Racist remark about Sikh soldiers leads to apology from suddenly-famous English actor

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/24/actor-laurence-fox-grovels-aft.html

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I’ve not seen anyone point out yet that when he says

“is kind of racist - if you talk about institutional racism, which is what everyone loves to go on about, which I’m not a believer in, there is something institutionally racist about forcing diversity on people in that way.”

what he’s actually saying is

“it’s institutionally racist, even though I don’t believe in institutional racism”

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He’s just cross that he can’t get gigs.

I also think he’s a Koch agent, swirling up stories and gasps. Really not interested in him.

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Sergeant Hathaway disappoints yet again… Sigh…

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And he learned nothing.

He thinks pointing out institutional racism is institutional racism. Just like many believe pointing out racism is racist. Sadly, a trenchant mind can rationalize virtually anything.

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That is why, when I was flailing about in my early 20s for a means of not starving, I decided to be a teacher. If this guy was less ignorant, the casual, smug, privileged racism taught him by his parents, relatives, etc. might have been dissolved. Might not.

But I get paid either way. Fat, fat stacks of cash. I’d say more, but I’ve got to hop in my 2005 Ford Focus and go teach my early section.

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Here’s Sartre on fascists, with specific references to antisemites removed:

Never believe that [they] are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. [They] have the right to play.

They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert.

I don’t think he’s a fascist or a nazi, though. He’s just one of those guys to whom casual bigotry comes easy, yet experiences criticism as oppression. Soaring through life on contempt.

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Wonder if he has the same problem with the “forced diversity” in the newer Star Wars movies, and Star Trek.

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So, recognizing the contribution of non-white individuals in an endeavor which you choose to view as a whites-only thing reveals institutional racism? Umm, no, that is kind of exactly opposite, dude. Erasing those contributions is the definition of institutional racism, and you are the absolute case study confirming it. Asshole.

(Edit: to clarify, rereading my post, it could appear I am criticizing @strokeybeard . That is not the case. My vitriol is directed at the source of the quote, not the comment on the quote. Apologies for any confusion.)

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He’s been taught it by more than that. He’s steeped in the ambient racism of the culture. Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed really ought to be required reading in every secondary or at least post-secondary educational program.

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I think this twitpology deserves some close dissection and further ridicule

Where to start. There is nothing wrong with the individual words but when put together it has the feeling of a soggy waffle in a brunch buffet. Who the hell refers to a group of people that way?

Your sacrifices are only notable because white people did the same thing. (Never mind that Sikhs lacked equal rights in the country they were fighting for and didn’t start the stupid war to begin with, making their sacrifice that much more notable)

What really matters is my bad publicity and if we could all agree that I am not an idiot that would be great.

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I think he needs to read up on “colonial empires” and “world war”.

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for being clumsy

anderson-cooper-eyeroll

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It’s okay, I understood who you were criticizing.

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It’s kind of delicious when someone wants to call out something as “shoe horned in”, when it is actually historically accurate, and then not have the class to admit they didn’t know what they were talking about.

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Generally, one should not question that Sikhs are present in any military setting. As a group, they really like serving in the military.

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R.I.P. Lawrence Fox’s career.

The movie studio has poured in millions and thousands of hours from hundreds of people into this movie.

It just takes one know-nothing moron, who believes that it’s racist to talk about institutional racism, to disparage an easily verifiable fact of war.

A five second Google search would have given him the answer, but NO, like all know-nothing morons, he thinks it knows it all…in his mind he’s probably convinced that he’s still “right”?

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The irony of a Brit complaining about “forced diversity” when it comes to troops coming from the Raj is pretty remarkable.

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Sorry for my clumsy white ignorance. It’s not like I had privilege to shield me from all that goes on outside of my safe white bubble.

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suddenly-famous English actor

Uh, as soon as I saw that name I thought, “pretty damn far from ‘suddenly’ if he’s one of those Foxes.”

Sure enough. Saying a Fox is “suddenly famous” is like having a suddenly famous Kardashian family member.

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