September 8, 2022

"Earlier, I made an ironic reference to a term used by some on the left about black people who are deemed traitors to the cause through joining the Tory Party."

"After I posted it, I realised this joke might give offence and deleted it. It was unacceptable language, wide open to misinterpretation, and I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused.  I have repeatedly applauded the Conservatives for having the most diverse cabinet in British history. Indeed, I tweeted earlier that the Truss cabinet made the Scottish government look 'hideously white.' I have always championed racial diversity in my columns and I am dismayed that my cack-handed attempt at humour suggested otherwise."

Wrote Iain Macwhirter, quoted in "Journalist apologises for ‘coconut cabinet’ jibe" (London Times).

He used a term no one should even consider using but apparently thought it could work because he was portraying other people as having used it and he's trying to attract offense and redirect it over to them. That's way too tricky a move, plus you are still causing the offense by reminding people of the insult.

He's "dismayed that my cack-handed attempt at humour." What is "cack" anyway? It's ca-ca — excrement.  The OED says that "cack-handed" is only "perhaps" based on "cack." But "cack-handed" has always meant clumsy, going back to 1854. "Cack" is much older word, going back to the 1400s. I'll just quote you one quote from the 1500s:
a1556    T. Cranmer in J. Strype Mem. Cranmer (1694) App. 105   Because the Devil could not get out at his mouth, the man blew him, or cacked him out behind.

17 comments:

MadisonMan said...

I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused
A non-apology -- unless he names the "some on the left".

n.n said...

Colored (irony)? Black? A low-information surface attribute.

People of Color? People of Black? A color bloc in diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry).

African-American (i.e. 1/2 compromise)?

Sebastian said...

"a term used by some on the left about black people who are deemed traitors to the cause through joining the Tory Party."

OK, so he apologizes for his "ironic" use of the term. Do any progs ever apologize for their unironic vilification of black people who wander off the prog masters' reservations?

I know we're talking UK here, but let's check with Clarence Thomas.

Drago said...

"He used a term no one should even consider using but apparently thought it could work because he was portraying other people as having used it and he's trying to attract offense and redirect it over to them."

Most of those on the left can't help but do what our Howard/Inga/gadfly do.

It's expected.

Just wait until Howard starts lecturing those Latinx's again! (Some of the most inadvertently revealing posts by Howard).

This is along the same lines as the many New Soviet Democratical mayors who proclaimed their cities illegal immigrant "Sanctuary Cities" and then, as soon as a single bus or 2 showed up with Brown people, they declared an emergency.

Lori Lightfoot declared an "Emergency" when just 100 illegals showed up.
Bowser in DC declared an "Emergency" when just 200 illegals showed up.
Eric Adams in NY is already asking for federal help for the few hundred illegals bussed to NYC.

Mike Yancey said...

I remember "cack" being used in the HBO series "Rome", usually as an epithet.

I shall add it to my vocabulary.
No one will ever know.

rhhardin said...

Coconut cabinet has alliteration but I don't know what it means. White on the inside and brown on the outside? Having people who used to grow coconuts? Maybe needs clarifying c-words.

Not since Eli Whitney said get your cotton-pickin' hands off my gin has such ambiguity ruled.

Joe Smith said...

What are all those African Americans doing in British politics?

Lurker21 said...

Isn't old white men celebrating diversity and complaining about white people a form of cultural appropriation? Not to mention taking work away from columnists of color?

Sooner or later everybody has their cack-handed coconut cabinet macaca moment.

This guy's had a few of them.

When does he apologize for "hideously white?"

Kevin said...

Once you go cack, you never go back.

Lucien said...

Using that term was just bananas.

typingtalker said...

I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused.

What ever happened to, "Sticks and stones ... "?

Perhaps if "fighting words" were followed by real fighting, there would be less of each through either attrition or good sense.

rcocean said...

the English Journalist sounds like a total dumbshit or should I say Dumbcaca. I assume he was saying something like:

"The labour party are the real racists. No doubt they are saying the Tuss Cabinet is the coconut cabint because its too black for them".

That he says stuff like "Hideously white" shows he plays the "DR3 card" and is a loser.

boatbuilder said...

"Hideously white"? I suppose that's just "edgy"if you consider the government of India to be "Hideously brown" or the government of Nigeria to be "hideously black."

A racialist virtue-signaller steps on his own dick. Too bad.

Mikey NTH said...

Britain and America are divided by a common language, so I remember reading somewhere. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that cack-handed meant clumsy, like ham-fisted.

I recall reading in a book on WW1 pilots that a fighter pilot needed to have more finesse on the controls whereas a bomber pilot could be ham-fisted.

Ambrose said...

He thought it was ok because it was aimed at Black Tories.

loudogblog said...

I've never heard that term before. I wonder if it's similar to the insult, "oreo" that some people throw at black conservatives in the United States. (Accusing them of being black on the outside and white on the inside.)

Plus, these groveling apologies always remind me of the apologies that prisoners of war do for the propaganda videos.

Narr said...

Poopy caca.

The root IIRC traces back to Greek. "Cacaphony." (I could check my OED in my room but I just got here.)

As a precocious Anglophile I encountered the term 'cack-handed' early on.