Max Power

Stu was a near victim of the 'cancel culture' which has been sweeping the world. An obvious tactic of all of these groups such as 'Me Too', BLM and the recent Trans Militants. There have been some very high profile victims who have been portrayed as the devil for just expressing an opinion which disagreed with the particular group's own. The media, being essentially populated by left wing types, just 'cancels' them and the remainder are just too terrified to stand up to the tide of indignation for fear of being cancelled themselves!

I think this extends to team members, officials etc etc. There don't appear to be many black people involved in the organisation. I say specifically black because there are many Asians involved in the sport.

Yes, precisely the point which they seem to want to address. I think they need to go back to the basic points, how many black people are interested in F1 and what is it that puts off the others? It will come back as white privilege I would think, which then begs the question, how do you change that, particularly when there is a six time reigning world champion who is black?

I just read an interesting statistic on FB of all places. During the recent Austrian F1 GP, 100% of the black drivers were given grid penalties before the race. 0% of the white drivers received the same penalty? Following the race, 100% of black drivers were penalised with a time penalty whilst 0% of the white drivers were. And people deny that there is white privilege? Of course it's a silly statistic but aren't statistics all silly when trying to deal with perceptions of racism? Surely numbers give a much clearer picture?

I agree that some form of training would be advisable although I still don't think Stu committed any real breach of sensitivity. He was trying to encourage debate, but that becomes impossible when dealing with people who are terminally offended and looking for a platform to display it. Who knows, one day I may be offended by something, if I'm lucky.

I know exactly what you mean, it instills the fear that you'll 'blow it' with one slip of the pen!

Why wouldn't he?

That's just privilege, not white privilege. We are all victims of that sometimes.

This keeps going back to the slavery issue, which ended nearly 200 years ago in the Empire. It was a terrible thing, then. I don't own any slaves, never have, in fact my Irish ancestors were not much better than slaves themselves into the 20th century!. As for the benefitting from slavery, every citizen benefits from the past history of a country, black or white. They say white privilege manifests itself in the whites access to power? Have they not seen the make up of the British Government and the cabinet? There seems to be at least fair representation by POC? It seems that what they actually want is exclusive access to power! Before all of this, I was sympathetic to this cause but the furor has made me look closely at the situation. I'm less sympathetic and more angry I'm afraid.

And they can trace their English ancestry back to William the Conqueror?

Without actually talking to MR they surely have no idea what was being offered? It's a local entertainment and news/information station, taking up an evening or afternoon with black issues will probably only be of interest to black people I would imagine? If it became a platform for telling white people how evil they are and how privileged they are, it's just going to drive a wedge between everyone. Black music gets the same exposure as white music so I can't see any advantage in having a black only music programme, although there are good reasons to do so for pure musical talent?

All I can say about that 'open letter' is, It's anonymous. It's long winded, It's inaccurate. Whoever wrote it did not listen to the programme they are referring to with their mind and ears open. True to the BLM code, they are setting out to cause disruption and division. They may have a point with regard to IoM legislation, or they may not. Despite their initial claims not to want Stu Peters sacked, they lied. They are angry because they are wrong and it's been exposed, so they believe that being shouty will make everyone agree with them.

I imagine it's because not to do so would be tantamount to suppression?

I am doing the same, and the more I see, the less support I can find in my heart for this whole movement. I am not, and never have been a racist and I refuse to be preached to as if I am and have my history rewritten to satisfy the false sentiments of an uneducated racist mob!

I remember as an apprentice in the 70s taking a car door apart to find that the cable operated electric window mechanism had snapped and bent. The old colonial guy gave me a right bollocking for not attempting to repair it and wanting to order a new part. He said his little black guy at home would make the parts required and charge him next to nothing. I said if he was willing to pay for a weeks labour, I'm sure I could do the same. It didn't go down very well. On the other hand, later on I worked with a charming old fella from New Zealand who had managed gold and diamond mines all over the world. He was very complimentary about the workers in general, he said you just had to put yourself in their shoes and accept and understand their various cultures.