The Ablutionist published an excellent post yesterday describing exactly the sort of casual wanging around of the word “racist” that I referred to on Friday. I wonder what advocate-but-not-adopter of the Stone Age lifestyle Fiona Watson would have thought if she had overheard my mother on a bus telling me as a child whenever my afro got too straggly: “Comb your hair when we get home, Damian. You look like a bushman!”



my colonialist mum with my nephew, Little Black Sambo

Of course, what she should have said was “Comb your hair when we get home, Damian, or it’ll fall out and you’ll look like Dr Evil!”