As an overseas Brit, I have to admit the death of reality TV’s Jade Goody and the quotes surrounding her passing on Sunday morning shook me slightly. It’s not that I was ever really a fan of her, before or after the ‘race thing’, but there is no greater reminder that Britain carries on without you when you leave, than a celebrity dying. As odd as it sounds, it helped spell out to me that I have left ol’ Blighty and it will never be the place it was when I left again.
That’s not what I want to write about, though. I was more moved by the tributes and quotes that poured in in memory of Jade. One quote that really impressed me came from a really unlikely source: Tory scrubbing brush John McCririck. In a tribute to Jade Goody, he was quoted with this: “She brought out one of the most serious problems in this country, the inherent racism… that people try and keep quiet.
“It’s about people who don’t know they are racist but when they’re losing an argument with somebody who’s Asian or a black person they go back to the old stereotypes, and she did that.”
I’m sorry, but was that John McCririck talking sense? Let’s just check:
“She brought out one of the most serious problems in this country, the inherent racism… that people try and keep quiet.
“It’s about people who don’t know they are racist but when they’re losing an argument with somebody who’s Asian or a black person they go back to the old stereotypes, and she did that.”
Somebody has died, that’s terrible, but here we see somebody turning it around for the benefit of humanity. I never thought I would say this, but good on ya John.
Quote source: bbc.co.uk
