jeremy clarkson v the mail and mirror

[One]

I feel like this is going to blow up and the BBC will be 'forced' to sack him. I hope that doesn't happen as I love Top Gear, it's one of the few programs worth watching in Britain.

Although I'm sure a different channel would love an opportunity to snap up a brand new program, 'Top Geer' for example.

Wossy came under huge fire for his massive tax payers salary, BBC caved in, he moved to ITV and probably earns more than ever.


BBC only needs license payers because there are no adverts. I seriously wonder how TV is going to work going forwards what with digital recorders and people watching less and less live TV everyone skips through adverts.

I think in my life time TV will stop being a well used thing and it will all be online viewing funded by a subscription. The only thing stopping that is original programming but Netflix, Amazon etc are already starting to produce some great new TV only for the internet. 10 - 20 years all 'TV' will be online with no advertising at all I reckon, maybe product placement.

 

[Castiel]

What the hell is wrong with white people, who comes up with poems like that? Why would you teach children this? Appreciate it was a while ago but still, it's wierd.

Its hundreds of years old, and the word was not offensive until long after it was used in that counting rhyme. It was simply a neutral word expression and the rhyme in that form was written by Rudyard Kipling in an era when the word was not seen as pejorative as a method of teaching children to count. In much the same vein, a book I used to have as a child, and a song on record was Little Black Sambo, now deemed unacceptable in modern society, was not seen as racist or unacceptable back then, it was just a little Indian boys name.

So there is nothing wrong with 'white people' any more than there is with any other ethnic people.

 

[Jono8]

So let me get this right. If i record myself singing a song that has the word ****** in it (I could select a song from probably 90% of the worlds library of hip hop), I am then a racist and should lose my job?

What

 

[cm1179]

To be fair, I didn't even know that it had a racist version.

I thought piggy (as in the animal) was the only one going, perhaps it was before my time.

have you not seen pulp fiction?! zed's dead, baby

anyway, i see a lot of people referring to the 'slope' thing. it's not that, that has caused this. read the link.

 

[Craterloads]

Its hundreds of years old, and the word was not offensive until long after it was used in that counting rhyme. It was simply a neutral word expression and the rhyme in that form was written by Rudyard Kipling in an era when the word was not seen as pejorative as a method of teaching children to count. In much the same vein, a book I used to have as a child, and a song on record was Little Black Sambo, now deemed unacceptable in modern society, was not seen as racist or unacceptable back then, it was just a little Indian boys name.

So there is nothing wrong with 'white people' any more than there is with any other ethnic people.

So what did n***** mean back then? Did it refer to black people? If so why would you catch one by the toe as if they are some sort of insect.

 

[rare]

I don't believe Clarkson is a racist man. He's just a middle aged man making a program with his best friends. I see and hear a lot worse everyday, this is just a load of nonsense being whipped up by the papers for no reason what so ever.

 

[Uther]

Of course Jeremy meant slope in a racist way. You wouldn't say there's a 'slope' on the bridge...you'd say the bridge was sloping if you intended it to be know the bridge was not level. Maybe even the bridge is at a slope. But not there's a slope on the bridge while showing a race of person previously referred to as a 'slope' walking across it. Or rather stood on it..

What?

 

[cm1179]

So what did n***** mean back then? Did it refer to black people? If so why would you catch one by the toe as if they are some sort of insect.

is this post serious?

 

[Rroff]

If anyone thinks he actually meant to offend anyone with any remark they deserve to be offended.

 

[Craterloads]

is this post serious?

Why would you write a poem about catching a n***** by the toe, even if the word n***** wasn't racist back then. It's just wierd.

 

[The Running Man]

He knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it'd be confiscated, taken away.
The way your Dad looked at it, that watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass.

Pulp fiction 101.

 

[Uther]

Why would you right a poem about catching a n***** by the toe, even if the word n***** wasn't racist back then. It's just wierd.

Its a children's nursery rhyme from a long time ago. Does it have to make sense?

The whole thing is ridiculous.

 

[Andrew_McP]

I'm almost the same age as Clarkson, and if I were to repeat that rhyme out loud I might accidentally use the n word too if I didn't engage my brain to overcome the ingrained word pattern (similar to the way I can never remember how many days November has without mumbling that old rhyme).

When we were kids that was just the way the rhyme went. I didn't know what a 'n' was and didn't even see a coloured person until I went to secondary school and there was a boarder there whose dad was in the army. It was a different time and place, and playground culture moves on. But it's hard to completely erase all the things we learn as children, and they lurk beneath the surface, like mines, waiting to catch us out if we're not on the ball.

Back when Clarkson and I were kids football was the national sport. Now it's taking offence. Shame it's not in the Olympics, we'd win more medals.

 

[ubersonic]

"Slope" is a racist term? I'm learning lots today.

I knew it was because the bad guy in Karate kid used it to refer to Mr Miyagi a few times in Karate Kid, but I had no idea it was actually that offensive (mostly because it's in Karate Kid lol).

So what did n***** mean back then? Did it refer to black people?

It was a slang term for Negro which is Latin for black, over time it became an offensive term just like the shortened version of Pakistani or the abbreviation of Western Oriental Gentleman.

 

[Castiel]

So what did n***** mean back then? Did it refer to black people? If so why would you catch one by the toe as if they are some sort of insect.

I'm not getting into some pointless semantic debate with you so you can express your own brand of bigotry, sufficed to say that the term was not deemed to be pejorative and was socially acceptable at the time it was used in that rhyme..that's all there is to it really. If you want to ascribe your own morality onto accepted language in the past then go ahead...and no, it was nott just Black People it referred to, but all non-white members of the British Empire, and it was not derogatory, that came later in the 20th Century with the Americanisation of the term.

The poem, if you are interested.

 

[Craterloads]

Its a children's nursery rhyme from a long time ago. Does it have to make sense?

The whole thing is ridiculous.

That's the point, why would you teach that to children, which makes it even weirder. Actually find it kind of creepy, given how nonchalant it is.

 

[itchy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

I digress!

 

[Haggisman]

It wasn't "catch a tigger"? From winnie the pooh? There dies a part of my childhood

That's the version I was taught too

"Slope" is a racist term? I'm learning lots today. The bridge wasn't level, it was sloping. Mad.

Indeed. So basically by highlighting the fact that Clarkson may or may not have purposefully or inadvertently used a racist term, the newspaper in question are imo the ones being racist, and therefore should be banned!

Evidently a reporter with not enough work who's jealous of Clarkson trying to make a name for themselves

 

[Robosapien]

I'm not getting into some pointless semantic debate with you so you can express your own brand of bigotry, sufficed to say that the term was not deemed to be pejorative and was socially acceptable at the time it was used in that rhyme..that's all there is to it really. If you want to ascribe your own morality onto accepted language in the past then go ahead...and no, it was nott just Black People it referred to, but all non-white members of the British Empire, and it was not derogatory, that came later in the 20th Century with the Americanisation of the term.

The poem, if you are interested.

Why is your sig that of a well known superhero....do you think you are superior to others? Are you building a super race?

 

[Craterloads]

I'm not getting into some pointless semantic debate with you so you can express your own brand of bigotry, sufficed to say that the term was not deemed to be pejorative and was socially acceptable at the time it was used in that rhyme..that's all there is to it really. If you want to ascribe your own morality onto accepted language in the past then go ahead...and no, it was nott just Black People it referred to, but all non-white members of the British Empire, and it was not derogatory, that came later in the 20th Century with the Americanisation of the term.

The poem, if you are interested.

Hold your horses there buddy, no ones playing semantics nor was the "white people" remark I made suppose to have been taken seriously. Seems you got the wrong end of the stick.

What I find odd is the catching a black man by his toe, weird. Is it just me who finds that creepy, even with the fact it was popular a 100 years ago. Like coloured people were some sort of collectable objects, stickem in a jar. Why would you teach that to kids.