WHEN WE GET DRUNK, we tend to say and do things that would either embarrass us when sober, or conflict with the laws of the land. But usually, when we spew out the vilest of racist slurs in public, the judge would not make allowances for our condition. For when it comes to prejudice of one form or another, it is quite rightly assumed by the court that the alcohol only acts as a catalyst for the racist/homophobe etcetera, to loosen his or her tongue and express their true feelings; feelings that would normally be kept under lock and key in the subconscious.
Celebrities have to be particularly careful about expressing their opinions publicly when inebriated. Mel Gibson began the anti-Semite trend that the 50 year old British fashion designer John Galliano continued. Galliano was videoed in a bar telling two Italian women that their forbears should have been “gassed” and that he loved Hitler. He went on trial in June, when he attacked 35 year-old museum curator, Geraldine Bloch on 24th February in La Perle, a Parisian bar. Among the tributes he paid Ms Bloch was that she had a “dirty Jewish face”. Her partner Philippe Virgitti, 42, was referred to by Galliano as a “dirty Asian shit” and an “illegal immigrant”.
Fatiha Oumeddour, 47 also suffered from Galliano’s drunken outburst in the same bar last October. She was called a “fucking ugly Jewish bastard”.
It was not the drugs or alcohol that spoke these words, but they were the sincerely held racist beliefs of the imbiber, whose defences were undermined by the drugs and alcohol he consumed.
NATURALLY FOR SUCH a serious outburst, criminal proceedings were inevitable. The judge who gave the pitiful sentence was Judge Anne-Marie Sauteraud, who justified the £2.60 fine on the grounds that Galliano had no previous convictions. Perhaps Judge Sauteraud shopped at Dior and had a particular likening for the degenerate Gallianos’ bizarre sense of what accounted for suitable clothing for humans.
I have heard the argument that had Galliano used “nigger” instead of “Jew”, judge Sauteraud would have not dared to deliver such a judgement. I believe there is truth in this argument that being black is the gold standard for being a racist, and anything that falls short of that criterion, like anti-Semitism, will meet with little resistance within European courts.
This pampered popping- jay is untouchable. He holds court in La Perle, and other Parisian bars, where, particularly women, are drawn into his orbit to later tell their friends of the experience, and rub their noses in their newly found familiarity with the great Galliano.
Perhaps those he insulted hoped to brag about their encounter with him, had he not given vent to his repugnant infantilism. Galliano, whatever is merit as a fashion designer, was no great wit. He held court knowing that his every word would be listened to as if, like his fashion designs, they represented originality.
Not being an Oscar Wilde, but a bigot wrapped in courtier clothing, Galliano spoke his true feelings. He is an anti-Semite, just as Mel Gibson, who also sought to blame alcohol for his rants, is also an anti-Semite.
Such prejudices go well beyond various chemical substances. They exist and are real, and will not go away because they are truly believed in by those celebrities who have the misfortune of giving public vent to them.
Both Mel Gibson and John Galliano may put themselves into rehab over their remarks, believing that all the various forms of substance abuse they have sought to find the measure of, have been solely responsible for engraving racism into their consciousness: but the finest of wines or the purest of chemical substances, do not turn a person into a racist.
GALLIANO TOLD THE COURT that, “They’re not views I hold or believe in. In the video I see someone who needs help.” I would respect this man far more than I do, if he would stand by his remarks, rather than pretend they were spoken by someone else, as he seems to be suggesting. Galliano’s priority it seems, is to salvage his reputation. His profitable association with Dior has been cancelled and he now awaits the judgement of the wives and mistresses of the rich and famous. Will they be as kind as judge Anne-Marie Sauteraud has been. Only time will tell.
If John Galliano survives this escapade, it will be because a European judge sat in judgement of his racist comments and trivialised them with her verdict. In which case the female bourgeoisie of Europe can go on with their infatuation with the Galliano product and continue to pay court to this pitiful excuse for a human being.
Galliano is an anti-Semite who woke up congratulating himself after a drunken night spent in a Parisian bar abusing his “guests”. It was not until the video recordings of his evening’s shenanigans were exposed, that he courted victimhood in the form of alcohol and chemical abuse.
John Galliano is but one representative of the kind of decadence that the West has fallen victim to. A decadence that has often been accompanied by, in the past, the ending of empire.
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