Yeah good work BBC, you've really done well here
OK bit of criticism about the Rivers of Blood tweet so here goes.
Not calling for censorship. BBC can put on what they like, long as it doesn't incite violence. That test shld be measured v.strictly & threshold nowhere near reached here.
Not about 'what can you show' but 'what should you show'. BBC entitled to broadcast & we're entitled to debate if that's a good idea.
I do not think it is a good idea.
It's not some wonderful piece of political oratory or reasoning which happens to be racist. It's not Birth of a fucking Nation.
It's not like it's worth trying to get past the racism cos of the artistic or intellectual importance of the work. The importance of the work was simply that it was racist.
That's the only pertinent quality it had and the reason we still discuss it today.
It was a moment in which stain of it broke out in the British political system & was - w effort & at a moment where it could potentially have gone the other way - put back in the box.
Cld we have documentaries about it? Sure. Could we discuss? Obvs. But to excitedly announce you're going to read it in full, w voice acting, doesn't sound like you've taken a sober view of it.
And then farting about w complaints that ppl haven't clicked through to see there'll be analysis, when it doesn't even say that, cements the impression.
It just again looks like you're fannying about with something inflammatory. A child with a molotov cocktail.
So then don't be surprised when actual modern day racists seize on your use of the speech & try to use it as a weapon today.
That's what it was intended to be at the time - a weapon - and if you don't handle it with care, that's what it can be right now.
OK rant over - soz. I get a bit rar when ppl say I want to censor thing. I'm going to have an ice cream.
