Quote:
Originally Posted by Cherie
Pretty much
He has now penned an apology
He wrote: "Following one of the worst days of my life I just want to formally apologise for the outrage I caused and explain how I got myself into this mess.
"I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
"In attempting to lampoon privilege and the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures and saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought, 'That's the one!' Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a a baby in a crown. But I didn't. God knows I wish had.
"Minutes later I was alerted by followers that this royal baby was of course mixed race and waves of panic and revulsion washed over me... What had I done?
"I needed no lessons on the centuries slurs equating simians and people of colour. Racism at it's basest.
'Crass and regrettable blunder'
"But it was a genuine, naive and catastrophic mistake. There is of course little media/twitter traction in such a straight-forward explanation. The picture in context as presented was obviously shamefully racist. It was never intended so - seriously who on earth would 'go there'?"
He added: "Anyway I am now paying the price for this crass and regrettable blunder and rightly so. Probably even this final word from me will extend the mania. ('Dog whistle' anyone?) I would like to thank friends on here for their kinder words and once again - I am so, so sorry."
On Thursday, a casually dressed Baker joked with journalists on his doorstep that the tweet was a "stupid gag".
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I thought itbwould be something like that. The idea that someone like Danny Baker is racist is a bit daft, especially when people who've never heard of him leap to that conclusion based on one tweet.