Jeremy Vine’s ‘brain dribbles out of his ears’ as he exposes his own racism live on TV
On Friday 31 March, former BBC host and now C5 presenter Jeremy Vine did little to dispel the notion that old, white, middle-class men are a scourge on society. He inanely mansplained to a woman, while indirectly arguing with the dictionary as well – all live on his TV show. Vine also showed a clear whiff of racism, too – unsurprisingly. It was all over the word ‘woke’.
Vine: schooled in the word ‘woke’
During 31 March’s episode of Jeremy Vine On 5, author and broadcaster Natasha Devon was on. The discussion turned to wokeness. Devon asked Vine to “define what woke is”. The host floundered, spouting something about:
Woke is basically when you sort of, y’know, you kind-of read the Guardian and this and that…
It literally isn’t that, Vine – as Devon went onto explain:
Woke is actually and African-American term. It means to be awake to injustice in society. If you’re woke it just means you’re not racist, homophobic or misogynist.
I was bamboozled once when #JeremyVine described himself as ‘WOKE’. Now I know why.
Just like a right winger he’s decided he doesn’t like the humanity in the original meaning & created a new one which makes no sense at all.Read on...
Shout out to @_NatashaDevon for trying to school him. pic.twitter.com/faDgQn8rCN
— Glow (@SussexRoyalGlow) March 31, 2023
As Vox wrote, the use of woke in this context dates back to the 1920s:
In 1923, a collection of aphorisms and ideas by the Jamaican philosopher and social activist Marcus Garvey included the summons “Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!” as a call to global Black citizens to become more socially and politically conscious. A few years later, the phrase “stay woke” turned up as part of a spoken afterword in the 1938 song “Scottsboro Boys,” a protest song by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly. The song describes the 1931 saga of a group of nine Black teenagers in Scottsboro, Arkansas, who were accused of raping two white women.
So, woke comes from Black people resisting colonialism, white supremacy, and slavery. It’s entered more widespread use since the Black Lives Matter movement rose to prominence in the previous decade. Naturally, the right wing and liberals have jumped on the term with their usual racist and classist shithousery – and intentionally weaponised it to mean something its not.
So, you’d think as an experienced broadcaster, Vine would know the etymology of the word woke – and therefore accept Devon’s correct explanation. But Vine is an old, middle-class white man – so of course he didn’t.
Exposing your own racism and misogyny, Jeremy Vine-style
The host said in response to Devon’s explanation:
In YOUR [his accent, not the Canary’s] definition it means that, but not to everyone.
Devon seemed to want to try and tell him that her definition was literally the dictionary’s one. Because it actually is. But even then, Vine still wouldn’t have it, saying:
No, no – not to everyone. It’s come to mean something else.
No, it fucking hasn’t Vine. Racist, homophobic and misogynistic people have hijacked it to mean something else. The rest of us are very clear on the definition – as people on social media pointed out:
“It’s come to mean something else”.
Nonsense.
Many racist homophobic mysoginostic people work hard to delegitimise the term and attempt to make it mean something else. But they have failed.
We know this because they can’t provide their new definition— Stuart G (@AvidInquirer) March 31, 2023
That is the definition Jeremy, it’s just been hijacked as an insult by the likes of the sun or daily fail to try and legitimise being racist / bigoted / nasty to people usually … when used as an insult it often says more about that person and their attitudes than the ‘woke’ one
— Lulu (@Lulu_R81) March 31, 2023
Vine gave the distinct impression he’s a bit racist and misogynistic, too. Black people couldn’t possibly have their own words, and a woman couldn’t possibly be right on what they mean – could they, Jeremy?
Jeremy Vine might as well just say: "you black people are not important enough to define your own terms" just so we're all clear what he really meant. Same old same old.
— Tendai Chetse 🇿🇼 🇬🇧 (@TendaiChetse) March 31, 2023
I guess Jeremey gets to decide, not the Black community who created it.
There is a word for that.
— vob (@voblat) March 31, 2023
She gave him the chance to define it and he couldn’t. Then she correctly gives both a definition and it’s origin, and he dismisses her. Embarrassing.
— Kim Kinloch (@kim_kinloch) March 31, 2023
However, old white men exposing their extremely unpleasant underbellies via the corporate media is hardly new:
The willingness for men of this age to let you watch as their brains just sort of dribble out their ears on Daytime TV is becoming a sort of weird BDSM fetish. https://t.co/hwjabWQ2rQ
— rufus jones (@rufusjones1) March 31, 2023
Herein lies the problem.
Devon was articulate, accurate, and measured in her response. Vine was ignorant, racist and misogynistic in his. Clearly, his bosses realised his behaviour was rancid – or they were trying to silence people’s anger. The tweet from the official Jeremy Vine On 5 Twitter account that had the clip of the exchange in it had been deleted by 4pm on Friday 31 March.
Yet despite all this, he is the one whose name is on the TV show, and it’s his old white ass that’s sat in the host’s chair. Colonialism, where white people (driven by white supremist patriarchy) still hold the keys of power, remains rampant across society – and TV is a microcosm of this. While Vine’s pathetic performance on his show may seem inconsequential, it actually sums up the colonialist mess we’re living in.
Feature image via Jeremy Vine On 5 – YouTube
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Wherever the term first came from as with so many voiced expressions have historically originated ‘Woke’ now seems to be whatever a user of ‘woke’ blurringly wants it to be. The term is as politically manipulated for varied purposes and agendas as the manipulated ‘antisemitism’ as we all know of late has been utilised to insult, defame and rile up folk to hate on each other with the weaponry of bastardised meaning.
It’s pretty clear that woke has different meanings to different people so Vine is, in this case not racist. Word etymology is an interesting suject, but does not define what a word means now, that comes from usage. To some people woke does mean awake to racism and bigotry, to others it simply means shutting down free speech and common-sense or scientific views, that another person disagrees with.
Ever hear the phrase “politically correct” anymore? “Among other things, “woke” has been taken over by the Right to mean what it meant.
I think Jeremy Vine is wrong about the literal and original meaning of wokeness but he’s right to associate the Guardian with wokeness – in its debased sense that amounts to irrational political correctness.
The Guardian has become what is essentially an Establishment, and Intelligence Service infested paper that pretends to be left wing but supports Neo-con and Neo-Liberal views (which are surely the antithesis of Socialist philosophy).
I think Jeremy Vine is fairly even handed on many issues but really needs to be called out on his disgraceful put-downs of anyone questioning the “official narrative” on issues like mRNA vaccines or the increasing authoritarianism that is the aim of global governance.
Jeremy Vine is, I think, a decent bloke who is just one of the silly brainwashed journalists who help promote the lies of the current self-seeking powers that be.
The mainstream media is of course bought and paid for by the powers that be.
We are living in a cesspit of lies and censorship of free speech – even renowned experts are not allowed to question the ‘official narrative’ without losing their jobs or being smeared.
In these times, truth is what you ever want it to be. Fiction is fact – when it suits the ‘official narrative’
Good article. I’m an old, middle-class white man, and I’m prepared to say that I learnt something from it. But then I’m not a Channel 5 presenter.
What a crap article. Topple writes some okay stuff, but one thing is absolutely for certain, and that’s that he’s middle-class, and as such, is one of those nauseating members of the more privileged classes who pretend to be a voice for us, the ‘Lower classes’, as though he has any idea what it’s like being so. Lo and behold, Vine is sounded out for being middle class! Also, is Topple claiming that prior to the lady explaining what ‘Woke’ means, and where it came from, he himself already knew? If so, I’m assuming that he’s a lying get! I’m pretty wellvesred on such stuff, and didn’t have a clue that that’s where it came from! And Vine is absolutely right; it HAS come to be (much more often than it’s original meaning) used in a different way. Usually by the hordes of retards who fell for the agenda, and willingly stuck their arms out, to describe those of us who KNOW that a chemtrail isn’t a vapour trail (dur) that Icke has been proved right on the majority of his proclamations, and that the New World Order IS happening. It’s also used by thickheads who can’t get out the starting blocks, so need a put-down for anyone who can think for themselves. I don’t particularly like Vine, cos he supports hunting, but on this, he’s absolutely right. Where he was ‘racist’ here, is pretty impossible to decipher, so I assume that Topple has been spending too much time perusing electrical goods again (PC World) and needed his daily benign, accusatory fix. A bit embarrassing, really. Say it for ACTUAL displays of racism, bellend.
Jeremy Vine is a plank and deserves much of the criticism aimed at him but when that criticism is accompanied by repeated, pejorative references to the colour of his skin then the diatribe becomes, frankly, racist.