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Sunday 20 May 2012

Uncomfortable in their own Skin


Friday’s attempt to break the world record for mass participation dance should have been spectacle enough in itself, yet the sight that beheld Plymothians proved to be jaw-dropping for quite another reason. According to The Plymouth Herald, children from a number of local schools took part in The Big Dance overseen by Plymouth Dance, with more than 200 participating in the city’s Piazza, whilst a further thousand danced elsewhere across the city. This therefore was no ordinary Saturday, but what was it that proved to be so visually arresting and unusual about the group of dancers in the city centre?

For some bizarre reason, three of the boys leading the group had been made to don black masks. Why? It was not, to the best of my knowledge, some homage to The Black and White Minstrel Show, so just what was going on here? Why were these children compelled to black up? Who made them do this? What underpinning rationale was offered? Does anybody know? Do you know?

Unlike many of our cities, Plymouth possesses a generally relaxed atmosphere and remains essentially English. Like anywhere, it has its problems of course, and Union Street at night can get a little unruly, but the sense of edgy unease that is palpable in many of our ethnically fragmented urban areas is lacking here. It would seem perhaps that the decision to compel the boys to black up was taken precisely because Plymouth, and Devon more widely, are English. The English, like other closely-related northern European peoples, are of course white. Why this should be perceived to be in any way problematic or contentious is beyond me, but for some people of a globalist inclination it clearly is. Were the black masks supposed to embody the racially dubious assertion that blacks possess natural rhythm whereas whites do not? Were they supposed to make the crowd of dancers look, to borrow Greg Dyke’s dreadful phrase, less ‘hideously white’? Whatever the reason underpinning the use of these peculiar props, what impact must they have had upon the psychology of the boys wearing them, upon their fellow dancers and those who saw them? Were they not used to make them feel, quite literally, uncomfortable in their own skins? Was it any more legitimate than forcing young Nigerians in Lagos to dance ballet wearing white masks, or for Zulus studying science to white up? Such would seem to be the absurd message implicit in yesterday’s display.

Devon is a beautiful county which largely retains its distinctive character, yet it would seem that for some this distinctiveness and the rootedness of its population is in itself something to feel ashamed of, as exemplified in Emma Thompson’s ugly outburst at Exeter University in 2010, when she stated that the city and Devon were too white. How strange. How insulting. Has anyone ever heard this woman aver that Nigeria is too black; Japan too yellow, or Pakistan too brown? I have not heard her call for these countries to be made more white, or state that she finds it odd that their populations are drawn predominantly from their native ethnic and racial groups. The ethnic and racial masochism displayed by Thompson would appear to have been what bubbled to the surface and found expression once again on Friday in Plymouth. The propagation of this misplaced sense of white racial guilt and self-loathing must be stopped. My message to those children who took part would be this: ignore what your teachers tell you about race; there is no reason to feel guilty about being white. Feel comfortable in your own skin, and don’t feel that you have to wear a black one to be able to dance. 

Plymouth Boys forced to black up 

21 comments:

  1. This is absolutely stark-raving crackers. I really would love to hear the rationale behind this.

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    1. It is. It's quite remarkable isn't it? Utterly ludicrous.

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  2. You know, I can imagine the reaction if this hadn't been an organised event, there would have been hell to pay in spades at any "white" group blacking up.

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    1. Absolutely! It would have been even funnier if Prince Philip had overseen proceedings.

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  3. I find this really strange. Have any black people complained, do you know? Only last week, in America, a young boy was sent home from school because he was playing the part of Martin Luther King and had black face paint (and a bushy black moustache), so completely the opposite over there. It's a weird world.

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    1. Yes, I did see that story and the crazy reaction that it elicited. Goodness knows what was going on in Plymouth, but one commenter below - Liannth - claims that the three masked kids in the picture were from a "special school" and that the masks weren't black. Well, if they didn't want to draw attention to themselves, they seem to have spectacularly failed.

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  4. Brian Gerrish has repeatedly exposed Plymouth City Council as being riddled with Common Purpose, so any marxist lunacy associated with this place would normally be greeted with a knowing nod and a wink. This episode however, is about as surreal as it gets. I thought it pretty much illegal to have whites impersonate blacks these days but this is obviously not the case in CP dominated areas for whatever reason. Anyway, the Big O is on board the good ship CP.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3bb0BW9AwQ

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    1. I've heard of Common Purpose and am aware of its propagation of the diversity mantra through its 'training', but quite how far that should be interpreted as a 'conspiracy' as some have suggested, is something that remains to be seen. Not being a subscriber to conspiracy theories in general, I remain rather sceptical.

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  5. i wonder if the presence of large numbers of sailors and marines contribute to the relaxed atmosphere of that city, (as well as the exitement of saturday night/shore leave on union street).
    plymouth is a fine city and this smacks of PC/CP contamination in a place that can well do without it.
    i can see a time when the PC/CP meddling will actualy cause friction where none previously existed.

    (i bought one of the best camera lenses i ever owned from a second hand shop on union street).

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    1. Bilbo, that's not the sort of "relaxed atmosphere" I had in mind. It's the locals down there who give it its relaxed ambience, with them being pretty laid back and not in as mad a rush as you find in many other places.

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  6. Caught your comment over at GV's shop. This smells like CP inverting the truth again.

    All UKplc sea shires remember, though dimmly now, that the UKplc aboriginals were prey to slavers from the Barbary, Levant and North Africa in centuries passed. I.e. "blacks" were slavers.

    http://mairibheag.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/five-champions.html

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    1. The raids of the Barbary slavers around the British Isles, particularly in the West Country, are unfortunately nigh on unknown to children today. It doesn't fit the current narrative inculcated by our schooling system.

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  7. You should be up here - in Barnsley (99% white in 2000)despite still being an unemployment blackspot due to the closure of the pits they have shipped in and are still bringing in thousands of non-white immigrants.I believe the non-white demographic has increased from 1% to something like 5% in less than 10 years. Labour really didn't like white towns (even loyally voting ones) not that the Tories have reversed it. Sinister or what?

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    1. I did hear that a while back some of those from overseas who ended up dumped in part of the borough were provided with mobile phones and even cars gratis, which is said to have generated a degree of understandable disgruntlement amongst some of the locals. Normally I'm extremely sceptical about such stories, but I heard this one from a reliable source. One of the sad things about Barnsley however is the fact that it never returns anything but Labour MPs.

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  8. This is getting out of hand... The comments here and those I have just seen on the Calling England blog.

    Those children weren't forced to wear black masks (and the masks weren't black anyway). They were from a special school, wanted to join in the dancing but were worried by the thought of being photographed so wanted to cover their faces. It was entirely their choice.

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    1. Hi Liannth. Thanks for your comment. I'll grant that the masks could be described as chocolate brown, but they most certainly weren't white, yellow, blue, green or any other colour.

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  9. Zulus studying science?
    That really would be stretching the bounds of credibility too far.

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  10. Emma Thomson has an adopted nigerian son.I believe he was already about 14 when she adopted him. She would evidently like him to feel more 'at home' in places like Exeter. So we must all change to fit in with her & people who feel like her.
    I seem to remember that Corby, another 90% white/English town, lost some big government offices, which were removed to somewhere less 'hideously white'. You couldn't make it up.

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    1. Her adopted son is Rwandan.

      As for Corby, the steelworks and trouser press spring to mind. Is it worth a visit?

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