Digital Spy report that viewers sent complaints about Corrie to Ofcom more times in the 12-month period ending March 2017 than any of its rival soaps.
In total, Coronation Street attracted 1,204 complaints (up from 154 during the previous year) – although this has been skewed slightly by the fact that a large percentage (around 40%) came from one single episode – 473 over Eva Price's racially-insensitive "more roots than Kunta Kinte"
Despite the controversy, Ofcom did clear the comment, saying that it "reflected the foolishness, and lack of sensitivity and cultural awareness, of her character".
"For her to speak in this thoughtless fashion without understanding what she was referring to, or that it might cause offence, was likely to have been consistent with the audience's expectations of her character," the report added.
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7 comments:
I didn't hear that comment. But then the absolute SHITTY WRITERS have made me close my ears.
I think all the complainers need to chill out. Being offended is a full time job for some people. Geesh!
OMG. That thing again. Eva is a known ditzy girl who didn't understand a tired old joke on a tv reference from before she was born that the writers completely botched. Once and for all, it should have been more roots than Alex Haley. More roots than Kunta Kinte makes no sense -- he was the deepest root in Alex Haley's family tree. Frosted hair was popular when that show first ran, that joke was a little funny at the time, she just remembered something dumb her mom said (and Stella was smart enough not to have gotten it wrong) and it doesn't denigrate the Haley family or mock slavery. SMH
I can't believe that throwaway comment made by a character who had no idea what it meant got more complaints than anything else.
Even as a criticism of the prejudice of the writers, I'd rather they were asked why every major black character the show has had has been a nuisance except for Lloyd.(Ex. Caz, Tony, Kirsty and her father). And, are there no Asian people in Manchester that none has ever so much as gotten lost and asked for directions on Corrie?
People have too much time on their hands. To sit at home and watch a 30 minute TV show and then launch a complaint over 5 words that a character says is just a bit pathetic.
Freddie, Steph, Luke, Fiona Middleton, Shirley Armitage, Nathan Cooper, Jason Grimshaw - plenty of positive black characters (and Kirsty's dad was white - David Lonsdale, an earlier incarnation of Peter Barlow, bizarrely!). And as for Asians in Manchester, the Nazirs, the Allahans, the Desais, that awful Xin, whom Graham ran off with. Admittedly their ratio doesn't represent the actual percentage of Asians in society, but they are there.
Aside from Jason and I wouldn't consider the others major characters or even to have had major storylines? Maybe you're right.
I see. I'm Canadian so by Asian I meant Chinese, Japanese, Korean,etc, I would assume people like the Nazirs, Allahans and Desais were just Brits or at least from Commonwealth nations, so, to me, they're just more Brits and not showing much diversity.
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