The script for Gorgeous has been sent off now and there's nothing to do but to wait to be punched in the heart. I have a couple of things to get done now before I head off on holiday on Thursday, but definitely feel I am in winding down mode. I was easily and happily distracted.
Ava Vidal on Twitter directed me towards
this astonishing video of a racist woman on a tram. It's horrible in all kinds of ways, made more so by the tiny child innocently trying to play on his hate-filled mother's lap, but I think there is also a big positive message in there too. The restraint and relative calmness of the other passengers is admirable - perhaps the child tempers any anger they might have been feeling and prevented the woman from physical assault - but people do speak up to her (if mainly for her choice of language or having woken up their baby) and ask her to shut up. There is an amazing section where the woman (who a doctor friend said exhibited many signs of being under the influence of drugs) starts telling a black woman to leave the country and go back home. She seems to want to say "Go back to Siberia" to begin with, then her addled/moronic brain realises that is the wrong call for this situation (maybe something she would slightly erroneously say to anyone with a leaning to the left) and tries again for something more appropriate. Perhaps she is aiming for Nigeria or maybe she's trying to think how to pronounce Niger, but somehow manages to ask the woman to go back to Nicaragua (those central Americans, coming over here and stealing our standing room places on trams), though accidentally on purpose pronounces it Niggaragua, which is such an awful construct that it's almost amusing. Like new countries have been set up where each race must live and which are named after the most offensive epithet for that race. So white people will have to head to Honkeytopia and I am ashamed to say there already is a Pakistan.
I can't work out if it's a mistake or a deliberately incendiary remark (the way she stumbles across it suggests to me it's a piece of accidental added racism on top of the intended racism of the remark) but it certainly and understandably angers the man behind her, who gets to his feet. But what is wonderful is that the other passengers calm him down, black and white hands go up in a pacifying manner and a white woman gives him a hug. The tram is united in its hatred of this bigotry.
This kind of public transport rage is not totally unusual, but I have rarely seen anything like this (although at least two more slips of similarly unpleasant and pontificating women soon started doing the rounds). I feel, like the other passengers we should be a bit cross, but mainly saddened by the woman and can only hope that for the sake of her child she gets some help (whatever is going on in her head I think she needs to have a little chat with someone). Though it did cross my mind that the whole thing was a hidden camera stunt for Channel 4's latest ill-advised attempt at edgy comedy. At least they would have moved on from doing impersonations of disabled people to impersonations of racists. Comedy must have no boundaries right and look how popular this video has been. Commission x 12.
I guess there's a sinister sideline to all of this, that nowadays cameras are so prevalent that you can be filmed at any point and that film might find its way on to the internet. I used to think this was only a problem at stand up gigs. Sometimes when you're dying and you try to dig your way out of the situation you can make it much, much worse - you're adlibbing and will try anything and sometimes it goes horribly wrong. In the past that would just have left a bad taste in everyone in the room's mouth but now (as some comedians have found to their cost) a disastrous death or poor ad lib can get you into all kinds of trouble. But it's actually true for us all. Whilst in this case I am glad the woman was filmed (and I suspect that if the film hadn't gone up on line and been seen by thousands that the police would not have been so bothered) there is also a line that can be crossed in privacy being infringed. What if you're drunk and behaving stupidly - should that go up online just cos it's been filmed? What if you're having a private conversation with your friend, pushing the limits of an idea in a safe environment, and someone films you from round a corner? What if you are mightily provoked by someone and then flip out at them, but the person with the camera only films the second half of that and makes you look insane? We all do things either in anger or drunkeness that we might not want to have captured on film and then broadcast around the planet. With all that is going on with the newspapers it is strange to think that we're at a point where a person with a modern phone is just as capable of intruding on privacy.
I think in this case the woman has pretty much given up her rights to privacy by behaving like this in a public way. And it's human nature to want to spread this clip out to as many people as possible (as I did today and have done in this blog). Interesting though.
