News of the World readers in common sense shocker..

I wouldn’t normally read the News of the Screws, but I was lead there by Guido‘s link to the ho’ dishing the (complete lack of) dirt on George Osborne’s past.

Anyway, one click lead to another and before I knew it I was up to my knees in cerebral sputum. Then I found this:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/strictly_come_dancing/article53144.ece

THE BBC is embroiled in a furious race row over talented BLACK celebs being booted off Strictly Come Dancing while WHITE stars with “two left feet” stay in.

Oops.. here comes the race card..

Heather Small, who was competing again last night, declined to comment. But a close pal said: “There’s definitely something in this. There may be institutional racism at work in the public vote.”

Apparently Heather Small was one of the contestants who was discriminated against by the British public. Now look. Heather Small was the singer in M People. She is a black woman from Manchester. A gobbier combination you may never meet, But Heather Small said precisely f**k all, and if she’d felt like saying something, I have every faith that she would have.

No, it was a nameless ‘close pal’ of Heather’s who gave the quote. Couldn’t have been a white middle-class lefty BBC production assistant type of ‘close pal’ could it?

But fear not – along comes Token to set the record straight. Token who wasn’t even on the fucking show, because he prejudged that such a situation would arise.

Black Olympic sprinting ace John Regis was also horrified, telling us: “I was shocked. I thought, ‘You must be kidding.’ It’s not like sport, when it’s down to performance—other factors come into play. Strictly is a middle-class kind of show and that possibly could be the area where racism still festers. I feel sorry for Don. I wouldn’t go on Strictly for all the tea in China.”

So I was pleasantly surprised to see the NoW readers giving this whole shebang a jolly good fisking. Because the comments often get purged, I’m going to include a bunch here – this story has provoked quite a response.

here we go again, so a black person does not get a vote and suddenly we are all racist, thank god they aren’t Muslim, then it would be plastered across all news bullitens for the next month.
Lets have a black Strictly then we wont have this problem, so John Regis is disgusted and says “You wont catch me on that show” unlike his running career, when everyone caught him

By john. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:39 PM.

all this just winds me up, i bet if the black people where still in, then all would be ok, why not just let them win! its always the same if black people dont get there own way. ohh i didnt win etc cos im black, NO MATE its beacause your crap . thats all.

By carl farrand. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:37 PM.

Is this story a joke?. I’m black and this kind of story does not good at all to the black communitiy. It’s PC nonesense gone mental.
I hadn’t heard of Don Warrington before so why would I vote for a guy I’ve never heard off?. I presume some black people in Britain must have voted for the “white” guys to win………is that racist?.

By Ryan O. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:23 PM.

People tend to go on who they like , then how they dance etc, it has nothing to do with racism at all .
Just people having there freedom of speech .
If thats not allowed then we no longer live in a free country , but more of a dictator state .
1 last thing as someone else pointed out the MOBS’S are racist how would they like the MOWO’S every year .
Grow up please and stop using the race card .

By tony. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:18 PM.

John Regis and others like them need to get a life, what a load of rubbish that man spouts, yes it was unfortunate that two black dancers were in the dance off last week but that has nothing to do with RACISM!!! get that through your head Regis!
People vote for whom they like wether that is because he or she is attractive, funny, a past hero of theirs or whatever, they do not vote for a person because of their colour OR do we now have to do what the PC brigade would have us do and pay money to vote for a black person just in case it might be seen as racism!
You make me sick with this race card rubbish all the time
OH! last year I voted for Alesha and This year I did vote the 2nd week for Don Warrington

By Terry Atkinson. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:09 PM.

Has everyone forgotten who won the show last year? Alesha Dixon won because she was a tremendous dancer and very likeable! You are in the dance off for a few reasons one being you cant dance and have failed to wow the public, another is you are a celebrity who has not been around for a while therefore people vote for the more popular soapstars,presenters,sports people etc. People should stop turning everything into a race war us Strictly viewers enjoy the show and vote for all the right reasons, dont turn a great show into a scandal!!

By l small. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:09 PM.

Would the two people voted off want to be kept in soley for being black and pitied?
1) If the two people scored highly from the judges, perhaps most people assumed they would be safe and wanted to waste their phone call on saving a celeb they liked – that is the way voting for who you like works rather than voting for who you dont.
2) People vote for the celeb they like – its an entertainment show not a dance show, so people are not voting for the best dancers. Viewers no doubt enjo watching John Seargent struggle to dance as it is more entertaining than a flawless dancer.
3) Heather Small is a great singer, but as I recall had success in the mid to late 90’s. Has she done anything since so that the gerneral public would know her? She is a bit bland anyway so is it because she is black or just boring. I dont know the other guy either sorry to say. It might be that viewers do not have a raport with these two people which may or may not be down to colour.
4) People do vote/like people they can relate to. If the show’s main viewers are white middleclasses then perhaps it is not intentional racisim but a somewhat natural leaning to ones own identity. I am fortunate to be from a younger generation and went to a school with a number of races and religions, but out parents did not an there is a divide which I don’t think is intentionally racist.

By Adam. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:49 PM.

This is crazy…the race card is always played and I dont think that has anything to do with things its a convenient way of causing even more trouble in this very troubled world we live in….and for the BBC to say it looked bad for them, because they were not voted for is twaddle to put it mildly…others have been in the dance off that didnt deserve to be there either so what would the BBC call that???????

By delta. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:57 PM.

The racist card is getting very boring now………..

By Misty. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:56 PM.

you cant make people like each other by law, anyway don’t watch rubbish and you will be fine

By Peter Woods. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:53 PM.

Have that, PC BBC nobbers.

AJ

Advertisement