Coronation Street

I'm sitting here waiting for someone to come fix my front door and totally amazed at what I'm hearing. There's a debate on the local radio station about the use of the phrase "white trash" in Coronation Street on Monday night.

Sunita's brother sat in her little bedsit and cussed her for not making up with Dev. He went on to say something like "you don't want to end up like your white trash, single mother friends" (my paraphrase). Now I admit I was a bit suprised and stopped reading long enough (I was catching up on a few other blogs) to turn round and look at the telly. Sunita's response was to tell her brother exactly what she thought of him and throw him out the flat. That having been said, I returned to my reading and thought no more about it.

Apparently there have been loads of complaints to Granada about the use of the term. People were furious about the use of the term, equating it to calling black people niggas. It's racist, it's terrible, it shouldn't be allowed!

Do what?!?

As a "friend" said to me when I told him about my feelings on racism in this country - come on get that chip off your shoulder!

My understanding is the phrase came from America and was used originally in the deep south as a derogatory term by well to do white plantation owners towards white people who befriended or defended slaves. It's come into everyday parlance now through such high class programmes as Jerry Springer. The term fit in with the character who has exactly that same kind of attitude. A very nasty, narrow minded little man who thinks he's better than everyone else.

Yeah it's not nice. But I don't recall any outrage when Kelly and Lloyd were called Monkeys by Ronnies husband, when Hayley was being abused for being a transexual by that little brat Sophie webster or when Sean was being abused by Les and Cilla? These were just incidences of charaters showing how spiteful, malicious, vicious and cruel they are or can be. Is that not the case? So why is it different here?

Wake up people! It happens all the time in this programme. It's a SOAP!!!

:)x