The Power of a Black Skin

Further to my previous blog about the BNP on the BBC, many people have said that when the head of the BNP appeared on Question Time lately, he came across as a bumbling idiot.

However, around 100 viewers phoned the BBC to complain that he was treated unfairly and even “bullied”.

I still say we need to learn the lessons of history and stop giving these people free publicity.

I felt torn about blogging about this issue and giving it more energy. Although there are other, better ways to overcome difficulties and create the things we want, sometimes we have to engage and directly confront.

Mr. BNP Head himself said that he had been treated unfairly because there were too many African and Asian people in the audience as the programme was broadcast from London, which had been “ethnically cleansed”.

It’s useful to know that we can “ethnically cleanse” an area – just by turning up! That’s the power of a Black skin.

But the final word has to go to the folks at the quiz show Have I Got News for You the same week as the broadcast. During a photo quiz, when asked to identify a photo of Mr. BNP Head, Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and their guests all shook their heads and said “We don’t know who he is”. At which point the host, Martin Clunes, moved on to the next item without identifying him either.

In other words, treat this man as the nonentity he should be.