Miriam Margoyles In Hot Water After Using Highly Racist Term To Mixed Race Actor

[RAMROD 117,855]

 

 

We love our national treasures. There’s Sir Michael Palin, obviously. Dame Judi Dench, of course. And Dame Joanna Lumley, without a doubt.

But there is a still rarer group – those regarded by some as a national treasure and by others as simply detestable. Indeed, the group is so rare that I can only think of one member of it: Miriam Magolyes.

The actress, perhaps most famous for her role in the Harry Potter films, is a TV regular – a guest who can be relied on to tell a good yarn about other famous people she has worked with. But with those stories come the other side of the coin: Margolyes is obnoxious, which she makes clear every time she speaks.

Her latest demonstration came yesterday on ITV’s This Morning, when she started asking the black co-presenter, Andi Peters, about his heritage. She asked: “What are you?”

Puzzled, Peters replied: “What am I?”, prompting Margolyes to say: “You’re a mix. You’ve got a black daddy and a white mummy?” Looking astonished, Peters replied: “No, no, no. Both my parents are black.” His riposte left Margolyes looking a bit stumped. He then added: “Am I lighter shade than normal?”

Then came Margolyes’ descent into the gutter, intentional or otherwise. “I think you’re high-yalla.” A befuddled Peters prompted her to elaborate. “That’s what they call it in America, when someone isn’t deeply black.”

The phrase “high-yalla” (or “high yellow”) – along with “pickaninny” was commonplace in the US in the 19th and early 20th century to describe lighter-skinned black people.

Along with the N-word, it rightly died out in polite society decades ago. It is used today only by those who want to offend, as well as the ignorant and stupid. Given she went to Cambridge, I hardly think Margolyes is either of the latter two.

You’d have thought that we are long past the sight of a black man being questioned on live TV about the status of his blackness. But when you invite Margolyes on, you never know what she’ll say.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/04/miriam-margolyes-national-treasure-irrational-disgrace/

[PartySick 173,878]

6 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

“pickaninny” was commonplace in the US in the 19th and early 20th century to describe lighter-skinned black people

I- 

I never knew that's what that word meant  suddenly so many things make sense. I thought it was just some old timey insult like "jackanape". Learn something new all the time.

Anyway, lady's ignorant af 'cause what even is "deeply black"  somebody teach these boomers to say less please. 

[thedirtymonster 790]

She didn't mean any ill-will. You can tell that by the candor and the energy/vibe of their conversation. Should she issue a correction and clarification that she misspoke? Sure. But she has no reason to be vilified over a simple error in language.

[Bronco 27,114]

She's always been loose lipped and said the most out of pocket **** but this is a very low moment. 

Genuinely think she's not all there, stories of her saying the wildest **** like this are decades old. 

Surprised she still gets tv time.

[timdrake 2,337]

Yeahhhhh the intent may have not been malicious, but it’s still a pretty offensive conversation to even have & phrase to use, especially in front of the whole world on television. 😳 Her words are dripping with ignorance, and I hope she can learn from the backlash she’s rightfully garnering. 

[nodandsmile 11,742]

she most definitely did not think it was offensive if she said it on TV like that but ma'am you gotta learn about the history of words before you use them, especially if they are from another place, this was ignorant af!

[gagzus 24,528]

She’s been like this for years tbh. I mean she does learn though when people call her out, like the time she went to I believe it was Africa and met some trans women when before she didn’t believe people could be trans. If they called her out she does show she learns.

[calmar 22,808]

59 minutes ago, PartySick said:

I- 

I never knew that's what that word meant  suddenly so many things make sense. I thought it was just some old timey insult like "jackanape". Learn something new all the time.

Anyway, lady's ignorant af 'cause what even is "deeply black"  somebody teach these boomers to say less please. 

"Pickaninny" is a term meaning a black child specifically, from Portuguese "pequinino" (little boy), as they controlled some of the slave trade and the word came with them. But I had never heard of "jackanape" before. The more you know  

Edited 11 hours ago by calmar

[PartySick 173,878]

1 minute ago, calmar said:

"Pickaninny" is a term meaning a black child specifically, from Portuguese "pequinino" (little boy), as they controlled some of the slave trade and the word came with them. But I had never heard of "jackanape" before. The more you know  Sounds like a bunch of malarkey. 

Of course  

Jackanape is just a mischievous child (and yes I double checked ). First time I heard that word was in reference to the American revolution in Fallout 4 but I heard "pickaninny" in Red Dead 2 and thought the key word was "ninny"...as in "an idiot"

[littlepotter 76,621]

I think it's weird that this happened right after she spoke against isr**l... almost as if to discredit her as crazy... something fishy going on and it's not just my pussy

But yeah even the obscure racist terms aside that was completely not normal thing to even bring up with a poc

[bxr 2,700]

11 hours ago, PartySick said:

I- 

I never knew that's what that word meant  suddenly so many things make sense. I thought it was just some old timey insult like "jackanape". Learn something new all the time.

 

10 hours ago, calmar said:

"Pickaninny" is a term meaning a black child specifically, from Portuguese "pequinino" (little boy), as they controlled some of the slave trade and the word came with them. But I had never heard of "jackanape" before. The more you know 

 

10 hours ago, PartySick said:

Of course  

[…]

but I heard "pickaninny" in Red Dead 2 and thought the key word was "ninny"...as in "an idiot"

 

TiL: “Pickaninny” etymology, but it reads as somewhat analagous to the cultural history of “picnic,” which originated from 17th Century French (“picque-nique”) … but adopted a distinct Southern American heritage along its narrative identity trajectory / significance:

It is clear that picnic was not derived from "pick-a-nig," or similar racist phrases. However, some of the almost 4,000 blacks who were lynched between 1882 and 1962 were lynched in settings that are appropriately described as picnic-like. Phillip Dray, a historian, stated: "Lynching was an undeniable part of daily life, as distinctly American as baseball games and church suppers. Men brought their wives and children to the events, posed for commemorative photographs, and purchased souvenirs of the occasion as if they had been at a company picnic." 

Spoiler

Dray did not exaggerate. At the end of the 19th century, Henry Smith, a mentally challenged 17-year-old black male, was accused of killing a white girl. Before a cheering crowd of hundreds, Smith was made to sit on a "parade float" drawn by four white horses. The float circled numerous times before the excited crowd tortured, then burned Smith alive. After the lynching the crowd celebrated and collected body parts as souvenirs.

Often the lynch mob acted with haste, but on other occasions the lynching was a long-drawn out affair with speeches, food-eating, and, unfortunately, ritualistic and sadistic torture: victims were dragged behind cars, pierced with knives, burned with hot irons or blowtorches, had their fingers and toes cut off, had their eyes cut out, and were castrated -- all before being hanged or burned to death. One Mississippi newspaper referred to these gruesome acts as "Negro barbeques."

[…]

"While attendees at lynchings did not take away a plate of food, the experience of having witnessed the event was thought incomplete if one did not go home with some piece of cooked human being; and there is much anecdotal evidence of lynch crowds either consuming food and drink while taking part in the execution, or retiring en masse immediately afterward for a meal or, in the case of a notorious immolation in Pennsylvania in 1911, ice cream sundaes." 

[Source]

 

ETA: As nothing exists in isolation, it does feel relevant to be mindful that, while not all language reflects a deep grasp of cultural literacy or contextual intention (ex. Margoyles), there are certain historical realities that shed light on the present gravity of certain socio-political figures’ (ex. Thiel‘s) espoused ideologies

Edited 57 minutes ago by bxr

[Bronco 27,114]

4 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

I think it's weird that this happened right after she spoke against isr**l... almost as if to discredit her as crazy... something fishy going on and it's not just my ***

The only thing fishy about is that she's legitimately tapped in the head

[dynamite 67,396]

10 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

something fishy going on and it's not just my ***

[PartySick 173,878]

13 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

something fishy going on and it's not just my ***

I know what I'm getting Alse for Christmas 

[nATAH 57,676]

31 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

something fishy going on and it's not just my ***

oh!