to Sacha Baron-Cohen’s creation Ali G - yet another instance in which the efforts of some white people to adopt Black culture as an affectation is, aomgst other things, satirised.

Had I used, instead, an image of say Dr Dre, or Busta Rhymes or 50 Cent, instead of that of a Cameron, the ‘offence’ in the image would be lessened, if not largely non-existent, because the image conveyed by those artists is one in which the use of the word ‘Nigga’ would not be contextually inappropriate at all - although it might still offend some who think the word should never be used at all.

The image is a fake, a fake that operates on multiple levels and also a fake that plays quite consciously and deliberately on stereotypes and taboos to make a serious point about the absurdity of modern political culture and its remoteness from the lives of the real people it seeks to govern and whose very behaviour, attitudes and values it is attempting to define - as in the case of Blair’s ‘Respect Agenda’ - but doesn’t really understand. And I could just as easily have used Blair rather than Cameron in that image to the same basic effect, but then that would have had Tories like PragueTory clapping like seals in the background rather than whining like a bunch of stuck pigs.

The risk, in producing an image like this, is of course that one creates a measure of genuine offence amongst those who have genuinely held views on race and ethnicity but who react reflexively to the image without quite getting or considering fully what, where and whom its driving at - in fact Cameron’s concerted efforts to come across as a Mr Touchy-Feely Everyman in the wake of years of the Tories being the ‘nasty party’ create numerous opportunities for edgy visual satire - I could just as easily provoked the same kind of fuss by putting him in drag or depicting him as religious figure. (And the same goes for Blair, although his marked authoritarian streak provides opportunities lacking in Cameron, as were exploited recently by NO2ID).

However, that’s a risk I consider manageable, not least as in my experience, the kind of people who respond to images like this is a genuine manner are at least intelligent enough to articulate their views and debate the issues it raises for them in a failr reasonable manner - and such visitors are always welcome here.
It’s also a risk I considered worth taking to skewer my real target - Tories.

Or to be a little more precise, those Tories who’ve spent the last few years revelling in the freedom of being the ‘Nasty Party’ and baying along with every fatuous and intellectually herniated Daily Mail op-ed on the subject of ‘political correctness’ only now to find themselves forced to adopt political correctness as an affectation in order to fit in with Cameron’s ‘New Model Tories’, even though deep down many of them hate the thought of it with a passion.

You see, political correctness may be an innovation in Cameron’s newly liberal Tory Party, but for those of us who’ve been involved in real anti-racist activism for the last 20 years (and more in Bob’s case), its well-worn territory and all a bit old-hat.

Political correctness serves many functions, not all of them useful or valuable, and some just downright disingenuous and dishonest. And one of it’s more disingenuous functions is to cover up the ignorance of some of its most fervant adherants; white middle-class liberals (and Tory pseudo-liberals, of course). The whole point about political correctness is in this context is that it provides a script of euphemistic terms and stock phrases that, once adopted, ensure that that you never have to worry about offending people by inadvertantly saying the ‘wrong thing’ in discussions on race, ethnicity and identity, even if you haven’t got the first fucking idea of what you’re talking about or the merest shred of understanding of the nuances and subtles of such debates.

Stick to the script, which includes the ludiocrously melodramatic phrase, ‘the N Word’, and you can bluff your way through such debates without causing offence to anyone, whether you’re a complete idiot or a secret would-be scion of the master race - or so some people think, especially if you go out of your way to establish your supposedly ‘liberal’ credentials by saying things like, ‘I have to admit that I was shocked, but not personally offended’ and ‘ I think I’m a pretty liberal guy (doesn’t everyone?)’ just to ensure that everyone gets the message.

In reality words like ‘Nigger’ (and ‘Nigga’ for that matter), ‘Paki’, ‘Wog’, ‘Coon’ and whole bunch of other racial epithets can be used perfectly correctly and validly in discussion, just as long as you’re intelligent enough to understand how to use them in their proper context, as they are being used here - and if people care to search this blog you will find that I’ve used them in a number of posts (and without complaint) in their proper context and always to make or illustrate a serious point.

The kind of faux outrage this image has generated in certain quarters isn’t evidence of genuine feeling but belongs broadly to that classic strand of debate around race, ethnicity and identity which, quite frequently, begins with the absurd statement, ‘I’m not racist, but…’ and the ‘outrage’, itself, no more than a bit of ill-conceived, deliberate and rather pathetic politicking initiated by PragueTory, which is why the vast bulk of the ‘attack’ has been directed toward Bob Piper, for reposting the image in question, and not against myself, for actually putting it together.

This whole issue, such as it is, boils down to PragueTory trying to swing his dick in public and embarrass a Labour councillor, in the hope that it might turn him in the next Guido or Iain Dale - in reality he’s just a wannabe without either the wit or political nous of either.

One of his follow-up posts absurdly contends that this image is ‘Campaign Literature’ - funny, don’t recall putting ’sponsored by the Labour Party’ into it, precisely because it isn’t sponsored by the Labour Party and its isn’t campaign literature, its a spoof image designed to wind up dickheads like PT in the hope - actually more expectation - that they’d go on to make a complete arse of themselves in their desperation to make something of it…

…desperation that, in PT’s case, has led him to everything from faux outrage, to unsubstantiated claims about the identity of ‘Kaz’ to breaches of blogger’s netiquette (stealth editing his comments) to increasingly histrionic follow-up posts in which he gets increasely close to line of levelling a direct allegation of racism against Bob (in particular), even though he’s too much of a chickenshit to actually make the allegation in full (in case he got called on it and had to back it up in court, one suspects) to actually ‘bussing’ in a black female Tory blogger - Morag the Mindbender - to complain…

From Morag’s blog:

Praguetory
December 8th, 2006 at 5:12 pm

Hi Morag - Good post. Personally I find that a lot of Left wing whites are very happy to play the race card (e.g. intimate that all Tories are racist you know). I find this very damaging to race relations. On this theme you may be interested in my most recent post.

Frm PT’s Blog

moragthemindbender said…

Dear PT, Many, many thanks for a spectacular bit of entertainment. Upon your guidance I have now visited both sites and have left suitably remonstrative comments. In fact I am currently packing my bags and preparing to leave town as at least one of them will come looking for me My 12 year old is more clever than these twits. Makes me ever so happy I jumped their sinking ship. P.S. Do you mailorder absinthe………… Miss Mindbender

1:37 AM

As for Morag’s ‘remonstrations’, well this is what she posted here…

Oh now who’s a clever boy? Well done! Might I suggest however that taking up crochet might be a more productive way of spending your time…especially with Christmas coming up and all. This kind of offering is going to put you in a verrrrrrrrrry bad light with Santa who will definitely feel that you have been very naughty and not at all nice! I have recently left the Labour Party and crossed over to The Other Side, mainly in part to what I saw as a superfluous amount of this sort of juvenile witticisms. This is supposed to be satire? This is supposed to be clever? Oh dearey me. Yes it made me think alright. It made me think “Thank God I am with the grownups now”…..Oh and by the way I am black, female with a bit of Jewish blood running through my veins. And ’some of my best Tory friends are gay’ — so if you are going to attempt to be so clever, at least try to get more of your facts right. Respectfully yours, Miss Mindbender

Comment by Morag the Mindbender 12.09.06 @ 12:31 am

I particularly like the line, “Oh and by the way I am black, female with a bit of Jewish blood running through my veins. And ’some of my best Tory friends are gay’”, although why ’some of my best Tory friends are gay’ might be relevant to this particular debate and why its included in quotation marks is something only ‘Morag’ knows - my only thought’s on reading her comment was that she’d forgotten to mention the glass eye, false leg and gender-reassignment op and that as far I can tell she appears to have been pissed when she posted here, which might fit in with her question to PT about mailorder Absinthe - stocks running low, Morag?

So what else can I say?

Well, first in anyone wants a genuine debate about rath, ethnicity and identity then I’m game… but if all you are is a pathetic wannabe-Guido on the make then you can fuck off.

Oh, and to Steppenwolf over at LabourHome - if you’ve got something to say, the comments boxes are always open here, so come and talk to me about it, don’t skulk around.

Oh, and PT, that was a nice post of yours in Mid-November about Gideon George - just think yourself very lucky that you got rid of it quickly enough that its not retrievable from Google Cache or Wayback Machine or you’d have some explaining to do to your own party, and your remarks would be posted right here!
Oh, and just to reiterate one very germain point - PragueTory’s first post on the thread over at Bob’s which contains this image was this whinge about bureaucracy:

“Bureaucracy Bob - Home Office and Dept of Education and Dept of Health edicts driving people who want to nurse, educate or catch criminals out of their chosen profession. Just take a look at any of the police bloggers in my blogroll that the authorities are trying to silence.”

He became ’shocked’ only after ‘Kaz’ - that’s the supposed BME Councillor in Birmingham who’s given no sign at all that she’s either Black or a councillor - posted.

UPDATE:

Worth popping over to Tim Worstall’s blog for another example of PT’s whinging (jn the comments) - he complains that Bob inadvertantly posted his real name and cites a ‘breach of netiquette’, a concept that only applies when it suits him, as the stealth edits documented here show.