Is it Racist
to say that the Welsh are great singers?
Are we entering a new puritanical age where we are too scared to say something in case it’s offensive?
I don’t know what racism is any more. This puts me in a lot of danger. I might inadvertently say something that might be construed as racist.
In my own head, I am definitely not racist.
But racism also depends on how the other person perceives it.
A while ago we had a disgraceful display at a football match — England v. Bulgaria — where some of the fans were making monkey noises. Offensive?
Depends who it’s aimed at.
If someone made monkey noises at me, it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. I see no shame at all from having descended from ape ancestors. We are all part of the ape family. Nothing at all wrong with that.
But there’s more to it than simple evolutionary ties. Those chanters were aiming their barbs at the black players.
Is it more offensive to be labelled ‘monkey’ if you’re black?
We’re all in the same boat as regards evolution. It’s pretty clear now that everyone on the planet is a descendant of people who came out of Africa. Various groups settled in different areas and populations grew around them. Professor Alice Roberts presented an excellent series on this.
I’m a descendent of people who came out of Africa. Go back far enough and I am black. We’re all black.
Why do people turn that into something vicious? Nasty? Hateful?
Intentional insults are the ones that hurt. Unintentional ones hurt too, but there has to be some leeway for error.
A friend of mine once said she was worried we were entering into a new puritanical age. This to me seemed a ridiculous statement, given that there are programmes on TV in which a woman can choose a partner based on the shape of his bare willy.
But no, not about permissiveness or showing millions of viewers that big boil on your bum — she meant that we have to be ultra-careful about what we say. Get it wrong and someone will be down on you like a ton of bricks, accusing you of hidden racism.
I’m not racist, guys. I promise you. But I may make an odd mistake now and then. Like the idea of Welsh people being great singers. I’m sorry, but it’s a fact. The Welsh have cracking good lungs and remarkable singing voices — just think of Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Katherine Jenkins, Aled Jones and many others.
Okay, there are plenty of great singers who don’t come from Wales. But my point is, if you’re Welsh, you have a good chance of being able to sing well.
Could that be seen as racist?
Imagine what might have happened. Those wandering African people eventually made their way to the UK and a small group settled in Wales. Two of those people just happened to have excellent singing voices. Those two people just happened to have a few children together. Some of their children inherited the great singing voice gene. The children grew up and passed on that gene to their offspring and so on.
Isn’t that how characteristics spread?
Animal evolution shows us how different qualities develop in isolated communities. Australia, once joined to the main land mass, eventually became separated thirty million years ago. (Apparently, it began to break away eighty-five million years ago, but took a long time to complete the separation)
Being separate has had a huge impact on plant and animal life there. Isolated from the rest of the world, Australian mammals retained their marsupial past and evolved in different ways to the animals on other more accessible continents.
Isolation is a factor. Gene pool is a factor. Choice of mate is a factor. And we get all these remarkable strands of life, a flowing river of wondrous creatures, each one having its own niche, its own importance in the world, its own special qualities.
I love this Earth. I love the creatures on it, the plants, the trees, the glorious landscapes that give us such joy. I love the diversity of human life, the many different kinds of beauty, the sweetness of a homely but lovable person, the warmth of human friendship.
Sometimes racism is intended; sometimes it isn’t. I think we need to differentiate between the two and stop picking on people who mean well but are clumsy and perhaps a little ignorant of what might offend someone else. Let’s be a bit more easy-going about it.
The less fuss we make, the less attention we give minor errors, the easier it will be to let racism drift into the soil and sink down where it belongs — into oblivion.
