Let's Spin The Wheel Of Racism And See Where It Lands This Time...

....oh. Racist cartoon hyaenas? 

Well. I wasn't expecting that.

The Lion King was met with near universal praise when it came out 25 years ago. It grossed 312.9 million in the U.S. It won two Oscars. But an argument nevertheless emerged concerning the two main hyenas, Shenzi and Banzai—namely, that they were racist characters. In an overwhelmingly white voice cast (for a movie about Africa), they were brought to life by minority actors, Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, who played them as low-life gangsters, reprobates who speak in slang and live tucked away in a shadowy corner of the Pride Lands—the wrong side of the tracks.

Which the usual suspects immediatly recognised not as the usual Disney 'villian' trope, but as an attack on 'black street culture'. So, who exactly is the racist here?

Critics said their accents instantly demonized the characters. Academic pieces blasted the hyenas’ “street” vernacular. Some articles pointed out how the clever, cunning Scar—who speaks with white British actor Jeremy Irons’ King’s English—subjugates the destitute hyenas as his servants. “The good-for-nothing hyenas are urban blacks,” wrote a Harvard psychologist. A New York Times journalist dubbed them “Sambo-ish.”

Just goes to show, you can go to Harvard, or you can be educated at Harvard. People often choose the wrong one. 

When asked about the controversy in 1994, Disney spokeswoman Terry Press dismissed it. “It’s a story. It’s fiction,” she said. “These people need to get a life.”

/applause!  

Can't Spell, Can't Count...

...that's the 'Mail' for you!

Staff at his restaurant were filmed preparing the fish in a video on social media. But a wildlife campaigner said Stein should be ashamed of himself for cashing in on 'these rare incredible fish'.

A campaigner? Then why the plural in the headline? 

Dominic Dyer, a wildlife campaigner, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Why are fishermen being licensed to catch these incredible fish? Also, what is Rick Stein thinking, promoting the catch of this rare 150kg specimen to feed to tourists in his hugely expensive Padstow restaurant?

'There is no such thing as sustainable management of these rare incredible fish and Rick Stein should be ashamed of himself cashing in on killing them.'

*sighs* No such thing, eh? 

Fishermen were banned from catching bluefin tuna – the most expensive fish in the world – after overfishing of herring and mackerel depleted its food supply and it vanished off Cornwall in the 1950s. But it has now returned, due to rising sea temperatures, and the ban was relaxed in 2021.

Seems there is indeed such a thing! So global warming ain't all bad, is it?

A spokesman for Stein's restaurants said the fish was caught by 'one of ten boats with a licence to catch some of the small quota allowed by the Marine Management Organisation – a quota that's been carefully decided upon following detailed tracking and research of tuna in our waters'.

And the fishermen caught it because it's their job. Just as it's Stein's restaurant staff's job to feed tourists. 

What have you got against employment, Dyer? Was it your 13 years as a civil servant at MAFF that put you off?