Jeremy Clarkson's "The World According To Clarkson" is one of Penguin's "best books of its kind to be published in recent years"

those rappers say it all the time is common among the comments to his apology video.

Maybe when black comedians stop using it, and saying, “it’s okay, I can say that word”, and Rap stars stop using it in their songs, maybe it will disappear like the other words that were used in the 70’s and 80’s

marina hyde curiously offtm about this

n-word-jeremy-clarkson-has-finally-urinated-live-rail-racism

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid, i don't think i knew what the n-word meant until i was in my teens. not proud of this, just saying backwater 70s England was pretty unreconstructed

i'm pretty sick of all the nuance shit tbh, if i used racist language at work i'd probably get sacked, if i used it out of work and it made the papers i'd probably get sacked, seems pretty simple to me

You don't bring in millions of ad dollars I guess

thats' it, the BBC know they have an audience made up of men like Clarkson. no matter how much we try to hide from it (in the north! on the internet!), this is real england 2014.

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid, i don't think i knew what the n-word meant until i was in my teens. not proud of this, just saying backwater 70s England was pretty unreconstructed
― nostalgie de couilles (Noodle Vague),

My experience. Not wholly surprisin that west ireland runs a good 15 yrs behind ~even hull~ ffs

so y'all don't believe his explanation for this or you just don't care cause he's a jerk anyway

i grew up in the Midlands tbf darragh which is even more fucked up considering that it was much more racially mixed than Hull back then - tho not particularly the little town i was in

lol his "explanation" uh see what happened there was I was trying to not say nigger but then instead I said nigger by accident and that's why if you listen very carefully you can hear me saying a thing that I said

No I'd say I neither believe nor care about this nonsensical bullshit from a racist, how about you granny?

so open minded you lot are

Sounded very sensible to me. But my judgment here isn't clouded by already hating the guy so...

I don't think there's necessarily harm in portraying an unreconstructed wealthy British man who seems to have forgotten the empire ended on television, but doing so in a way where people might conceivably aspire to his role, or see his "humor" in a positive light, is inexcusable.

I don't hate the guy, Granny, but people are non-awkwardly laughing at him and there's a segment of society who thinks his racist uncle act is admirable.

I mean, who gives a shit if he _accidentally_ said a rhyme or if he meant to say something else. Dude said "nigger" on film and thinks it's ok because he grew up saying nigger

I grew up decades later than the guy and there's shit I _apologize_ if I say because, even if I heard those things, I am genuinely sorry that shit came out of my mouth in 2014

I didn't even realize 'tiger' wasn't the original until I heard an 80+ year old woman say it. She got a pass, pretty much, in my mind - but Clarkson is 13 years younger than my father who'd never think to say the offensive version.

me too.

the n-word version of eeny-meeny-miney-mo was the only one we used when i was a small kid

i've spoken with a few people who have said basically the same thing which is AMAZING to me. i come from one of the most racist places in the western world, i.e. rural east tennessee, and had no idea the n-word was ever part of that rhyme. this, in a place where white people casually said the n-word all the time to each other.

I guess it comes down to the fact that outside of legal matters, you can do something on accident and still be very, very wrong. The entire "it was an accident" doesn't make casual racism less wrong. Makes it worse in some ways, because it's the ingrained shit that's insidious.

yeah - i just keep coming back to the vision of clarkson manfully, heroically straining not to say "nigger" in front of a rolling television camera

But he doesn't think it's ok. He had them not use that take because he doesn't think it's ok. I think it's wrong to wrap up that "segment of society" you speak of with this or anything else he does, though I understand the urge to.

who gives a shit if he _accidentally_ said a rhyme or if he meant to say something else

I do. My dad would repeatedly refer to "colored" people even after being told several times that it was an outdated term. He had just been saying if for so long that it was hard to break the habit. If he had been a public figure and let that slip out, omg RACIST. But I have never heard him say truly racist things or do any racist acts. Things aren't that simple and it helps nothing (other than the judger's ego) to call for someone to lose their job over such things.

"colored" is about 1000000 miles away from the n-word, come on now

Tracer, I think absence has something to do with it. I've heard "he jewed me down on the price" or similar weird slurs more from people who don't even get the implications than anyone else. If you're referring to a person with a slur it's direct, but if you're throwing one into a joke or using some phrase you never thought about it's passive and supposedly no big deal to the Clarksons of the world

Granny, if you're dad was a public figure, would he apologize, or just be sorry someone saw hat footage? Because Clarkson is kind of leaning on the latter.

accidental acts can still be really wrong, and worthy of apology given the context, to repeat a point

the idea the the n-word was at one time okay, and now times have changed, is absurd

xpost - yeah i do think it's true that if the BBC hired more black and asian production staff the clarksons of this world would be spared that difficult decision about whether or not to spout racist epithets when presenting their television shows

it is Tracer, that wasn't my point that they were equal terms. Clarkson grew up where n-word was part of that rhyme, it was engrained in his brain that way. My dad grew up calling black people "colored", it was engrained in his brain. They both let the word slip out even though they knew it should never ever be said any longer because they were habituated to use it (for Clarkson, merely in this particular rhyme). Clarkson may be a horrible racist, and there's enough evidence to say he's too eager to use racist terms in a jokey way, but to call for his resignation for this eeny meeny mo episode seems overblown to me.

But this is just the latest gleeful slur in a long line of gleeful slurs! And I am really sick of white people (because it's never, ever anyone else) asking for another pass for this arsehole who has the n-word engrained in his brain. Most white people don't.

The Mexican stuff is way more egregious to me because it's not merely "a ha, out of context and directed at no one you said this epithet, BUSTED!" but rather actual negative ethnic stereotypes were voiced.

Not sure that in 2014, 'colored' is that much less offensive than the n-word.

uh I don't think this single incident is why people are up in arms

Also, you're comparing a term that was seen as neutral and used positively by black people to a racial epithet. I mean, unless Clarkson was born in the 1800s and that was the word everyone used

it's not about him being _racist_, it's about the acceptance of passive racism as something that's fine to partake in accidentally or casually! who gives a fuck what people accidentally say, as long as they react as human beings who don't devalue other human beings intentionally

i grew up where white people said the n-word all the time - it was just another word people used to describe people - but because i'm not completely brain-dead i have learned that it's probably the single most unacceptable word that i can use. clarkson is a man of the world, he's not some shut-in, he's had plenty of time get right with jesus about that rhyme. that he's chosen not to says everything you need to know about him in this regard imo

It's not like it slipped out by accident. He did two takes where the joke was 'I'm saying a racist epithet but saying it in an unintelligible way' and then one where the word was replaced completely.

idgaf about the dude's thing he says accidentally, and I commend him for airing a different take, but "I am sorry I said that" plays a lot better than the "oh, you caught me!" crap that is a long-standing thing he does

who has the n-word engrained in his brain.

see you went from what I said to this statement, ignoring the crucial "(for Clarkson, merely in this particular rhyme)." bit.
I get that this isn't his 1st "offense"; that's exactly what I said, people have already decided he's a racist asshole prior to this. By itself, I don't see the outrage; place it amongst all the racist and quasi racist stuff he's said and done and ok sure go ahead and hate the guy.

I mean, you can keep pretending this is people angry about a man accidentally saying a racist nursery rhyme unintentionally, Granny, but I don't think anyone else in the thread is saying that's the case

btw your dad is passively racist in 2014 if he says "colored" and doesn't give a fuck if it's wrong or right. but as you said, he knows it's wrong and (probably) corrects himself?

btw I don't have a proverbial horse here and have enjoyed some bits of the guy's television show but I think his unreconstructed old white man pose is harmful

I wouldn't complain if I didn't think he could change, and him not changing and not being reprimanded is pretty much an admission it's ok to do this shit, which is what I have an objection with.

and contributes to the not entirely incorrect impression of the BBC as a place where chauvinistic white men get to behave however they want for years with little to no comeback until after they're dead

"it is crazy that he got away with that stuff, but hey, 2014 was a different time"

agree that "unreconstructed old white man pose is harmful", but also think that calling for sacking of someone for having an "unreconstructed old white man pose" is also harmful.

yeah, won't somebody think of the racists, quality trolling, a+++

yep if you're not out to get him, you're supporting those racists and are just as bad! great way to silence any opposition, paint them as racists too, a++++

ok, let's try to take emotion out of it. how many racial epithets do you think a TV broadcaster should be allowed to use before they are not allowed on TV anymore?

I am 100% for Donald Sterling getting punished and losing his NBA franchise for making despicable outright nasty racist statements during a private conversation. I am against Clarkson losing his job for this, though I guess sure fine him to "send a message".

also think that calling for sacking of someone for having an "unreconstructed old white man pose" is also harmful

oh really? what if we add "unrepentant" to that for the fact he's been called out on this shit for years?

I am 100% for someone using a time travel machine to go back in time and slap the shit out of the NBA officials who did nothing when Donald Sterling was guilty of being racist as fuck with housing practices and his business deals

if you fine him the message is "it's cool to be racist if you're rich"

it's like a swear jar you put pennies in

I don't think it's fair to boil this down to "broadcaster uses racial epithet". Viewing this identically to someone just randomly calling someone or some group the n-word isn't the right thing to do imo.

you are literally the only one attempting to boil it down to that

except I was responding to NV who just had done that?

everyone else in the thread is saying it's typical coming from a guy who uses language and attitudes in a way that upholds institutional racism, and that people in England (which I do not believe is where you are) are negatively affected by having someone acting this way on their /state-funded/ media, and that he's been given a number of opportunities to change his behavior and they're tired of it

I mean, brits, let me know if I am at all in the wrong, here

I assume you're either straight trolling or being obtuse because you want to give this guy a big high-five for his car bantz, in either case, adios.