In the eyes of the ARC and others It is impossible to get it right. If you choose the image of a white man you can be accused of racial bias, if you choose the image of a black man you can be accused of racial bias. If you choose the image of an oriental you can be accused of bias even if the image is of the person you are actually representing. What are we to choose when we want to depict a man doing something? Coco was going to suggest that we use a monkey instead, but then, if the experience of Hartlepool is anything to go by, we shall only end up annoying the French even more than they are already. I suppose someone will consider that to be racist too. Hey-ho, Boney was a warrye, way, aye, yah. A warrye and terrye, John France, wah!
Humour
Diversity increases?
There was a school class which comprised only fifteen boys – it was a privileged area and the boys, unable to cope with competition from hard working girls, had been segregated – one of whom had black skin and two had brown, the rest all had white, perhaps you could say albino, but that may be misunderstood. The class was therefore racially diverse.
Continue readingQuestions
that should not be asked
You have noticed that the French do not ask questions
Vous mangiez ici?
Vous alliez au football?
Car three
Coco’s dear old Corsa was so far out of condition.
Continue readingOf the burning of books there is no end
Dowlais – steel works
When steel matters
The events that are shortly to be related took place in a different age and a different culture, in an altogether foreign location in the broadest sense which was unknown to the people of that time, but is now known to us as a consequence of the work of Einstein in the early part of the twentieth century. It was the time of railroads, steam trains, iron mills, steelworks, coal-mines and dirty work, when undertaker meant more than the entrepreneur and entrepreneur was an unknown word. The prosperity of a municipality could be measured, at least in part by the number of railway stations that it boasted, but better by the quality of the steel produced there and it was from one of these small towns towards the upper end of one of the rolling Welsh valleys that a principle undertaker in the steel industry received a telegram from a bridge and engineering fabricator in North Africa who wished to discuss the procurement of a quantity of steel for the provision of the building of a new bridge across the Niger.
Continue readingToo much colour
It was the reference to a woman of colour that prompted Coco to speak yet again on this matter, Coco was going to remain silent, having spoken before but the reference shows nothing has changed . Coco noticed the article is still fairly close to the top even today; it had not gone away.
Continue readingFasting in the new normal
The new normal: a new perspective
Continue readingExistential statements
Coco thought he would keep it simple in this post and just make a big existential statement, but what in reality Coco was thinking was to discover just how many characters had to be written before the ‘see more’ message appears, and to provide a short introduction to his new art work, which has not yet been refused by the Tate and goes by the same name. This is not enough, as you can see, or rather cannot see, yet. The words ‘see more’ have not yet appeared.
Continue readingPlans
Plans do not change, but minds do…
Two friends were out chatting as they do. Martina, who had finished her coffee was Italian, and Stella, still wondering whether she should put sugar in her tea, came from Essex. Martina and Stella had met on a finger painting course in the school of art studies at the university of Fortecolpe which is in the vicinity of Telavivodetto. Strangely the course had been conducted in German and had focussed on Email, which seemed, especially to Stella, quite extraordinary, but nevertheless, with Martina who understood most of it, she completed the course. They maintained their friendship, and now found themselves working in the same area in Finchley.
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