I Didn’t Really Mean It

 Someone posted an article on Linkedin which featured Ms. Sarah Pochin, a Member of Parliament for the UK’s Reform Party complaining about how adverts were filled with black and Asian people but not with “white” people:

 

 

 The comments have drawn a load of criticism and Ms. Pochin has been accused of being a racist and she has since apologized for her unfortunate remarks. Her party leader, the ever questionable, Mr. Nigel Farage, has come out to say that whilst her comments were “Ugly” the intention was not “racist.”

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78z4eyvnx1o  

 

This sentiment seemed to be very familiar. Then, I realized that I had this conversation with a young lady I was serving at the Bistrot back in 2016. Trump had his infamous Mexicans are rapist” remarks and I actually meet a young lady of colour (sorry, ethnic Chinese are considered people of colour in the Western world, however much they may deny it), telling me “Oh, what he really meant was and he didn’t say it very well.”

So, this leads to one fundamental question – why are people so eager to give politicians campaigning on the worst human instincts a free pass. If history has shown us anything, it is the fact that politicians who target ethnic or religious groups tend to be very open about their intentions and they’re actually pretty darn good at communicating their message loud and clear.

I think of my favourite Jewish lawyer who tells me that he got lucky in that his family had the sense to get out of what was then Czechoslovakia before Hitler rolled in the tanks. However, as my friend tells me, plenty of their friends did not flee because they “didn’t think he meant Jews like them, who had been part of the mainstream as far as anyone could remember.”

Say what you like about Adolf Hitler and the horrible things that he did but public speaking was not one of his faults. Adolf Hitler was very clear about what he wanted to do and he was very good at communicating his message. Let us never forget that he was democratically elected fair and square.

So, whenever I listen to public figures make remarks about certain ethnic or religious groups, I panic and think, oh dear, this guy is bad news. Let’s bring things back to the current era – the last American election in 2024. Mr. Trump continued with his rhetoric about deporting black and brown people, accusing them of doing them of awful things, and guess what – his popularity amongst black and brown people soared. So, what did Mr. Trump do with all the support that he got from black and brown people? Well, to use a Trump phrase – “Promises man, promises kept.” He promised he’d drag brown and black people off the streets and guess what, he’s doing exactly what he said he’d do.

Here are two examples of people telling you what they’re going to do and actually doing them. The point in these examples is that the people who were to be their victims actually started giving these people a free pass. “No, they don’t really mean it,” or more frighteningly “they don’t mean….like us.”

We got to stop doing this and call out the public figures who go for certain groups. Ms. Pochin is only fortunate in that her views were about thinking there were too many Asians and Blacks on TV rather than what she thought was the solution. However, these views of her are worrying in that she was once a magistrate and one has to ask if she judged the black and brown people in the way she expressed her views about adverts?

Yes, we all have “ugly” opinions. I am guilty of having some ugly thoughts. However, I recognize my “ugliness” and try to kill it. I like to think that the people I chose to lead me, will not indulge in my ugliness and bring me to a better a place. So, when I choose (yes, voting is compulsory in Singapore), leaders, I become weary of those who encourage me to be ugly.

We need to hold our leaders and anyone seeking public office to higher standards because it’s the only way we become better. Making excuses is for losers and we don’t need to make losers out of our leaders.