Producer suspended for saying minority characters wouldn’t fit in his program about English village life

As I said in the previous entry, once a historically all-white or majority white country admits vast numbers of immigrants who are conspicuously different from that country’s majority and historic population, the majority population lose their freedom to carry on their normal existence. They lose the freedom, which they used to have, to speak frankly about other groups. They lose the freedom, which they used to have, to discuss whether they want to let other groups immigrate into the country or keep them out. They lose the freedom, which they used to have, to create high and popular culture that reflects the country’s historic and familiar identity and experience.

And below, in a news item sent by three readers, is another example of what I was talking about. The producer of a successful British TV program has lost his job because he said that nonwhite characters would not fit in the show’s stories about life in a traditional English village. To repeat: once a white country admits vast numbers of nonwhites, the country’s own culture becomes morally criminalized. If the nations of the West are to regain their freedom, their identity, their very existence as historically recognizable countries, they must stop and reverse the diversification process.

And if someone says to you, “This is monstrous and wicked—you are talking about treating people who are living in this country as if they they didn’t belong here,” your reply to that person should be: “But what do YOU believe in? YOU believe in an immigration policy and a demographic transformation that result in the majority population of this country being treated as though they didn’t belong here. So why is YOUR policy of dispossessing the historic people and culture of this country morally GOOD, but MY policy of trying to stop that monstrous act of dispossession is morally BAD? And if you are unable to answer that question, then you must admit that your entire rationale for diversifying this country into a nonwhite country and suppressing as evil all criticism of that diversification has fallen apart.”

And whenever you hear a mainstream conservative or libertarian or Randian talk about our wonderful new diversity which transcends race differences, tell him about the British producer who was fired for making a show about a familiar English village that doesn’t include nonwhites among its characters. And if he says, “Oh, well, that’s just political correctness run amok, we all know that race doesn’t matter,” you should reply to him, “Political correctness or not, it is what is ACTUALLY HAPPENING in the diversified Britain that YOU believe in and insist must become ever more diverse and nonwhite. So your diversity is not so great, is it? What your diversity actually leads to is the criminalization and suppression of whites and their culture. So race does matter, doesn’t it?”

We must never let mainstream conservatives get away with spouting their ideal of how harmonious and beautiful and universal a diversified society will be. We must stick in their faces the things that are actually happening to whites as a result of that diversification

And by the way the democracy promoters need to be treated the same way as the diversity promoters. Whenever they boast of the “success” of democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan, don’t let them get away with it. Remind them of the deadly violence against Christians in Iraq which has turned much of the Christian population into refugees, remind them of the ongoing capital prosecutions, under Afghanistan’s sharia-based legal system, of Christian converts in that country, and point out how these FACTS make a total lie out of their boasting of a democratic Iraq and a democratizing Afghanistan.

Christopher B. in England writes:

Whites are being bullied in their own country, and become the bulliers themselves. This is crazy:

Suspended Midsomer Murders producer in crisis talks with TV bosses as fans defend his decision not to include ethnic characters

A reader in England writes:

Is it ever OK for TV dramas to be all-white?

The producer of “Midsomer Murders” has said ethnic minority characters would “not work.” So is it OK to have an all-white television drama in modern Britain?

Also this and this on the same topic.

Julian C. writes:

I came across this discussion on a UK law blog about comments by the producer of the successful UK programme, Midsummer Murders:

He added: “We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough. They (fans) love the perceived English genteel eccentricity. It’s not British, it’s very English. We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”

Needless to say, the producer has been suspended. The comments are quite interesting.

- end of initial entry -

March 16

Alex A. writes from England:

The producer of a genteel detective drama set in a traditional English village is relieved of his duties because he refuses to populate the (fictitious) place with its quota of black faces. Meanwhile, TV soap operas routinely feature a grossly exaggerated number of black characters in every episode in order to indulge the liberal fantasy of a “vibrant multicultural society.” Note that “vibrancy”—whatever that means—is always associated with lots of black and Asiatic input. Complaints about this distortion of reality are, of course, answered by accusations of “racism.”

It can’t be long before dramatizations of period pieces like the Jane Austen novels, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, etc., won’t be commissioned for television unless they contain a ration of blacks. At the National Theatre, we’ve already had the ludicrous spectacle of a black man impersonating the warrior king Henry V and, just before the battle of Agincourt, speaking some of the most flag-waving lines in English literature:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

VFR is one of the very few high quality American commentaries on the passing scene that draws attention to what’s happening in Britain as a portent and an admonition.

MW writes:

Your comment struck a chord with me. I reflected on the same issues of minority representation in the Harry Potter books and movies, the later ones of which making a point of having Muslim witches/wizards in addition to English ones.

How odd that a book based on English/Christian cultural characters—witches and wizards—would make a point of having Pakistani Muslim student characters: Padma Patil and Pavarti Patil. Given the name (Patil=Patel) they are Muslims from Pakistan. So what are they doing at a English magic school with a history that goes back hundreds of years?

This worldwide multicultural magic theme was radically expanded in later Harry Potter books. As my daughter tells me, the fourth book of the Harry Potter series described a worldwide sports competition among worldwide witch and wizard competitors for “The Quidditch Cup.” Witch/wizard teams from all over the world are described. Other books brought visiting males from a Russian magic school and visiting females from a French magic school.

I suspect this transformation of the magic culture from an English cultural locus to a worldwide presence occurred when the movie producers showed her the European/worldwide box office receipts from the first movie.

Consider modern Ireland. It is home to increasing numbers of Africans, particularly Nigerians. I am sure there are Nigerian bars in Ireland that play traditional Nigerian music. Perhaps they even play the ululating North African Qawwali music.

If these musicians live in Ireland and have Irish passports does that make this Sub Saharan or Arabic music “Irish music”? Is it “Celtic music? Would it be discriminatory for the Irish government to fund what we would consider Irish music and not fund African music by Africans living in Ireland? Is it permitted anywhere in Europe for government monies to be spent on a particular ethnic group’s music even in its historical homeland unless all ethnic groups are funded equally?

Theodore Dalrymple wrote an essay years ago describing the effect of national funding on local cultural institutions. In his essay he told how the British funding agencies required each venue (small town museums, musical groups, local theaters, bell ringer societies, etc.) to keep track of the race/ethnicity of attendees. If their customers were predominately English (as I suspect most were) they had to find a way to boost minority attendance or lose their grants.

According to Dalrymple, one venue was trying desperate measures like setting up a free daycare center in order to lure in the fecund immigrant moms and their children and get their minority numbers up.

Greg W. writes:

What is most telling to me is the following statement from the producer of the Office in condemning this man:

“He is reflecting an old Englishness. Modern Englishness is not about that at all.”

Reflecting old Englishness equals reflecting racist exclusivity. Preferring your country to remain your country with your people is a thing of the past. Modern Englishness is about non-English people. Which means that the more non-whites the U.K. imports, the more English it becomes.

Laura Wood writes:

Last year’s hit British television series “Downton Abbey” followed the lives of a family of Edwardian aristocrats and their servants. It was the most popular period drama since “Brideshead Revisted.”

How did the producers solve the predicament of an all-white setting? A wealthy Arab appears with a friend of the family and, while he is staying the night, seduces the young, unmarried heiress.

A reader writes:

The commentator MW, responding to your post about the suspended English producer, makes a mistake declaring the characters Padma and Parvati Patil to be Pakistani Muslims.

Patil is a surname common amongst Marathis in the Indian state of Maharashtra, and Patel amongst Gujaratis in the state of Gujarat. Patils and Patels are assuredly Hindus.

As a Westernophile (if there is such a word) Indian Hindu who sees all too clearly the depredations visited upon the West by non-stop non-western immigration, I would thank MW not to conflate Indian Hindus (real or fictitious) with Muslims, Pakistani or otherwise.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 15, 2011 10:13 PM | Send