Is ‘Gammon’ a Racist Term?

Gotta love those rhetorical questions in headlines.

One of my stories about racism attracted a comment from somebody who claimed that they thought I had a good point until they saw an image of nine red-faced, angry, white men in the article, at which point they switched off because they thought the image of gammon was ‘racist’. Now, I never used the g-word in that story — but this commenter knew who I meant and then decided that to point out the characteristics of the group doing the oppressing was ‘racist’.

I think we can safely say that this person was not only a white man, but also a gammon. And that their comment was not meant in good faith. You see, not all white men are gammon — and I mean that seriously, not in a #NotAllWhiteMen way. But the gammon are 99.99% white, male, and ruddy-faced — at least when they’re mouthing off about something that raises their blood pressure.

They are also one of the most privileged groups, and biggest causes of division in society, blaming everything from immigrants to single mothers for what they perceive as a decline in standards, while things have actually got better. And they’re not going to shut up about it until Something Is Done. And then, they probably won’t shut up about it either. Never was so much demanded by those with so few problems.