Modern racial comments more than simple accidental tongue slippage

Another one of Britain’s upper class recently took the fall for making a racial comment while in a green room after her weekly bit on a BBC show. The New York Times reported that Carol Thatcher, the 55-year-old daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, made the remark that a tennis player in the Australian Open looks like a “golliwog” doll. The doll, which became trendy during the 1800s, has proved to be discriminatory toward black Britons.

The BBC said the statement was racist and because Thatcher didn’t apologize, she was cut from “The One Show.” The New York Times reported she claimed her comment was a “light remark” and felt she didn’t need to apologize.

This is not the first time a remark like this has rocked Britain. According to the Guardian, Prince Harry was ordered to attend an equality and diversity course after he called one of his army colleagues a “Paki” on video. The term Paki refers to an immigrant from Pakistan. The Prince’s reps issued a statement saying he used the term without any malice and as a nickname for his friend.

Vocabulary today is becoming so scrambled people don’t know what to take offensively anymore. You’d think that these once degrading terms would be kept that way, but modern day lifestyle has created a blurry boundary.

Robert Ford, a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at the University of Manchester, told the New York Times “some people say that freedom of speech is a fundamental birthright and that to condemn people for their language is ‘political correctness gone mad.'” Although England may have laws against language inciting racial hatred, many don’t care or feel the need to apologize for using such discriminatory words. Americans appear to be using their right to free speech daily.

Take Michael Richards — the former Kramer from “Seinfeld” — for example. The guy went nuts and decided to throw around the “N-word” like candy during a show at the Laugh Factory in 2006. If that isn’t a great example, how about when “Dog” the Bounty Hunter used the “N-word” six times in describing why his son should dump his girlfriend. Both rants created uproars, but people eventually got over it.

Most recently, Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, screwed up big time. He decided it was a good idea to send a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch on the front lawn with the caption “No Easter egg hunt this year” Los Alamitos, a city of about 12,000 — and predominately white — did not find this amusing. He even sent it to his black staff members.

What did he think would happen; they would all laugh it off and ignore it? The guy was a public figure and claimed to not know the derogatory historical connection between blacks and watermelon. Luckily, he stepped down after stating it “impacted his ability to provide leadership and team building efforts.”

Perhaps people need to watch what they say, especially when they are in the public eye. Many use racial slang daily, but the only time it makes news is when a rich or famous person does it. Maybe people should think before they speak. They wouldn’t want one comment to ruin their career.

Kara Bautch is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily Forty-Niner.