BBC presenter sacked for demanding non-Asian driver

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Soldato
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Regardless of her needing to grow up and learn some things about other cultures, surely if her daughter will be freaked out, the last thing you are going to do is make her freak out.
You would help her learn to accept other people gruadually, not stick her in a car with someone who might scare the **** out of her.

People are scared of different things, some people are scared of spiders, some of midgets, some of heights. No different than being scared of asians really, is it?


I see what you are saying, this is a 14 yeard old child and we should be understanding but should this "turban training" be at the detriment to the mother or should it be at the detriment to some poor Indian bokes job?

If everyone had the same idea and we all asked for white drivers where would that leave all the minorities employed in taxi driving. Suerly you must see the propblem here even if she didn't do it on purpose she should have known better.


While asking for a white driver isn't illegal, she is indirectly requesting they emply more white drivers. The taxi company did the correct thing and told the newspaper, or they could have sacked a few darkies and employed a few white people instead. :)
 
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Soldato
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Stupid thing to say, but if the shoe was on the other foot and she didn't want an English driver, no doubt that would be fine and the word "racism" wouldn't be mentioned.

I suspect you might be right. An asian asks for an asian driver (maybe on language backgrounds), and all would be OK...
 

RDM

RDM

Soldato
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While asking for a white driver isn't illegal, she is indirectly requesting they emply more white drivers. The taxi company did the correct thing and told the newspaper, or they could have sacked a few darkies and employed a few white people instead. :)

When is the correct thing "telling the newspapers"? The correct thing is to either agree to the customers demands or say no to the customers demands.
 
Caporegime
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I see what you are saying, this is a 14 yeard old child and we should be understanding but should this "turban training" be at the detriment to the mother or should it be at the detriment to some poor Indian bokes job?

If everyone had the same idea and we all asked for white drivers where would that leave all the minorities employed in taxi driving. Suerly you must see the propblem here even if she didn't do it on purpose she should have known better.


While asking for a white driver isn't illegal, she is indirectly requesting they emply more white drivers. The taxi company did the correct thing and told the newspaper, or they could have sacked a few darkies and employed a few white people instead. :)

detriment to her, the mother or the driver? are you saying that, given the childs fear, the mother should have just accepted whatever driver was selected for the job? potentially causing the child to have a mental episode and/or the child not getting in the car and therefore not reaching her destination?
If your child truely had a fear, would you force them to do something that would put them directly in contact with the object of their fear?
 
Caporegime
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When is the correct thing "telling the newspapers"? The correct thing is to either agree to the customers demands or say no to the customers demands.

They said no to the customer's demands. Did anyone suggest that telling the newspapers was the right thing to do? I believe someone has already pointed out that they sacked the person who leaked the conversation.

So yes, the taxi company has acted properly and correctly.
 
Associate
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If my youngest step daughter was getting a cab on her own (granted i most likely wouldn't allow it and arrange an alternative if i couldn't take her myself), and she would feel safer with a particular driver, that's what i'd ask for, someone already made the comment about telephone operators, although i often ask for non-Scottish as i can't understand the accent too well.

I don't care if i hurt the operators/drivers feelings, nor do i feel the need to defend myself and plead i'm not racist (which always looks like an admission of guilt anyway), it's what i judge is best for my daughter. Whom i educate on freedom of speech and expression, and also the pitfalls of pre-judgment and stereotyping.

All this talk of possible raping etc. is heading to an extreme, but the basic point stands, there could be a valid reason why, or it could be prejudice or it could be both, speculation by those here, however worded, and fluffed with factual irrelevance does not prove or disprove it ("She is blatantly making excuses" is not a valid fact, despite popular forum opinion).

I do wonder of those commenting (i acknowledge that most of you are students) actually have children and can see the perspective from a parents point of view, what's best for your child and what they are comfortable with, especially at that age (granted, they are now having kids and joining the benefit brigade now).

Bringing the beeb into it seems like a typical hot headed mistake, but i read it as her trying to explain that by working for the most PC orientated organisation in the world it somehow proves her character, and that she is not "racist" as you are all referring to it.

As for it being a sacking offense, i imagine they have it in their contract to not bring the Beeb into questionable situations regarding the media or anything, which has been breached i suppose.

Either way, everyone involved is a bit of a muppet but pale in comparison to some of the posters here.
 
Soldato
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The service being purchased isn't that clear cut. You could reasonably claim you're buying a journey from A to B plus the ability to get to the destination in a reasonable time, at a time of your choosing, in a clean car, a car of a certain size for luggage, with a courteous driver, etc. Such additional factors help distinguish a taxi from just getting the bus. It's not a crazy jump to suggest certain characteristics of the driver.

As a trivial example, our family run a business and use a local taxi service to take important packages to various locations. We deal with them so often that we may ask whether a specific driver is on-call, knowing he is aware of the process for dropping for the package correctly, who to leave it with, etc.

That aside, I agree that it's an odd parenting process - assuming there isn't some serious mitigating circumstance. It's certainly not healthy to shield a kid from people they'll encounter at school, university and in the workplace.

Good point but this is slightly different as you have bespoke business requirements, but it also sounds as though there is a rapport and long standing relationship there.

So a request for Micky or Sean is not seen as unreasonable and the reason for the request is not based on the individuals race, thus not questioned....or recorded ha!
 
Associate
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Fair enough if the child has a genuine phobia, but I doubt that's very likely. If the child is vulnerable/has genuine issues she could have explained that to the operator, and done it a lot more tactfully.

I suspect you might be right. An asian asks for an asian driver (maybe on language backgrounds), and all would be OK...

That sounds just as bad. Maybe for a chauffeur, but for a taxi you make do with what you get if you don't speak the native language.
 
Soldato
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How long was your course? 4 Years? So have you only just started working for your current firm? You are very confident in yourself arent you. :)

3 years + 1 years masters. I started working where I am now part time during my masters (switching to full time after finishing it) so have been there for about 6 months now. Not that it's really relevant considering the 'oh so exceptionally complicated' matter being discussed was something that most people would learn in the first year of their law degree. You don't need to be that confident to know very very basic law.
 
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