ROD LIDDLE - HUMOURLESS IMBECILE...

“Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian president, greeted Barack Obama’s victory by commending him on his “suntan” and was astonished to find people taking offence. God save us from humourless imbeciles, he said.”

Ever a stickler for diplomatic niceties, the excellent Rod Liddle, too,
was offended - an outrage more notable for its desperate self-deception than for
any measure of affront.

I’m afraid, the incorruptible Sunday Times columnist missed the point
when he claimed the “suntan” crack was quite as bad as someone referring to
Silvio as a “pasta-eating, sexually incontinent megalomaniac gangster.” The
implication is quite clear. If the latter is equivalent to the former, then,
Rod’s view of the black man can’t be very elevated. And there is the rub.
Prejudice is harder to shake off than common sense. By all means, don’t mention
the war when you run into a Kraut, but if the colour of someone’s skin not only
requires discretion but is actually taboo, then we have a problem. It's a
mistake that misunderstands the intrinsic value of cultural and racial
differences.

Rod is trapped in circumstances. From his perspective he has acted
chivalrously. Though one suspects that he does not recognize his own profoundly
patronising attitude. All his discernment and good will are plainly no
protection against the condescending bonhomie of his own inherent bigotry. A
community activist who runs a help centre advising itinerant migrants on how to
secure their full entitlement to benefits is one thing, but to extend
affirmative action to a towering heroic figure, president-elect and soon to be
commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest superpower, iconic and swathed in an
aura of mythic achievement - well, that’s quite another.

Wake up, Rod. There are too many old grudges. You cannot repeal
two-thousand years of history by affirmative action alone. If the implication is
that black people are exempt from the laws of human progress because they are
somehow more disadvantaged than the rest of us, then, sadly, I remain
unconvinced. But if you’re saying they are a people with an indigenous
inferiority complex, something that anticipates the victim and perennial
resignation, then frankly, I couldn't be more unsympathetic. If given the chance
I would stay in bed all day eating chocolate. But it so happens, we’ve all got
to get up and get on with it.

You're a lucky dude, Rod, don't be a dumb one.

Dreamy