A Jersey politician’s contribution to International Women’s Day
Assistant Treasury Minister Lindsay Ash saw his tweet simply as “observational comedy” but it reveals much about power and privilege
During the 2018 election campaign Lindsay Ash invited us to examine his suitability for the role of Deputy of St. Clement.
“What can we expect you to stand for, and what principals [sic] will govern your thinking?” He asked himself on our behalf.
Mocking an African American woman’s physical appearance by pretending to confuse her with a man in drag probably wouldn’t be most peoples strategy of choice when looking to promote their moral integrity. But then Deputy Ash doesn’t view himself as a ‘populist career politician’, he’s a man of the people. White male people predominantly, it seems.
For the few who might not yet know, Deputy Ash decided a fitting tribute to commemorate International Women’s Day would be to describe the American philanthropist and talk show host Oprah Winfrey as having the appearance of a man in a wig. Former footballer Ian Wright to be precise. Quite an odd contribution to feel the need to make, but if you find yourself absolutely determined to attack a woman for her looks by recycling material from lovable racist Jim Davidson then I guess why not pick the one day of the year where it’ll truly be noticed?
Perhaps the now Deputy for St. Clement was just a bit confused. After all we learned during the campaign his political ideology can best be summarized by the words of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. “All government should be based on being ‘for the greatest good of the greatest number.”
It seems a tad unlikely Bentham’s notion of appealing to the greatest number actually meant singling out racial minorities for cheap laughs. Maybe befuddled misinterpretation becomes something of an occupational hazard if you’re constantly living up to your one and only campaign rallying cry to ‘get on the lash’.
What makes all of this quite surprising is that less than a month prior Deputy Ash rightfully condemned online bullying as being “cowardly and beneath contempt”, after his colleague in the States Deputy Inna Gardiner found herself subjected to disgraceful abuse online. It strikes me as therefore quite strange that it’s apparently fine to mock a black woman on Twitter but ok. I sought clarification on this fairly obvious hypocrisy and the Deputy was good enough to set the record straight. Displaying all the divine grace of a three legged dog traversing a high wire the Deputy bluntly confirmed that the crucial nuance I’d mistakenly overlooked, the key element that separates a harmless joke from misogynistic bullying turns out to hinge entirely on whether or not he finds it amusing.
To be fair to the Deputy, after initially refusing outright to even countenance apologising he had a fairly swift change of heart when ITV requested an interview the following morning.
“If I offended people because they felt it’s slightly mean to take the mickey out of someone’s looks and the way they’ve appeared, I’ll accept that and I’m sorry if they found that offensive. If however you’re accusing me of racism and misogynism and things that were being put on there, that’s complete rubbish.”
As sorrys go it’s a bit like running over someone’s cat, only to apologise for it resulting in the owners mascara running. Not only has the Deputy shown quite impressive levels of misjudgement with his calamitous attempt at humour on literally the worst day possible, he hasn’t the faintest idea or comprehension why he even received criticism in the first place.
“I’m sorry if they found that offensive” is a classic non-apology. He isn’t apologizing because he understands and regrets the potential ramifications of his actions. There is no remorse because in his eyes he’s done nothing wrong. He’s sorry because people reacted negatively. Because ‘woke left snowflakes’ kicked up a fuss so now he has to spend more time doing tv interviews and less getting on the lash.
The issue here isn’t merely his poor judgement, poor taste, and inability to comprehend fairly basic situations. Deputy Ash is, incredibly, an elected representative and assistant minister for both the Treasury and Home Affairs departments. His words and actions can have significant influence.
Derogatory comments about the appearance of women have made workplaces a hostile environment for women for decades, and the typical response on the rare occasion an offender is confronted is ‘It was just a joke/Can’t you take a joke/Don’t get offended.’ The victim is often made to feel that their reaction to misogyny is the real problem, that in order to survive and flourish in those surroundings they need to learn to accept that occasionally they will be attacked in this way. That the best way of dealing with it all is to keep quiet and tow the misogynistic line.
We also cannot ignore the depressingly prevalent trope that all black people look the same, that they’re indistinguishable from one another. Interestingly when it was pointed out that Ian Wright found this deeply offensive towards black women the Deputy took to Twitter to offer him up a full and unreserved apology. I’m yet to see the same gesture to the actual victim of his ‘joke’.
“It’s their way of belittling Oprah in a way that seems socially acceptable, that they can pass off as banter. It’s not banter. It’s horrible to see”,
Ian Wright said in response to seeing the meme the Deputy had chosen to share. Perhaps Ian Wright is also a ‘woke left snowflake’; Mr Ash’s and his merry band of Twitter cheerleaders label of choice for anyone who dares suggest he might want to reflect on some of his outdated views.
It’s fair to say there are many people out there who at first glance won’t see what the problem is. Why all the fuss? I genuinely believe the Deputy when he initially said he doesn’t see why he should apologize. I very much doubt he chose to share that meme in order to be misogynistic or racist. He looked at it and saw nothing wrong, and all the hoopla that’s since followed will likely have been confusing and perplexing. And therein lies part of the problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not immediately understanding someone else's perspective. Everyone makes mistakes.What’s important is that when the targets of your supposed jokes are telling you they have a problem with what you’re saying, instead of doubling down on it as the Deputy did by dismissing all criticism as ‘woke nonsense’, perhaps take a moment to reflect and consider things from the perspective of others.
The Deputy was not alone in taking up this stance. Those backing him were a minority but still significant in number. There are plenty of people who feel they are living in a world that’s moved on without them, who are unsure why things that were socially acceptable before aren’t today. And to be honest if you’re absorbing any of what makes up the majority of the British press on a daily basis I’m not at all surprised little of this makes any sense. It’s like deciding to go backpacking through Peru with nothing but a Russian dictionary for translation. Bewildered confusion is inevitable.
For those this resonates with it might be worth taking the time to listen to the views of the target of these ‘jokes’, about why they consider it problematic or offensive. If this had been your gran, your mum, would it have been quite so funny?
Ultimately the Deputy holds public office and is rightly held to a higher standard and is answerable for his conduct. That he continues to so clearly fail to take any of this in to account belies a complete lack of awareness about the types of toxic behaviour he is encouraging just to try and appear humorous to his handful of twitter disciples. Not only has he pronounced himself the arbiter of what qualifies as bullying, Deputy Ash clearly considers himself best positioned to determine what qualifies as misogyny and racism as well. Both assertions are laughably misguided.
