To friends living in the UK, this merits reading

[idun]

History is what it is. And I don't like this messing with it to be honest.

I agree people of colour should be treat equally, but we did not invent racism, it is alive and well in Africa and Asia.  We need to make sure that justice works 'now'.

I have friends who, well one worked in Rwanda in the early 1990's...... and at a similar time another friend was in Ghana and speaks of people being 'sold' there. I won't even mention what our friend in Rwanda saw, horrors, will suffice. Another friend worked in the Congo in the early 00's and they are white and encountered anti white racism.

So all this energy spent on getting rid of statues, when there are over 40 million people enslaved or in forced labour in the world TODAY.

Women still mutilated, forced marriages.......... honestly talk about ignoring the elephant in the room.

Better to deal with current problems than be hung up about the past.

Re comedians apologising, well, why. Is Lennie Henry apologising for 'white'ing' up in a film. Just getting ridiculous.... so whilst we are about it, should the descendants of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon apologise for dressing up as women......

Dear me, the world is round the bend at the moment.

So much to address and not history, it is all in the word....... it is 'history'!

[chessie]

Idun - re keys;  well partly sorted.  I know I can get replacements - the cost will be a worry.  I know what to do.  I've told OH - he's not said one word about driving to --- to get replacements.  Probably just waiting for me to organise.... now lockdown is easing then probably next week.   Thank you for asking - that's kind.

As for your other comments - I do agree with you about more important matters.

You know you can't mention FGM (according to another site FGM is no worse than circumcision... yea Godfathers...).

The useful idiots interviewed on tv, from the so-called journalists etc to the raving loony blm mob lot - do not have a clue about the real history of what they 'think' they're protesting about.  Not a clue.  Makes one question today's teachers; think some of those responsible for the disgraceful scenes in Bristol might well have been teachers. !!

You also need to be very, very careful;  it is NOT    'HIS-story' any more - aren't the feminists up in arms and wanting this to be renamed as well !!!    What with poor JK Rowling getting it in the neck for speaking the truth, we have the out and out nutter lefties turning on their own.

Really didn't think this chinese virus would have totally turned people's brains to mush.................

Sorry to go on;  I don't have anyone to talk to and I miss company.

Chessie

[NickP]

Well said Chessie.

[woolybanana]

Talk to us by all means. Can you zoom with people or facetime?

[EuroTr@sh]

"History is what it is" - but what is it? I think the French have the right idea in having the same word for history and story. Unless you were there, you don't know exactly how things happened - and even if you were, you probably have a different perception from another person who was also there but who saw/interpreted things differently.

If you read the French and then the English versions of an event in Anglo-French history, right back to the Norman conquest and probably beyond, the two versions will leave you with a very different perception of history. Probably both were recorded in good faith, but from different viewpoints. You would have to be ominscient and also totally impartial and objective to be able to write the definitive history. And nobody is.

[PaulT]

Scroll down this link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-53046160

to 06:10. Would seem that black police violence on black is not challenged.

As for actors blacking up. There is a Peter Sellers film, The Party, where he plays an Indian....think if anyone else had played the part then it would not have been worth making the film.

So in the film industry:

Where a character is black the actor must be black

Where a character is gay the actor must be gay

Where a character if disabled then the actor must be disabled

Where a character has an illness the actor must have the illness

Where a character is a murderer then the actor must be a murderer - the only one I know of who could play the part is Leslie Grantham and he is dead!

As for history and statues to people who may have done good and bad then perhaps there should be statues of Adolf Hitler. He created employment in Germany.

[EuroTr@sh]

Contrast with current cross casting policies in theatre where Othello is as likely to be played by a white female and Juliet by a black male.

It distracts me and spoils the magic for me because I'm so busy admiring (or not) the actors' skills that I end up regarding the whole performance as a technical exercise in acting, rather than a play to enjoy and get emotionally invested in..