Wednesday, August 11, 2010

David James Smith

E- mail I sent NormanBaker about this pest and his stupid article


Dear Norman

I am not sure if other people will have mentioned this to you but I was fairly dismayed to read the Sunday Times article by David James Smith which traduced Lewesians , Walland school ( Son No.1 is there ) and the Priory school as tolerating and participating a low level racism . The Fireworks were explicitly associated with anti catholic bigotry in this context , quite absurdly, and the whole thing which was a ghastly cobbling together of half baked journalistic trifles, slurring Lewes as a seething cauldron of prejudice
We know he has a book to sell but this is a disgraceful way to go about it and quite simply not true . What ,I , and my own mixed race family really did not like was the suggestion that only newcomers could be trusted not to be closet Nazis .
That is rubbish rubbish rubbish . It would not occur to us to look for “micro aggressions “ soi disant but we are friends both with newbies and Lewsians going back generations . All have been really wonderful since we arrived , we love our community and Walland school has been marvellous . The question of race does not arise and the idea that thes fabulous ordinary people are part of a , “cancer”, in the opinion of a pontificating hack is so ridiculous as to be funny
We are not foaming or anything so silly , but I do not want an atmosphere of suspicion to develop . I do not want my children effected by paranoid delusions and do not want lies told about the town , its schools and its wonderful people to go unanswered. I hope you will find the time to tell this desperate scribbler what a copper bottomed ocean going prat he is, publicly, on all our behalfs

Btw I am delighted with the coalition , I hope it holds together. I could not vote Liberal personally but I appreciate the balance of views and your own excellent local work .

All the very best

3 comments:

Bill Quango MP said...

It was a bit odd.
A childhood comment is latent racism.
A girl told my daughter she has thick eyebrows {she does a bit, but she ain't plucking them yet} and she now insists her fringe must be long.

Maybe I should have informed the school. Had the other kid banned for ..erm, well something.

Is what he describes racism, or the difference in being out of the metropolis?
Moving from London to the south west I noticed - it is very white
- its very conservative in dress and morals {but with a massive dose of hypocrisy, humans being what they are}.
-its much poorer across all sections of society
- people are much friendlier
- People do have a sense of community
- the transport is pretty rubbish.
- they don't like collecting bins much, or rubbish at all
-The primary schools are generally better, the secondary generally worse.

People {incl me nowadays}look out the window when an ambulance sirens past. In the city sirens are the background noise day and night.

{a friend told a customer in the bank, who was from Florida, I'm so surprised to see a black face down here!}

Sounds appalling. But what she meant was she lives in the Bahamas for 6 months a year and she was used to being a minority for half the year.

Newmania said...

Crickey I can tick just about every box on your list of differences BQ

Electro-Kevin said...

I don't know.

The wealth gap between rich and poor is much more apparent in the south west. Things seem to cost so much more here so you have to be earning it to cut it - or else know how to max out the benefits.

I was much happier in the suburbs of London. We're getting more cosmopolitan here too. I give it five to ten years for us to catch up.

Certain white men love to denigrate their own. Attacking a strong target - one that they know won't fight back - makes them feel like warriors without them having to take any risk.

Not just a copper bottomed prat, but a coward too. Let's see him get arsey about certain racialist groups with the risk of him getting his car torched or his windows busted.

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