Death of 'the renegade or white Nigger"

by Gaillimhed Wed Jun 30, 2004 18:00

Simians we are.
recently i was reading an old (c.1950) book on the subject of human origins. The illustrations were hilarious, the african australopithocene fossils were recreated in drawings as black skinned, ugly gorilla-like creatures, with dark eyes and violent snarls, squabbling over raw meat.
Similar fossils of european origin were depicted as wrinkly old men, cuddling their grandchildren around the fire, with genial faces, well groomed blonde hair and beard, and wise far-seeing eyes gazing into the future.

We Homo sapiens share 96-98% genetic homology with our chimpanzee cousins.
Ironically the name we have taken for ourselves in the hominid grouping, 'Sapiens' means wise.
The long form of the ancient native sumatran name for the Orang-utan translates to english as "old man of the forest who no longer speaks".

by iosaf Tue Jun 29, 2004 20:48

we shout "wookie" at Bush in the singular.
We also did shout "wookie" at Aznar, but he isn't simian at all, he's more diminuitive yet plucky looking.
I took my lunch today in one of those spit on the floor spanish bars the migrant andalucians opened in Barcelona when they came to take part in the economic boom which was the result of Tourism and industrial co-operation with both Europe and the USA in the 1960s. Sort of place where when one of the professional drinkers stops spitting, they call an ambulance and take him away. Anyway one of those western civilisation children extra-curricular programmes was on the TV. It was a little after 4pm, so as you know, children from Oregon to buenas Aires to Riga watch the cuddly furry animals shag and eat each other.
Today it was the probiscus monkey. A very funny looking creature, the voice over was naturally in catalan, all the kiddies grow up in that language. "and here is mammy monkey with her baby about to jump into the river". & she made it. I was well impressed. Her little bably clinging onto her, and she managed to follow the rest of her troop to the other side of a river. It might have been shark/pike/perhanujaa infested, I dunno, it aws before the watershed, so not much animal kingdom violence for the kids.
Anyway, all this gibberish got me thinking R-isible.
I thought about the recurrent theme of portraying one's political or cultural foe in simian terms. It was not always so, and correct me if I am wrong -oh do, came into vogue in anglosaxon culture as a direct result of popular Darwinism and the reaction to same. By the late 1890s we certainly notice an extension of simian portrayal and reference to Germans, Swedish and French authors. No-one batted an eye when the already quite outré Kaiser W2 complained about Manchurian monkeys. And quite naturally his Tsarist cousin referred to the Japanese in 1903 as "little yellow monkeys".
Redjade yesterday left a link on the "other media updates" about L Frank Baum's "wizard of OZ", i made allusion to it when Aznar ("a wookie") left.

Wookie's are fictional monkeys. They don't actually exist in the fossil records, and you can rest assured your kids won't be watching documentaries of Wookie's shagging at 4pm. The Wookie is to us, what the Ewok is to the next generation. We can imagine Ewoks shagging, because George Lucas filmed them at length having rip roaring parties and we saw little baby ones. We can't really imagine Wookies procreating, because we never saw another one. Those of us who were fortuante enough to read the book version of Star Wars, will remember c3p0 could understand the simian Ewok because it spoke a language Chomksy would recognise as belonging to the same very large set of "simian of appearance" languages. C3Po understands the ewok, becuase he can understand the wookie Chewbacca. It might be being too smartarse by far to remind you all that the imperial system gives us monkeys.
Monkeys to you.
Monkeys on that.
Oh it is so cold it was freeze the monkeys.
PLanet of the monkeys.
You look like a monkey and you live in the zoo.
I'll be honest, I'm very tired of the "those fucking Brit bastards not only oppressed us 800 years but in a brief period of twenty or so years a few illustrations appeared portraying the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Fenians as simian. What the Hell you want?
Did you notice what the other "subject" nations looked like in the illustrations?
For yeah verily, there was an order of simian.
From the lowly but fecund ewok to the mighty and powerful Wookie.
The probiscus monkey caught it's lunch. Loads of insects coming out of a tree.
Not a lot of work or intelligence in that, I really was much more impressed at the jumping with offspring on board over the river. I was eating a hamburger. I really couldn't understand the wisdom of divine architecture that causes an animal to have such a ridiculous looking nose so that it might smell a bunch of insects coming out a tree on the other side of a shark/pike/perhanujaa infested river. When the owner came and opened his bar, the slot machines didn't exist. They were illegal. "Everything was illegal" they say. When the andalú came and worked and got his little bar, the tiles were trendy, and Catalan was illegal. When the andalú came and opened his bar, the idea of a global evolving revolution fomenting Irish writer munching a hamburger @ the back of the shop was probably "illegal" as well.
Now his kids have got their degrees yeah blah mortgage blah blah grandkids blah balh, in catalan. hamburguesa amb més.
¿are not we all in some way little monkeys?
Didn't your mammy say that to you?

I liked Mr Gagesby.
I'm sure they hurt his feelings and then some.

by Donnacha Tue Jun 29, 2004 18:02

"There has always been racism. But it developed as a leading principle of thought and perception in the context of colonialism. That's understandable. When you have your boot on someone's neck, you have to justify it. The justification has to be their depravity. It's very striking to see this in the case of people who aren't very different from one another. Take a look at the British conquest of Ireland, the earliest of the Western colonial conquests. It was described in the same terms as the conquest of Africa. The Irish were a different race. They weren't human. They weren't like us. We had to crush and destroy them. ... It has to do with conquest, with oppression. If you're robbing somebody, oppressing them, dictating their lives, it's a very rare person who can say: "Look, I'm a monster. I'm doing this for my own good." Even Himmler didn't say that. A standard technique of belief formation goes along with oppression, whether it's throwing them in gas chambers or charging them too much at a corner store, or anything in between. The standard reaction is to say: 'It's their depravity. That's why I'm doing it. Maybe I'm even doing them good.' If it's their depravity, there's got to be something about them that makes them different from me. What's different about them will be whatever you can find." The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (Interviews with Noam Chomsky)

by R. Isible Tue Jun 29, 2004 01:21

G.W.Bush isn't an ethnic group or race. He's an individual. No one (except the right-wing nutbags) is claiming that he's typical of Americans. He's a cynical, murdering anti-democrat, anti-freedom rich boy that's been pampered through prep schools and Ivy League universities.

by Devil Dog Tue Jun 29, 2004 01:09

Kinda like how GWB has been portrayed on several placards in some of your hilarious little protests......

by Conor - SAucd Mon Jun 28, 2004 23:53

I was rooting through my old mans "magill" magazines from way back when it was good (the 80s), and there was a really really good piece by gene kerrigan about gaeby. as a jourlanist -quite a man by the sounds of things , politically , too close to FiannaFail for myself, but then again, isnt everything these days.

If anyone has (very) old magills lying around the house, they should really check them out for good investigative pieces.

he said himself that there is no such thing as non-partisan reporting. Too true - look at the reactionary dipstick editing the IrishTimes today! a shit paper if ever there was one.

by R. Isible Mon Jun 28, 2004 23:40

about people that didn't have enough melanin in their skin to be called "black" but who displayed the ungrateful tendencies of black people: refused to enjoy the benefits of British colonization, didn't appreciate being invaded and enslaved to varying degrees or in some way displayed rebellious characteristics.

Also bear in mind that the British press had a long history of portraying the Irish as simian and sub-human. The picture at the link below is one of the less offensive ones. Finally, as Anthony and others have pointed out the phrase will mean more to you if you read the original frontpage indymedia.ie story.

by Indy Mon Jun 28, 2004 23:32

The phrase is in reference to piece of investigative reporting published on the link at the top of the page.

The title paraphrased the use of that phrase which featured peculiarily in th documents uncovered.

by Dwayne Chandler Mon Jun 28, 2004 22:50 whizbang76 at hotmail dot com

What is the basis, and reference, of this post
using the reference "white nigger?"
As a Black American I am extremely curious and offended.

Dwayne Chandler.

by Anthony Mon Jun 28, 2004 22:17

The title in the obituary is how regular readers have heard DouglasGageby referred to in previous articles published on Indymedia. The first article on the subject of Irish Times ownership, editorial policy and links with the British government was published on April 19th of this year.

The article details how Major Thomas McDowell, chairman and chief executive of the Irish Times in the late 60s in conversation with the British Ambassador to Ireland referred to his editor, Mr. Gageby as "a very fine journalist, an excellent man, but on northern questions, a renegade or white nigger."

by one of us Mon Jun 28, 2004 19:04

"I would prefer to err on the side of giving minorities too much space rather than on giving them too little"

Mr Douglas Gagesby

answering criticism on his handling of Ireland's national question in the early 1970s.

Rest In Peace.

{I felt a bit put off by the title of his obit.}