Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Thursday 11 May 2023

Sticks and Stones

Now the dust is settling after the coronation, the papers are getting worked up over the 4,165 complaints received by Ofcom about Adjoa Andoh’s on-air description of the group on Buckingham Palace balcony as ‘terribly white’. The remark was undoubtedly crass, not to mention illogical - this is, after all the royal family - but is it really as newsworthy as all that?

Some of the uproar must be due to context; in recent years, the phrase ‘hideously white’ has been used by, among others, Greg Dyke (on the BBC), Andrew Lloyd Webber (on British theatre) and Rupa Huq (on pretty much everything else). That ‘terribly’ - even if it were intended primarily as a quantifier - put Andoh’s remark in the same territory and was bound to raise a few hackles as a result, while Paddy O’Connell effectively poured petrol on the flames with his response to her on his Radio 4 programme - ‘you have nothing to apologise for’, ‘you haven’t upset anyone’.

While I can see why people might, in a kind of ‘sauce for the gander’ way, want to join in the condemnation, there is surely little to be gained in responding with the same kind of thin-skinned, prickly outrage we deplore in today’s student culture and among the easily - or professionally - offended. In this case, with a certain element of do-as-you-would-be-done-by, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that, caught up in the occasion, she spoke without considering how her comment would sound to viewers who had tuned in to watch the coronation.

It may be a telling indication of her thought processes - in fact, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. Adjoa Andoh owes the spectacular good looks which kick-started a long career in the public eye to her dual British and Ghanaian heritage, so, for her, family gatherings will naturally be associated with a mixture of ethnicity. To that, one can add a lifetime spent in theatrical or television circles and in the capital, where multiculturalism is the order of the day and activism is generally seen as a good career move. When you have a hammer, as they say, everything looks like a nail; while the ethnicity of the various participants in the ceremony was clearly at the forefront of Andoh’s perception, to many others (fifty-somethings, at least) the most remarkable thing about the sceptre bearer was probably not that she is black but that - wonderfully! - she is Floella Benjamin from ‘Play School’.

Andoh’s presence on screen during the ITV coronation coverage was presumably entirely due to her role as an Georgian aristocrat in a newly-released Netflix costume drama - we are, in effect, back to the blending of artifice and reality (see previous post). She was hired for her celebrity status, not to provide in-depth analysis or background knowledge; her mistake here was failing to distinguish between the people associated with the King’s public position and a group largely composed of his close blood-relatives (who, unsurprisingly, are the same colour as he is) and, crucially, expressing this in potentially derogatory terms.

There’s a danger that, like over-tired toddlers after a party, some people are seizing on the opportunity to make a disproportionate fuss in order to fill the gap left when the excitement dies down. Either she intended to provoke, in which case the less media follow-up the better, or she spoke in haste and unwisely and genuinely regrets her words. It is human to err, and we’ve all made ill-considered or badly phrased remarks at times; I don’t necessarily agree with O’Connell but now, surely, it would be a good thing for people to accept it as such and move on.

7 comments:

  1. I was discussing this on Twitter yesterday. The opposing view to mine being that we should just be laughing this nonsense off, rather than complaining to offcom and getting all indignant about it. Also, your view that we could give her the benefit of the doubt and move on.

    Both of these views are fine for rational adults who can take a reasoned, pragmatic stance and behave like the adults they are.

    My issue is, the left are not rational adults and they very often act like toddlers having a tantrum. People have been cancelled because of one complaint to offcom or lost their jobs because of a vocal minority on Twitter, but when one of their own does it, we are supposed to turn the other cheek and laugh it off.

    I find it very difficult not to want the same thing to happen to them, as they want to happen to us when we say something that offends them. I want an eye for an eye. I want them to see that the consequences they always cry out for, work in both ways.

    Does that make me a lesser person? I don't care :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bucko, I agree that double standards are certainly being applied. However, when you are faced with people actively seeking victimhood to further polarise a volatile situation, I can also see the merit in stepping back and allowing the media circus to move on.

    I’m not laughing it off either, though; it’s a serious business and there is a lot of damage being done by people with a vested interest in promoting and perpetuating the conflict from which they derive their income and status (people like the Meghan supporter who denounced the (new) Queen for an ‘intentional’ ‘staggeringly racist’ photo in front of ‘blackamoor’ statues which turned out to be Graeco-Roman women carved in black marble).

    It must be sad, and very limiting, to be constantly on the lookout for offence or, in the case of a public spectacle like the coronation, running a ceaseless mental tally of the number of people of colour present rather than appreciating the historical or religious significance of the occasion.

    (That said, however valid the sentiment, when someone sanctimoniously intones ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth makes the whole world blind and toothless’, I do rather want to slap them.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good points. When the media circus moves on though, it tends to move only as far as the next example of the same thing. I have no problems with seeing the left having their own tactics used against them occasionally.
      We say that if we give them an inch, they take the proverbial mile, but it also happens that when we try to ingnore them or take the high ground, they simply carry on regardless and look for the next opportunity.
      They have more patience than a cat that wants to wake you up for food.
      We need to push back rather than turn the other cheek, and it could be that using their tactics against them, could work to make their tactics unworkable for them

      Delete
  3. (That last one was me - still having comment issues)

    It’s very revealing that, when the indignant tweeter described above learned of her error, she deleted her tweet but said ‘my outrage if it were true still stands’; as an illustration of the thought processes at work, that would take some beating.

    For the curious, the candelabra in question were made in 1811 for the Prince Regent (who, in this case, clearly had more money than taste):

    https://www.rct.uk/collection/2717/the-weeping-women-candelabra

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a comment I made on another forum.
    Let's answer this very succinctly.

    What this proves is that “actress" Adjoa Andoh, without any sense of irony, is a dyed in the wool bigoted RACIST, a grifter looking for a victimhood headline to keep her in the limelight using her skin colour and bloated sense of entitlement as a bludgeon, the new top-trump card to leapfrog others of “lesser colour" regardless of their talent and greater suitability.

    Worse, she doesn't give a crap as to who she offends as any reaction will be waaaayycist.

    Not a squeak about the complete lack of white faces in African official photocalls.

    A hatchet-faced damned HYPOCRITE to boot. Worse, people like her actually create and exacerbate the prejudices they purportedly want to eliminate, bit if they did, they'd be out of a job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I rather think that Adjoa Andoh would be employed regardless of positive discrimination; I first noticed her many years ago in Radio 4 dramas because of the the quality of her speaking voice and she does have undoubted acting talent. I find it rather disappointing that someone with her undoubted advantages has chosen to express opinions which could be seen as divisive.

      Like Jon Snow Andy Greg Dyke before her, she inadvertently gave us a glimpse into the thinking of an elite metropolitan clique which has become so insular that its members have little idea of life - or the population - outside the capital.

      Delete

Moderation is on as I’m having some technical difficulties with Comments