[tweetiepooh]

So where do you draw lines in censorship? Blazing Saddles is one of my favourite movies, yes it has racism in it but tries to show using comedy how silly it is. What about Roots, Cry The Beloved Country, Mississippi Burning? The old Charlie Chan films were much more racist in their depiction of blacks.

I think that there is a difference between racial/(sexual etc) humour (making fun of things you find odd about other cultures/people/faiths) and racist humour (denigrating another group because of their difference). The former CAN be done very well and very funny, the latter never is acceptable.

The problem is that we have a lot of emphasis on how the "target" receives things as opposed to the attitude of the source. Both are important but it can get too imbalanced so that even the slightest affront becomes a "hate crime".

(I grew up in South Africa in 2 trips finally returning to the UK when I was 13. On our mid stay return to the UK we settled in a very white area. Because I had grown up outside in the sun I was the most pigmented person in the school and was the butt of some very unkind remarks. Maybe it's just me but I pretty much ignored them as silly childish comments, that's all they were really. They were and are unacceptable and shouldn't have happened. So I do have a little (very little) understanding of comments made in relation to skin colour.)

What about religious prejudice? While I do not want to get like Islamic states but I find making fun of Jesus and using His name as an expletive very offensive and hurtful. I don't care that it's become common usage, the N word (and others) were once in common usage but are not acceptable now.

Finally there is a danger that all this disruption and pulling down of statues can detract from the issue at hand. We need to get rid of racist elements in authority now. We can deal with historic grievances when things are calmer and can be done with discussion and rational thought.