Jeremy Clarkson should be sacked

[hoopdriver]

Perhaps the context of something being identified as sounding wrong and ending up on a cutting room floor only to be raked up and analysed by a sensationalist rag two years later could do with being examined.

Yes. Absolutely

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Context, old darling. Have you a long history of making racist remarks?

I haven't. But my point is that it's not necessarily a racist choice if the rhyme is chosen.

 

[Saddle bum]

He impresses and entertains enough viewers to make the program very marketable here and overseas.

I beg to suggest there is a difference between impress and entertain.

 

[glenn forger]

It is if it's said by a man who says loads of racist stuff. While he's being recorded by one of the biggest media outlets in the world.

 

[vernon]

I beg to suggest there is a difference between impress and entertain.

Beg away you'll get nowt from me.

 

[swee'pea99]

I haven't. But my point is that it's not necessarily a racist choice if the rhyme is chosen.

Absolutely. Only those with an axe to grind determinedly stick to the idea that the word is toxic, period.

A word is just a word. It's the underlying intent that adds any potency. Which is how the N word can be used between black people without offence - none is intended, so none is taken - in just the same way I can call my daughter an unutterable cretin without her being hurt, because she knows I'm saying it in fun. And will no doubt very soon give as good as she gets.

When Ron Atkinson referred to a player as 'a lazy n', that was racist: the word was used offensively, to express an opinion any decent person would find repellent. When JC mumbled an old playground rhyme, he probably knew he was treading on thin ice, but he wasn't expressing any racist views, and I very much doubt any black person would do anything more heated than roll an eye, mutter 'twat', and forget all about it.

 

[Fnaar]

There was a guy on Radio5 Live this morning (a caller in to prog) who summed it up (imho) rather well.... he said summat along the lines of 'I'm of a similar age to Jeremy Clarkson, and yes, when I was a kid I used that rhyme without knowing what the n-word really meant, or being in any way aware of any consequences of using it. However, the world has moved on, things have changed, and anyone with an inkling of awareness of the world knows that it is at the very least contentious, and very likely to offend. So I simply wouldn't use it'.
Sums up my view too.

 

[subaqua]

best take olivers army off the playlist for the beeb then.

 

[hoopdriver]

It would seem Clarkson was aware of that too. I gather that two years ago when it was filmed he became aware that on one of the takes it sounded as though he had uttered the N word and asked that that take not be used. Whether he really did use it, perhaps subconsciously having grown up hearing the original words to the rhyme, or whether he said something else that sounded like it, is impossible to say.

For a scandal mongering newspaper to get hold of, and subject to forensic analysis, a two-year-old out-take that was never used - and not used at the request of the person on film, who was concerned about this very thing, no less - is journalism at its very lowest ebb.

 

[screenman]

My wife caught her finger the other day, does anyone know what colour man we have to call the pinch nowadays, it used to be, no better not say it.

 

[Bollo]

If you think either of these are safe for work, especially the second one, then you're an idiot (of any colour).

Puppets philosophise on racism....

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM&feature=kp


And, if you want to be an even-handed racist, here's one of my favourite clips from Spike Lee's stagey but still relevant "Do the Right Thing"....

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLYTObRhcSY

 

[subaqua]

[QUOTE 3059038, member: 45"]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...ised-for-censoring-Elvis-Costello-lyrics.html[/QUOTE]

wondered how long it would be

 

[subaqua]

My wife caught her finger the other day, does anyone know what colour man we have to call the pinch nowadays, it used to be, no better not say it.

blood blister .

 

[screenman]

bloody blister .

Is that not swearing?

 

[Fnaar]

best take olivers army off the playlist for the beeb then.

Context, I suppose, but EC was using the term 'white n*gg*r' that was used by British soldiers in Belfast as a pejorative for NI Catholics, so it's used in context, but yes, contentious nonetheless, as is Lennon's "Woman is the n*gg*er of the world' and Patti Smith's 'Rock 'n' Roll n*gg*r'.
Mind you, Oliver's Army is a good song, whereas the others are sh!te