somewhere in the middle

Do I think he’s racist? No
Do I think he has used language or made comments that can be perceived as being racist? Most probably.

It comes back to group culture and what behaviours and language are adopted by that group as being acceptable. It’s only when an outsider comes along and challenges the group think that you stop and think about whether those behaviours are acceptable or not. Things that might have been meant (and taken by insiders) as acceptable banter often look completely different to outsiders.

There is an added risk factor when minorities - in order to fit in and be accepted by a group - go along with the bantz (and legitimise it in the eyes of the majority) even though inwardly they might be hating it. Maybe this is where Vaughan finds himself now.

And this could be religion, colour, gender, age, sexuality etc etc.

Things are changing - I’m reminded of playground songs innocently sung at primary school that make me wince now. At my secondary school in the 90s one of the five-a-side teams was the ‘Paki Team’ (a moniker they came up with and were proud of, but looking back it was clearly a means of pushing back against attitudes that saw that group of boys as being different and outsiders. We knew no different. It doesn’t make it right then and certainly doesn’t now).

Things are changing, but it’s still too slow and there’s still too much white middle class male privilege to overcome in many organisations.

Posted By: CWC on November 16th 2021 at 12:21:27

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