As good as the intentions of the complainant may have been, I don’t need someone to take offence for me. And yet, this demand for censorship is creeping into our lives more and more.
Not in a month of Sundays did I think I’d find myself cheerleading for the “political correctness gone mad” brigade, yet here we are.
The mayor was talking about Wilkinson replacing outgoing councillor William Owen-Jones, who also happens to be a redhead. Tate joked, “You know, lose one ranga, get another ranga. What the hell. That’s what the Gold Coast is all about.”Incredibly, the comment resulted in an official complaint, a full-blown investigation by the Office of the Independent Assessor and, consequently, Tate facing disciplinary action and being forced to apologise.
Sure, it’s a good rule of thumb to avoid commenting about someone’s personal appearance . And maybe the complainant was red-headed. But on this point, I have skin in the game. Ever since school, I’ve heard slang synonyms for ginger hair used in a mocking way. Ranga is by far the most affectionate. In roughly nine weeks’ time, I’ll start getting phone calls from radio producers who want to know if, as a gay man living in 2024, I’m offended by The Pogues’ Christmas classic,. What’s the issue, you might ask? The song includes the word “f––––t”, a term I acknowledge can be extremely offensive, and as such is published with strikeouts in this masthead.
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