Darcus Howe: “Show some respect for an old West Indian … “

Wikipedia’s entry on DH starts

Darcus Howe (born 1943) is a British broadcaster, columnist, and civil liberties campaigner. Originally from Trinidad, he moved to America in the 1960s, then arrived in England intending to study law, where he joined the British Black Panthers, the first such branch of the organization outside the United States.[1] He came to public attention in 1970 as one of the Mangrove Nine, when he marched to the police station in Notting Hill, London, to protest against police raids of the Mangrove restaurant, and again in 1981 when he organized a 20,000-strong “Black People’s March” in protest at the handling of the investigation into the New Cross Fire, in which 13 black teenagers died.[2]

He is a former editor of Race Today, and former chair of the Notting Hill Carnival. He is best known in the UK for his “Black on Black” series on Channel 4; his current affairs programme, Devil’s Advocate; and his work with Tariq Ali on Bandung File. His television work also includes White Tribe (2000), a look at modern Britain and its loss of “Englishness”; Slave Nation (2001); and “Who You Callin’ a Nigger?” (2004).[3] He writes columns for New Statesman and The Voice.

The following interview is disturbing in several respects.  Given Howe’ earned stature, it provides an insight into kinds of divisions that may have been operating in producing the riots, as Howe clearly thinks.  In short, we are seeing a problem exemplified.

The BBC has apologized for the unfortuate question.

Bad ads

How fortunate we are, to no longer have adverts that boldly proclaim on ‘what wives are for‘, or that ‘men are better than women‘ (way to sell a sweater!).

And how advertising has changed in the last half century: recent controversy has focused on the GB women’s Olympic volleyball team, who feature in an advert which is premised upon taking photos of the pants (UK English sense) of the sportswomen (the barcodes take smartphone users to the website of a betting company). For more, see here.