Colour

Diversity increases?

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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.

During the year a Chinese boy joined the class and so it became more racially diverse than it was. It then represented four different races. Seven more boys joined the class later but the racial diversity did not change: some of the new comers had black skin and some brown. The class still only represented four different races. Taking a very simplistic view of the world and the number of races that there are Coco supposes that only if a Red Indian had joined the class would the racial diversity have increased from a representation of four races to a representation of five.

So how does they conclude that racial diversity has increased in the USA?
‘US census data charts increasingly diverse America ‘Population shifts revealed by the 2020 census herald changes to come in US politics as the country becomes more diverse.’’ Coco knows that they do not say racial diversity here, but in the context of the article you try to fit into it a different adjective which does not imply a connection with race. Let Coco know by the comments box if you succeed.

It is clear from the article that there has simply been a change in the relative proportions of the different races, so that the proportion of ethnic minorities (Coco does not like that description but uses it here because you understand it) increased relative to the majority ethnic group. So this is not racial diversity that is at work but a dilution of the white majority.

Is that not what happened in the school class? There was a dilution of the representation of white skinned boys from 12/15 to 12/23. This was quite a significant change, but it did nothing to change the racial diversity. Nor indeed, Coco might add, did it happen to do anything to reduce the representation of the majority ethnic group, as the school, which is postulated and was not previously revealed, is situated in a majority Chinese enclave in a different oriental country whose ethnic identity is not Chinese. Coco struggles to work out which is the majority ethnic group in such a location.

So, commentators when they need to describe a spade they should not call for a shovel. Coco considers that they make more of the material at hand than they should.

By the way, and it is probably not the BBC’s fault that, though it is not so easy to read, the aggregate of the proportions of the different groups identified on the chart appears to exceed the maximum possible proportion of the whole.

US census: Hispanic and Asian-American driving US population growth

There is some recognition of this in the last words referenced by the BeeB: ‘We’re in an age where there’s a lot more suspicion about all sorts of stuff, and data is one(sic.) of them.

When the Athenians heard the truth they were told: ‘The God who made the world and everything in it .. made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places.’ There is only one race (unless by race we mean a synonym of breed as used for cats and dogs) which is the one Paul goes on to describe which is ‘that they should seek God and perhaps find their way towards him and find him’. God has himself provided the way to run this race now commanding ‘all men to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man [Jesus Christ] whom he has appointed.’

His coming has heralded a far greater change than that posited by the article, which we shall see when he comes again to judge the world. Are we ready for that day?

Too much colour

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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.

In the days of regulated discrimination, upon which we frown, we had whites and coloureds, but it is now acceptable to speak of people of colour. What is the difference? As great as the difference between a rook and a castle I should think. But it set Coco thinking, that these are terms that are defined by one particular stereotype. We have many such ways of speaking of the whole world whilst at the same time making a distinction between two parts, and not necessarily the same parts. There are the Greeks and the Barbarians, the Jews and the Gentiles to name but two, oh, of course, how could Coco forget?, England and the Rest of the World, but he is not sure that in the third case the ‘Rest of the World’ actually includes the whole of the rest of the world, nor perhaps that England only includes England. Perhaps a sports fan is able to explain the matter. But what does the other group think of the first? It is ok for the Jew to speak of the Gentile, but among the Gentiles are the Greeks, who include the Jew among the Barbarians. It is no honour to a person of colour from Africa if a person of colour from India is honoured by presumably a person of no colour. The person of colour from India may well consider that the world is also divided into two parts, those who are Hindu and those who are not, but not all Indians are Hindu, or, dare Coco suggest, persons of colour?

Have you heard the one about (in alphabetical order of course so as not to offend those whose judgements have been seared by political correctness) the Scotsman, the Welshman and the Englishman? Where would the punch line be without racial stereotypes? As a stereotypical green Wellingtonioned, tweed jacketed, urban farmer (not really) Coco had long ago appreciated the Cloth, cloth Capp, bumbling bespectacled Genius, bowler hatted [word removed lest it cause offence], genteel Gentry, not to mention men of Kent, Essex and the other side of the Pennines stereotypes that are often portrayed in putatively comic literature, only later to discover that even better caricatures could be produced of nations: one which never laughs but is terrifyingly efficient; another has never worked since it lost its empire before anyone had ever even thought about Yorkshire; another only drinks coffee and eats gelato, of the best kind of course, where no-one remembers how to speak their own language properly; another cannot bear to be without their own bread, cheese and wine, and would dearly love the Rosbif to be taken off the menu; another is so laid back the [removed] could dry up and they would only notice he next time a bath was required a year later; another so committed to community they would on the underground tie the thing that was out of place, the other unknown person’s undone shoe lace without even thinking about what they are doing – you, dear Reader, know far more than Coco does – but USAsians what folly! So busy every day in the office and factory making sure that every box in every regulation has been ticked, they don’t have time to make sure that everything is actually safe, secure, that no one will be hurt, let alone find the time do any real work, and whose consciences are troubled: ‘When I WFH, am I allowed to waste as much time in idle chatter as when I am in the office or do I have to do real work?’ Cloth Capp has little hope when faced with the flint stone of regulation proceeding from a son of Simp.

So we get very hot under the collar about stereotypes when we find them in a cartoon, but when they are portrayed as ‘real’ life in a soap, who cares? The stereotypes are still there, and in a far more dangerous and offensive way: ‘real’ people get hurt. In the cartoon, the same people are there every week, they may treat each other badly, but they always come back in exactly the same way and they continue to treat each other in the way they have always done, and none of them change for the better or the worse. And we continue to laugh at them; they are not real people.

The cartoon shows us the stereotypes, and the judgements that we all would make if we thought the stereotypes are a true reflection of everyone or anyone. We learn from this. It is amusing because it is necessarily grotesque. And we know that it is not the way to behave or to copy. The soap presents us with stereotypes that appear to be real life, and being real life we learn from them too, but dangerously so, for in real life we copy the behaviours of others, and what sort of behaviours are the easiest to copy: good ones or bad ones? If they can behave like that so can we. Perhaps the soaps should portray behaviours worth the copying; but that is not for today’s post.

Paul quoted an ancient poet who said: All [of my own people] are liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. Stereotypes have been around for a very long time. We shall not be able to suppress the ability of men to define other men by certain characteristics (think of emotional, analytic, driver and amiable: is that nothing but stereotyping? But it is not politically incorrect to do so, yet), but we can as Epimenides and Paul did learn to use those stereotypes.

Paul showed that the answer to the stereotype proposed was to teach the people the sound doctrine of Jesus Christ, that they, and we, might turn aside from these things that defile us and the ways of behaviour that corrupt us, and instead turn to serve the living God in love, joy and peace through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only in that way will there be peace between us, and xenophobia (Greek and Barbarian, etc it is as old Babel) shall be replaced by xenophilia as we rejoice in the things that make us different.

The Simpsons: Hank Azaria apologises for voicing Indian character Apu

The actor says part of him feels he needs to apologise to ‘every single Indian person’.

Coco considers he should listen to the other part.

Beowulf

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Further to the mysteries of a past day, Coco read* today ‘that a great and worthy twentieth century’ Irish poet ‘declined to produce a translation of’ Beowulf ‘because it was considered that someone of a different enthnicity, genre and mother tongue’, not to mention culture, to the Old English author ‘could not accurately reflect and interpret’ this great poetry.

For the real story of Beowulf he refers you to Professor Heather O’Donoghue, here and to her book…

Coco is now on the search for an original ancient Greek to labour afresh in the translation of the poetry of [place here the name of your favourite ancient Greek author] but in the words of one Latin translator slightly paraphrased: Don’t worry too much about your pronunciation there are no Romans about today to correct you, and in the Bowdlerised words of a Renaissance writer: My attempt for Greek’s labour to find is vain, for I who myself have deceivèd shall fail.

* The catastrophic and apostrophic additions and amendment in Coco’s first paragraph have been added for clarity.

Why a white poet did not translate Amanda Gorman
When a white Dutch author was chosen to translate Gorman’s work the decision was swiftly reversed

The heightening of ‘the debate in the Netherlands over the ethics of translation’ probably suggests that the Dutch are expected to read every other language in the original tongue. Given their outstanding ability to speak English, as no true born Englishman can, Coco has no doubt that that every true born Dutchman will rise to the challenge to drive metaphorically the illiterati into the abyss of darkness otherwise known as the North Sea, as they consume with an avarice insatiable for other tongues unknown since the day of Babel.

(In)equality acts

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Gloom descends

It was a rainy day and Eeeyore had taken a walk through the gloomy gloom of the gloomiest glade in the Hundred Acre Wood that he could find when all at once Gloom fell all over him.

How do you do?, he said.

How would you do, Eeyore replied, if when you were walking in the pleasant places with the rain gently falling on your back and running down your tail suddenly there was an interruption from above by someone all at once falling out of the dark grey misty sky onto your back where the rain should have been?

Gloom became gloomier. It was no use, try as he may he could not raise any cheer in anyone who came across his path, not even Eeyore, whom he thought had the gloomiest disposition that he had ever seen. And Gloom had seen many a gloomy disposition in his time.

So Gloom considered that there might be another way to improve the situation. He thought to draw a smiley face, but knew that a smiley face would be quite, indeed considerably beyond his abilities, but he would try. As he did so Eeyore gently pointed out that under the Equal Status Act Gloom should not have drawn a smile that clearly depicted that he, Eeyore, was a donkey.

Gloom understood the predicament, indeed the dilemma of being between a rock and a hard place: Had he drawn a smile with human eyes then it would have been the most outrageous of insults; Had he drawn an anatomically correct smile it would have been regarded as an ethnic slur. In the circumstances, there was nothing for it. The only thing he could do was to draw what may be considered a caricature of the character of Eeyore as of course that was the only way that Gloom had any hope of ever drawing anything.

Inspired by the BBC.

Apologies, Coco forgot to remove the TM. Coco has not registered the logo. If you wish to do so, please bear in mind that a challenge may be forthcoming from the owners of the original which Coco has plagiarised and from which Coco has produced an entirely new work of art, whose copyright I now claim.

Carrots

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Carrots are vegetables

Facebook seem to think that the post referenced here was in some way offensive for Coco, for one, can no longer access it.
Perhaps it really was to logicians, but Coco thought the argument had some merit, albeit small and inappropriately aligned, but to say offensive? To whom? Coco suspects this appropriately misaligned commentary will also be deemed offensive.

  • Carrots are vegetables, and
  • Black lives matter.

The two sentences are not comparable. One is a statement about the properties of carrots or an example of what the property vegetable is, the other is a political statement, the result of the condensation of a political manifesto or agenda into three words.

Of course additional words are required in order to explain what the political statement means. Should the first word be All, Most or Some? Does Black include brown, tan, olive, red, yellow – should Coco go on? If black only means black Coco understands, but if it means more than black why would it not also include pink? What does Matter mean? ‘Has value’ is probably what is implied.

… almost finished, two more points which are perhaps the most controversial. Is ‘Black lives matter’ true in the logical sense of true? I would suggest that those who hold this doctrine believe it is not true. They declare a contradiction. They use the slogan only because black lives do not matter and so declare an untruth.

Now please do not understand Coco, that was the penultimate point. The last point to make here is that the slogan lacks a reference point. In most cases where someone declares ‘It matters’ There is a preceding context which makes clear the meaning and to whom ‘it’ matters. ‘It matters to the customer, the boss, usw. ‘It’ is the Zanies’s hook and belt without which he cannot do his work. It matters to him, but not to Coco who would have no idea how to use it anyway. So this is the final point, to whom do the black lives matter to which this slogan refers? As Coco has said, there would be no need to say this if it were true, but it is not; black lives apparently do not matter to some. Who are the some to whom they do not matter? Coco leaves you, dear reader, to answer that question.

But let Coco affirm, just as carrots are a vegetable, Coco can use this slogan in a different way than intended: Black lives matter to God who made all men in his image, and because he has made us in his image men of all shades should treat every other man with the full respect that they expect for themselves. If you prefer to believe Darwin’s disciples rather than God then it is clear that you have no grounds on which to rest your case and claim that black lives matter any more than covid-19 virus lives matter. Sadly, we have not obeyed the commandments of God, we treat him with contempt; is it then a surprise to you than we treat other men badly? But God is not willing that we should perish, but gave his only Son to die on a Roman cross for our sins that we might be reconciled to him. Believe this and you shall live, and in Christ there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor Barbarian nor even Scythians we are a new one nation in him.

☺With apologies in advance for errors of syntax, orthography and grammar which may be found embedded in this document whether arising from oversight, incorrect application of language packs or generally any other misadventure; and in general for any offence given inadvertently or inappropriately or both taken or not taken by those whose sensibilities, whether grammatical, orthographical, moral or simply personable, have been offended whether, not or if you have not incorrectly misunderstood the content, intent, meaning and purpose of this article, and to those whose copyrights may have been inadvertently or wantonly infringed, but never as to cause damage the copy holder’s rights, and, if you have managed to read this far, for any errors or omissions whether wilful, unintended, innocent or deliberate in the content of this polemic, and with thanks to you who have made it thus far for your patience.

Ticky-tacky

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When the chest is hurting

When a complaint is made

At the greatest risk, but Malvina Reynolds said it first, someone complained that ‘they’ think every [one of them] looks just the same. And I thought, absolutely right, so they do. And if you listen to this little ditty, even if you do not agree, and if you do not agree find a Latin translation* then, you cannot but be delighted by the music.

And four people from the country
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes*
And they came out all the same
And there are doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

*they shared a flat
Two had black hair
Two had fair
Two had beards
Two did not

Who said they all look just the same?
Rather, which one said the others all look just the same?

* Suggested improvements welcome
Capsularum es in monte.
Capsularum fiunt ex ticky-tacky.
Capsularum es in monte.
Capsularum eiusdem omnes.
Et est viridi et est rosea
Et est hyacintho unus fulvum.
Quae omnia fiunt ex ticky-tacky
Atque omnes idem.

Et qui habitabant in domibus,
Veneruntque ad collegium,
In qua posuit sunt in capsularum.
Et exiit eadem.
Sunt autem et legis doctores,
Et negotium executivæ.
Quae omnia fiunt ex ticky-tacky.
Atque omnes idem.		Et hi omnes in sphaera cursum.
Et bibere martinæ in aridam.
Et omnes pueri pulchri est.
Et omnes pueri ad scholam.
Et omnes filii ire aestiva castra
Et postea ad collegium,
In qua posuit sunt in capsularum,
Eadem omnes exeunt.

Et ad pueros ire in negotium
Uxorem et suscitet familias
In capsularum fiunt ex ticky-tacky.
Atque omnes idem.
Et est viridi et est rosea
Et est hyacintho unus fulvum.
Quae omnia fiunt ex ticky-tacky
Atque omnes idem.

Karl XVI

Remarkably, all Swedes look the same as well.

A minister

Statues

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If you don’t want the name, give the money back – isn’t it as easy as that?

Charities are minded to understand that if the source of the funds offered to them is questionable, they should refuse the offer.

And, as a tax professional, Coco would welcome the opportunity to refresh his estate duty knowledge as it is tracked how the Codrington Library building and contents would have passed through all of the generations of his family, and calculate the amount of estate duty due on each death, and he would also assume IHT, would now become payable – a very welcome windfall to be sure.

How do you decide when a statue must fall?

How do you decide when a statue must fall?

We name buildings after people, or put up statues to them, because we respect them. But what if we discover they did wrong?

Chickens in a coop

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Why is offence so easily taken?

What should the chickens do?

Did you hear the one about the chickens in the çoup?

Well, the story goes something like this:

Once upon a time there were hundreds of chickens in a coop. They had plenty of room and really had quite a nice life. Food came regularly and they were pretty much left to their own devices for most of the time. They had a lot of good friendships among themselves, and some interesting family relationships. But news had started to filter through to them from the outside world that there might be a small problem, and one day they may need to do something about it.

None of the chickens really took this to heart until they heard about what had happened in a coop some distance away. A fox had somehow managed to gain access to the coop. Normally foxes are kept well away by a ‘security ring’ which the keepers of the coop had placed around them. What had gone wrong? It was reported, on no mean authority, that almost half of the coop had been taken out, and those that were left were suffering badly from PTSD.

This news prompted the governing committee of the coop to meet to discuss the situation. How were they going to meet the challenge if a fox managed to enter their coop? They were aware of two outcomes for the occupants of the coop and needed to make preparations both for the chickens who would be taken out and the consequences for those who would remain. It seemed to them that they would have to engage in some preparatory exercises with the members of the coop so that in the event of such an incursion they would know what to do and how to behave in order the limit the damage that the presence of a fox in the coop would cause. However how could they do this without increasing the sense of unease that had begun to develop in their closely knit community.

They decided that they would continue to trust in the well established security ring rather than risk a panic or riot in the coop. This head in the sand attitude was however swiftly blown away when a neighbouring coop reported a breach in the security ring. The fox, or was it foxes, had not actually gained entrance, but it was thought that they may have simply been testing the strength of the system and a full scale incursion into the coop would soon follow.

So what were they to do? It seemed that some kind of practice exercise would be required. They would identify and train several of their fellow chickens, as policemen and security personnel. Their jobs would be to protect the other members of the coop. They would do this by patrolling the coop and keeping an eye open for trouble and possible damage to the perimeter of the coop in order if at all possible to forestall any possible attempt to gain access to the coop.

The committee also understood that they would have to prepare for an incursion. The security personnel would have particular responsibilities in such a case and the other members of the community would also need to know what to do. It seemed inevitable that they would have to stage a fake incursion in order that the community may learn what the proper response should be.

Now a practice run would be quite an undertaking. How could they realistically hope to do this? It was unthinkable that they could use a real fox in the staged attempt, but something had to be found to produce an air of realism or else the whole exercise would be, not only a complete waste of time, but of no value in teaching the community how to respond in the face of a real emergency.

Well, said one member, a fox is a dog, is it not? We shall use a dog. We shall invite one of the local dogs to come in a pretend to be a fox for the purpose of this exercise.

The other members of the committee were quick to take up the suggestion and an invitation was drafted to the chief shepherd dog.

The proposal caused an outcry! The dogs were enraged. Foxes may be extremists they cried, but not all dogs are extremists. Most dogs are moderates and peace loving. They don’t want to hurt chickens. If you use a dog in your show you imply that all dogs are extremists and you risk turning the entire dog community against you. We shall provide a suitable actor for you.

No amount of protest that no such thing was meant, that the chickens understood that not all dogs are extremists intent on harm, but the reality was that foxes – all foxes – are. So, some weeks later after much planning the exercise would go ahead: What to do in the event of an incursion into the coop.

The chickens had been taught that the first thing to do is to remain calm. If they become agitated they will lose control of the situation giving the upper hand to the incursant (no longer called a fox). They had been taught to move themselves to the highest parts of the coop which the incursant would not be able to scale. They had been taught that if cornered to make themselves look bigger by puffing out their feathers and stretching their wings, by doing this they may frighten away smaller incursants. If the incursant was a larger animal then they should stay close together and present a united front to the incursant.

Nobody knew quite what to expect or when, apart from a few committee members and the chief shepherd dog who had agreed to assist and brief the actor in the role. For a few days there was an eerie quietness in the coop. You could tell that the chickens were getting uneasy. And then it happened. There was an outcry outside the coop. This distraction caused the security forces inside the coop to turn away for a few minutes from their job of watching the perimeter and it was at that moment the incursion took place.

Suddenly, and unnoticed by anyone – how did he get there? Where was the breach in the perimeter? No one knew, but it had happened. The incursant had arrived. But the chickens knew what to do. Keep calm. Move to the high places. Puff yourself up if cornered. Stick together.

The chickens moved calmly, swiftly and almost silently to their chosen places high in the rafters and eves of the coop, safely out of the way of the incursant.

The incursant did not seem to be at all surprised at this. He investigated all of the places within his reach. He moved swiftly around the floor of the coop where no chickens were to be found. Then with a hop, skip and jump he decided, as there were no playmates there, it was time to leave, so returned to his entry point to make his egress.

It was then that the chickens gasped in horror. Just as they had been watching the incursant as he roamed around the hutch so they also watched as he left the coop and they, from the dizzy heights of the coop, saw what he did not see. Alas, for our poor little lamb had not noticed the two extremist dogs. The foxes, whom they so much dread, had crept up stealthily whilst the exercise was being undertaken and positioned themselves ready for ambush.

Where now were the moderate dogs who had chosen the lamb for an actor? History does not record for us either the fate of this lamb nor of the coop, but rumour has it that when Alexander passed that way he cried out: What coop was this?

The prophet wrote:

⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; ⁷he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4-5,7

And the Lord himself said:
³³Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles; ³⁴and they will mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, and kill him, and the third day he will rise again.
Mark 10:33-34


Inspired by an apology(sic.)

Orange

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Not chocolate orange

Whilst this post has been obtained from an external source and it may be possible to embed the source here, it is this particular version of the page that Coco wishes to display, hence a suitably edited version of the original page has been used here. More recent versions of the page have not contained the colour chart for example. If you find any significant changes other than that which should perhaps be reflected here, please notify Coco using the comments section below. Thank you.