Activities

Discuss the following questions in pairs.

1. What are your thoughts when you hear the word 'Nigger' or 'Paki' or 'Gay'?
2. What names do you hear people at school or college calling each other? Why are these names used? Have you ever intervened? What action could you take?
3. Have you ever thought about the true meaning or provenance (origin) of the terms of abuse people use towards each other?
4. What names have you been called? How did it feel?
5. What is the difference between someone calling you a name out of affection or someone insulting you?
6. Have you ever thought about the consequences of a word you used to abuse somebody? Imagine what might have happened afterwards.

Discuss the following questions in groups

1. Did any of the interviews that Ashley made stand out for you? Why?
2. Compare Ashley's stance at the beginning and at the end of the documentary. At what point did he actually change his mind completely about the use of the 'N-word'?
3. Can or should words like 'Nigger' and 'Paki' be reclaimed, rebranded or empowered?
4. Do you think, as Ashley did at the beginning, that too much time is devoted to microscopic examinations of what constitutes racism?
5. What is the overall message of this programme? Do you think it persuaded you to think again about the language that you use on a daily basis?
6. Read the Background Information section. Ron Atkinson said: 'What I said is racist, I understand that, but I'm not a racist.' Do you agree? Should he be given another chance?
7. Political correctness became commonplace in the 1990s. In the USA, the description of people as 'black' was changed to 'African-American', in spite of the fact that most black people prefer to be called 'black'. List some 'politically correct' terms that you have come across. For example:
   
   • Former term: small / short
   • PC term: vertically challenged
   Do you agree with the PC ways of labelling people?

Some more suggestions for question 7:
small / short or vertically challenged
fat or overweight
disabled or differently abled
deaf or hearing impaired
mentally handicapped or with learning difficulties / intellectually challenged
third world countries or developing nations