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

"boss, boss..! you don't understand, 'faggot' was once a term of endearment in my family, and it's hard for me not to use it at work"

right, reciting the original words to a nursery rhyme is just as racist as saying something like "I don't let my daughter date n**gers". it's exactly this hardline anti-racist stance that has worked out so well in squashing the antiPC folks.

you're not getting this

and I think you're not

see how that works?

no one here is saying reciting the original words to a nursery rhyme is just as racist as saying something like "I don't let my daughter date n**gers" and no one is interested in saying that

but you think they are

then you'd say a nursery rhyme could make a white dude saying the n word less racist?

i think very, very few things could make a white dude saying the n word less racist, certainly not a racist nursery rhyme that most sentient human beings learned alternate words to about a hundred years ago

especially this white dude

Granny did you know that passive racism does a shitload more harm than active racism? If a dude says "I don't hire black people" then there's legal recourse, but if he makes subtle comments all the time and is is a shitbag about his attitudes about people different than him, there's no legal recourse and people are just like "oh, whatever, he can have his opinions"

I mean, that's less of a deal when it's your racist uncle, more of a deal when it's some rich dude with a soapbox who people might want to emulate

one might even think acceptance of passive racism in the public sphere is a symptom of some sort of institutional racism, but idk maybe that is a unicorn that only exists in the minds of some

And I disagree. It's obvious the n-word was on his mind, he admitted that. It's a known fact that when you are thinking about NOT thinking or saying something, you are almost guaranteed to think or say it. Catching him saying it here is proof to me of these facts. However, it is evidence in a pattern he has of being ok with racist beliefs and epithets. It is not convincing or even that good of evidence on its own. A 100% non-racist could've let that word slip if they had just been consciously thinking about how they definitely did not want to say the original rhyme there on camera.

I'm personally not inclined to get 1 guy fired for this as the figurehead of Passive Racism. If people want to call for his resignation, sign petitions to have him removed based on this + his history, go for it.

However, it is evidence in a pattern he has of being ok with racist beliefs and epithets.

we all agree!! whew

Are there lots and lots of people in the UK, who don't know or interact with any black or asian people, for whom the badness of racism is not the hurt you cause to someone, but rather they think of it as a purely abstract rule sent down from above? i.e. who don't get why there's, now, some legal and social pressure on them not to call people niggers and pakis - because it's not obvious to them that, at the root of this pressure, there's a solid human reason?

I don't think Clarkson is one of these people, if they do exist, because he's an extremely successful global media figure.

Thread just feels like a place where we might discuss this aforementioned group. I don't say they defo exist and am not necessarily going to defend them if they do, it does sometimes feel like they do.

GD it's not like he *had* to say the rhyme and struggled to get it out without the n word. He *chose* to use that rhyme and mumble that word. There's no accident here at all.

xp I think there are loads of people that that think racist language is only prohibited because of the offence it could cause to people in earshot rather than recognising the stuff about it perpetuating a harmful and oppressive culture etc.
Reckon Clarkson fits into that group, bears no malice towards minorities or anything but doesn't understand why saying racist stuff is always bad and obviously has no interest in learning

Meanwhile, in other news, the BBC is screening an Australian blackface sitcom on bbc 3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/jonah-takalua.html

My amateur diagnosis of what's going wrong with this type of person, is that they've perceived an element of conformity or group-identifying on the part of ... liberals, or leftists, when they make the decision to avoid racist language. This is what the ... 'Clarkson'-type mean when they make accusations of political correctness: they think it's merely politic, and doesn't come from the heart. A sort of strategic alliance rather than a true friendship.

Okay, maybe, but can they offer an alternative that really comes from the heart? Usually not

This stuff is actively harmful. The attempt to swing the pendulum back to "it's just a bit of fun" wrt regressive, offensive behaviour is played out all across the country every day. Clarkson is the most visible example of the anti-PC / "banter" culture that sees you as the problem if you object to someone else making a racist / sexist / homophobic joke about you if the person making the joke isn't a card-carrying neo-Fascist.

― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Sunday, May 4, 2014 6:38 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this was so smart/truth-bomby it wouldn't hurt for it to appear in this thread again.

And the thing is that Clarkson is smart enough to know that there's a concerted 'attempt to swing the pendulum back' - which there is

Stewart Lee on Political Correctness

it's sad, the uk will lose its edge, and nothing will be funny or entertaining again

ahem

People keep saying super hard on.

otm

it's not like he *had* to say the rhyme and struggled to get it out without the n word. He *chose* to use that rhyme and mumble that word. There's no accident here at all.

also otm

On the bus home there was a guy who looked like an older Jeremy Clarkson. He had this look on his face like he was tired of people asking him if he looked like Jezzer, his eyes scanning the bus looking for the next likely joker.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/04/top-gear-hosts-run-out-of-argentina-video/

Apparently, Jezza's 928 happens to wear the number plate "H982 FLK," which to the Argentinians is a dig at the country's defeat in the 1982 Falklands War. While we wouldn't put it past the nationalistic Top Gear trio to poke some fun at their country's old foe (let's keep in mind the show's love of World War II jokes), that would be awfully subtle if it were really an honest attempt at mischief. Coincidence or no, retribution for TG's perceived slight was swift.

First, the city where the crew's road trip was set to end, Ushuaia, banned Clarkson. The outrage only grew from there, though, as the TG team was forced to cut its trip short by three days and flee the country after the crew and their cars were pelted by stones thrown by angry Argentinians. According to Yahoo! News, Clarkson was forced to abandon his car.

Jalopnik acquired video of the attempted stoning, and we can see the crew vehicles as well as a red Esprit and what looks like the rear end of a late 1960s Mustang fleeing the scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAD96cd_uc#t=60

I wonder how much of this will be included in the xmas special.

Is that combination possible in the british system? It doesn't seem possible in Argentina. Where did they get this car, is what I'm asking.

It's possible in Britain yeah

I think I agree with auto blog that covert racism isn't really something these particular employees of the British Broadcasting Corporation tend to bother with

Someone of the Guardian comments said that the registration had been on a Porsche since 1991 and linked to the registry (I didn't check it). So it looks like it may have actually not been deliberate? Surprising if true since this is sooooo Clarkson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31824040

He must have thumped somebody.

https://www.change.org/p/bbc-reinstate-jeremy-clarkson

85,000 already

Guido fawkes?

prat.

what a tit

Sincerely hope he dies or ends up on Ch 5.

So, 150,000 have signed this petition to reinstate him, no matter what he has done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31828184

Sincerely hope he dies or ends up on Ch 5.

Read that as "ends up on a C5" at first and thought that's probably a fate worse than death as far as he's concerned.

So, 150,000 have signed this petition to reinstate him, no matter what he has done.

that sounds about right tbh. his core fans don't give a crap how he behaves, they probably like him more for it.

If they've stuck with him until now it seems unlikely they'd be especially bothered about a "fracas" with a TV producer.

Is it really core fans? Or is it not just a reflection of the usual narrative i.e.

Veronique Favreau LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM about 16 hours ago Liked 939
I pay my TV license to ensure that irreverent people can express themselves. If you become boarding and politically correct, you may disappear BBC.

Martin Jones BLACKPOOL, UNITED KINGDOM about 16 hours ago Liked 790
A minority of over sensitive people should not ruin one of Britons favourite shows.

Ilya Babansky ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIAN FEDERATION about 16 hours ago Liked 741
BBC, you don't wanna piss off 300 million people.

Charlie Houghton CHELMSFORD, ENG about 16 hours ago Liked 576
Jeremy is a bastion of light in a dark PC world

Yeah, one person's black eye vs 300 million people who like cars.

They actually should get Piers Morgan to do it. Just to really piss Clarkson off.

The BBC will cave on this, I have no doubts. Top Gear is arguably worth nothing without the presenters (even then, probably only Clarkson) and in countries running their own franchises the UK version is more popular than their own citation needed but wiki has the following claim for Australia: the first season averaged around 650,000 viewers an episode. In comparison, viewing figures for the previous three Top Gear UK episodes shown in the same timeslot averaged around 903,000 viewers.

He undoubtedly has the stronger bargaining hand. He and Andy Wilman had originally set up a JV with BBC Enterprises for commercial and foreign exploitation which the BBC bought them out of in 2012, around about the time the three of them signed their last 3 year contracts (meaning this would be the last series contracted for in any case). International exploitation could be well over £100M annually, only Doctor Who made BBC Worldwide more and it looks like in 2014 Top Gear overhauled it. If we accept he was taking a reduced wage previously in relation to return (because he got it through other means) even him holding out for £10M pa looks like reasonable business sense for the Beeb.

His schtick is undoubtedly lolsy UKIP, but there's equally undoubtedly a very profitable market for it.

presumably they're still going to be flogging the cancelled episodes on dvds and to foreign broadcasters, so the beebs aren't really going to be out-of-pocket on this thing at all. sack the twat, the programme's run its course anyway, they're still going to recoup their costs whatever happens

haha xp, looks like aldo has a slightly more nuanced analysis

If they've stuck with him until now it seems unlikely they'd be especially bothered about a "fracas" with a TV producer.

― Tim, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 9:23 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, it's quite funny (but not funny) that he can get away with all the racist, homophobic, sexist shit he wants but the second he crosses the line with a white man high in the bbc hierarchy IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION

yeah that too

burn him and burn all his fans, anyway