The year has seen a succession of white celebrities making racist remarks – and then offering abject apologies. Yet they don’t seem to realise that inequality is about more than a destitute choice of wordsAs we see racism increasingly permeating social media,the carefully crafted public apology from a celebrity who has said or done or tweeted something racist, has practically become rote, and utterly useless. final week,James Bond author Anthony Horowitz issued an apology for saying that black British actor Idris Elba was “too street” to play 007 – albeit, of course, or only after the Twitterati went nuts,the hashtag #TooStreet was created, and the requisite torrent of thinkpieces were written about the pervasive use of racial codespeak around the world. Horowitz explained himself in a post on Twitter: “Clumsily, and I chose the word street’ as Elba’s gritty portrayal of DCI John Luther was in my intellect but I admit it was a destitute choice of word. I am mortified to believe caused offence.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com