And once again, two things about this article:
1: Assuming that the photo is of the Neill Andrews who made the reported dickheadish racist statement on Facebook – and given the Herald’s preference for vaguely borderline irrelevant photos from Thinkstock, I’m not sure – then I’m curious as to why he’d get a tattoo that looks an awful lot like Japan’s World War 2 rising sun flag with the word 家族 (family, household, whanau, MDBG also says clan, pronounced jiāzú in Mandarin) in the middle? Oh well, at least it says something coherent, I mean, it could be a lot worse. But the flag that tattoo so resembles is associated with some rather horrific events, and I find it hard to reconcile with “family” or “whanau”.
2: Why is this guy being given any credit for expressing remorse or regret? Look how the Herald quotes him:
“I pretty much take the piss out of everything and everyone,”
[…]
“I make fun of stereotypes and topics that are taboo because it’s important that we do talk about these things,” he said.
“Yes, I am over the top in the way I do it at times, but it gets the issue and message out there. I certainly didn’t want to offend a whole race of human beings and for this I am extremely regretful.”
If you want to take the piss, you actually have to be funny, for starters. Secondly, precisely what issue and message did he want to get out there? If he was meaning to call attention to the evils of racism, then, judging by what they Herald quotes him as having posted to Facebook, he really needs to seriously rethink his communication strategy, because it reads a hell of a lot like he was actually encouraging racism. Thirdly, if you don’t want to offend entire races of human beings, don’t say or write things that offend entire races of human beings. It’s really not difficult. But far more importantly, this just reads like crocodile tears. He behaved, to put it very mildly, like a dick, then when he got called on his dickishness, he was all “Oh, woe is me! People are taking issue with my dickish behaviour!” If you load your apology up with “I was just taking the piss” and “I am over the top at times” then I see no reason to believe you are actually remorseful for your behaviour. Perhaps “It was a badly failed attempt at humour” would be better, but whatever, that’s not what he’s quoted as saying. What he’s quoted as saying reads like just as big a non-apology as a certain two former radio hosts made a couple of months ago.
