Benedict Cumberbatch OUTRAGE!!!

Blackjack Davy · 29 Jan 2015 at 17:23

XeNoN89 said:
I agree with the fact that 'coloured' isnt accurate, white is a colour as well after all, but that part about not using mixed race is ridiculous. Mixed race is a very accurate and non offensive term

Actually "white" is no colour, or rather its all colours, combined. "Black" is a total absence of colour. Chromatically speaking, of course. All wavelengths of light (colours) are reflected in one and absorbed in the other.

/I'll get me coat.

Castiel · 29 Jan 2015 at 17:26

I don't really understand all the outrage to be honest. Clearly it is simply the English Benedict Cumberbatch innocently using a word that has negative connotations in the United States.

People should be listening to his message, not his words.

arknor · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:13

J.T said:
I can't help but notice there appears to be certain groups in all types of human's who use "the past" as an excuse as to why they fail now or why they need assistance to win now.

If you notice pretty much all the successful people in these groups do not dwell on the past.

No offence to any one or multiple groups of Human's is meant by the above statement, it is merely my observations.

surely dwelling on the racist past is precisely the issue here.
Sure he could have chosen his words better but he clearly wasn't being derogative.

A word surely has a racist meaning/undertone for as long as people want it to?

kaptainmarc · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:22

I'm not white I am some weird peachy colour

They aren't black they are brown

I don't get this world and all its BS

Von Smallhausen · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:24

This typifies how frenzied that a poor choice of words without malice can become.

This really is a non story and only stoked the fires of the many people who are offended by proxy. The man has done nothing wrong and shows just how much the word racist has been diluted to the point of meaninglessness.

Edrof · 30 Jan 2015 at 10:46

OhEsEcks said:
It's an allotment for monks.

*Claps*

Efour · 30 Jan 2015 at 10:51

When UKIP get in power "heros" like Cumberbatch will be honored.

xbenjiiman · 30 Jan 2015 at 10:52

Moothead2 said:
We should start using hex codes to describe skin colour. Surely they can't complain about that ?

robgmun · 30 Jan 2015 at 11:34

[FnG]magnolia;27548477 said:
I think it's become a story because he's gone so completely overboard in his apology. You'll notice much of the commentary is around what he has called himself ('idiot' etc) rather than the term he innocently used.

I think you're largely right although the outrage was already building, but he gave the story legs by his grovelling and overboard apology.

gambitt · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:07

I'm in my 30's and while I can't speak for everyone, when I was in school the term 'coloured' was the accepted term and 'black' was offensive. I can imagine certain generations blurting out the wrong word occasionally.

BunnyKillBot · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:17

Blackjack Davy said:
Actually "white" is no colour, or rather its all colours, combined. "Black" is a total absence of colour. Chromatically speaking, of course. All wavelengths of light (colours) are reflected in one and absorbed in the other.

/I'll get me coat.

Stoke the fire and put your coat back on, because everything contained in this post is wrong. You might be having a laugh or trying to sound clever, but it completely misses the pitch.

balky12 · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:22

BunnyKillBot said:
Stoke the fire and put your coat back on, because everything contained in this post is wrong. You might be having a laugh or trying to sound clever, but it completely misses the pitch.

Nerdy forum has nerdy replies. Nothing to see here. Think someone needs some more sleep.

BunnyKillBot · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:26

balky12 said:
Nerdy forum has nerdy replies. Nothing to see here. Think someone needs some more sleep.

Its not nerdy, thats the point. Black is a colour in the same sense that 0 is a number

balky12 · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:34

BunnyKillBot said:
Its not nerdy, thats the point. Black is a colour in the same sense that 0 is a number.

All depends on who you ask... for both black and white.

Artists would argue white is not a colour. Whilst scientists would argue it is. Vice versa for black.

I'm still not sure on your 'stoke the fire' opener. Davy is inciting racism talking about the colour spectrum? A much debated aspect of it as well.

At least this topic is more interesting than the Cumberbatch episode.

BunnyKillBot · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:37

balky12 said:
Artists would argue white is not a colour. Whilst scientists would argue it is. Vice versa for black.

BSc vs BA, yeah i am going with the science thank you. White is the trichromatic response of the 3 type of cones in your eye. These are sensitive to different frequencies of light, singularly colour blind but together able to compute a colour, a bit like GPS triangulation. Just because it does not exist on the finite visible spectrum (similarly including pink, purple and magenta etc) does not make them colourless.

balky12 · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:43

BunnyKillBot said:
BSc vs BA, yeah i am going with the science thank you. White is the trichromatic response of the 3 type of cones in your eye computing a colour, a bit like GPS triangulating a position. Just because it is a not exist on the finite visible spectrum (including pink, purple and magenta) does not make them any less of colours.

So you agree with Davy then...? Scientists do not view black as a colour, it is the absence of colour/ light.

Just to be clear, we are talking about perfect black. Not some dulex paint colour named 'black'.

BunnyKillBot · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:44

balky12 said:
So you agree with Davy then...? Scientists do not view black as a colour, it is the absence of colour/ light.

Just to be clear, we are talking about perfect black. Not some dulex paint colour named 'black'.

Is 0 a number?

If you want to be deliberately obtuse, there is no perfect black. All things are black if there is no light, and no material exists that is true black when a light is shined upon it, other than a black hole.

leaskovski · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:47

BunnyKillBot said:
Is 0 a number?

Ageist.

balky12 · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:51

BunnyKillBot said:
Is 0 a number?

edit: If you want to be deliberately obtuse, there is no perfect black. All things are black if there is no light, and no material exists that is true black when a light is shined upon it, other than a black hole.

Yes '0' is a number. That doesn't change anything on the colour spectrum.

I want to be deliberately obtuse? Possibly. After your earlier contribution towards Davy I thought it would be quite amusing. Then you mentioned how you trust science over everything (I am with you on this one) but that in turn meant you were contradicting yourself by saying black is a colour, when scientifically it isn't.

However this has been debated on a huge amount by 'experts' in their own fields. I doubt we will solve the question over OcUK.

Hope you catch up on your sleep before the weekend hits!

jumpy · 30 Jan 2015 at 12:55

friday buffet

BKB shines a dim light on the problem with people obsessively picking over the minutiae and totally missing the context and intent of the original - a sort of life imitates art thing perhaps?

Previous observations of other people out in the world endlessly picking over the dessicated bones of a topic, news story or some such thing, seem to indicate that they either do it on purpose because they just like to argue, or they genuinely believe what they're saying because they are just plain old stupid. Either way a lot of time and effort is expended with the end result being FA - a factor that is common to all such 'debate'.