Harry’s Place

Gotta be authentic or kids won’t want it.

Wow.

Ragdoll Productions, the company behind the show, said the character had not been “intended to represent a specific race or culture”.

“The culture they collectively embody is unique to the garden setting in which they live.”

Storm in a plant pot.

I’m with Joan Rivers….god forbid!

Doll in a ginger (cup) cake

My son loves Upsy Daisy and we got him that doll for Christmas. I hadn’t noticed the shade of colour. The main character in the show, Iggle Piggle, is blue - but perhaps the wrong shade of blue for normal blue-skinned people. Perhaps some people have forgotten that these are not real humans.

So, its somewhere between a Gingerbread Man and a Golliw-g. Reminds me of the Python sketch where the policeman brings out a colour chart before using his truncheon on a suspect.

“the Python sketch where the policeman brings out a colour chart”

I think that was actually The Goodies, believe it or not, in their controversial South Africa/Part Height episode. I seem to recall a scene on a zebra crossing, where the whites hopped on the white bits and the blacks on the black bits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_(Goodies_episode)
http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/goodiesat-last-a-second-helping-the.html

words fail me!

Maven, do not recall the policeman and the color chart as a Monty Python sketch and I have seen every episode several times. It does sound awfully funny though and it makes a point. Here in the USA, traditionally ligther skinned blacks did get better treatment then darker skinned blacks. Untill the Black is Beautiful slogan in the late 1960s, American blacks, who wanted to be more accepted by the white majority were encouraged to make themsevles as white as possible in speech and appearance.

Like Nick (ex South Africa)* for once I agree with Joan Rivers.

*Nick, where are you now? Have you returned to Britain or have you moved farther east to God’s Own Heath? (to use a phrase from Monty Python!)

Never thought I would say this, but I agree with Joan Rivers too. That exchange was sweet. Like seeing a terrier’s reprisals against a rat.

I think Darcus Howe meant to point out that Americans don’t like to use the word “black”, hence the term “people of colour”. Joan Rivers thought he was accusing her of finding black people offensive. It seems a case of mutual misunderstanding.

Yes, mutual misunderstanding. That’s what makes it funny. If any of the three participants had used the slightest bit of common sense we’d have been deprived of fun.

“I think Darcus Howe meant to point out that Americans don’t like to use the word “black”, hence the term “people of colour”. ”

I reckon you just made that up.

All my colleagues are Americans. To them, people of colour are all non-white ethnic groups. Black, Hispanic, Asian are more precisely defined subgroups within that category.

Darcus Howe was being his usual bullying self. So cut the crap about ‘people of colour’. Joan Rivers had his number when she remarked on him walking out on his wife and child.

Howe clarified his remark by saying “the use of the term black offends you.” When she blew up, he said: “I think this is a language problem.” And when asked to say that Joan is not a racist, he answered “I don’t know whether she is a racist or not. I don’t care.” She then went on a rant about his family, which had nothing at all to do with what he was trying to say. It’s pretty obvious what he was referring to - the use of the term “black” - not that she was offended by black people (perhaps Darcus Howe is wrong and she isn’t one of those Americans who is offended by the term “black”). But it’s obvious that Joan Rivers got the wrong end of the stick. People are cheering her on because they hate Darcus Howe, not because they agree with her. If she had simply screached like a banshee, there would be people saying she won an argument. His past involvement in the Black Panthers and his views on race in Britain are enough to be vilified for life by some quarters.

“So cut the crap about ‘people of colour’. ”

Sue R: You’re the one who claims that mixed race people cannot be English. Why don’t you fuck off back to your National Front meeting, you racist piece of shit?

What planet do you lot live on. Skin lightening creams are biggest sellers in the new emerging economies, a bit like chemical orange tans on our MEP’s. I am racist, because I always read Marcus not Darcus! Did the original Mr. Howe obsess on Cash’s “Boy named Sue”, or did he even steal steal a complete Ford from Dagenham Works in his Lunchbox?