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Comment by stephenr | Hacker News Reader

Which racial slur is that exactly?

It's well known in the UK and in that article that he ~ambiguously~ mumbled the word "tigger" in a nursery rhyme.

I'm not sure how a guy saying something that offends some people once, is "a persistent racial slur"?

And there's the stuff about "slopes". And the stuff about gypsies. And the stuff about Mexicans. And all the other stuff.

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/here-are-all-the-nonra...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jere...

Here's a useful Graniad opinion piece about Clarkson: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/08/not-eno...

It's a persistent pattern. Whether that should affect what he's allowed to publish is another matter, but it's probably wrong to say he isn't overtly racist.

Some people say "it's just a joke" - fair enough. Here's Stewart Lee responding much better than I can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CnMQ4L9Pc

He makes comments about every group, I've seen no persistent bias against any group (aside from politicians who make it less fun to drive).

And he certainly doesn't exclude himself/his own type, as there's something negative about the UK practically 30 seconds.

As for "it's just a joke", yes, it is. Pretty much every successful comedian uses ethnicity/race sometimes. Bad ones rely on it entirely (Ex: Carlos Mencia). But as something that should be off limits for humor? No.

Any instances of Clarkson making offensive comments about white people?

Also, when all the presenters are white, it's a little hard to take this "we make fun of everyone" line seriously. If a white British person makes fun of white British people, that's obviously a different dynamic to a white British person making fun of people lower down the social pecking order.

Oh, and then outside the show, there's the times Clarkson has explicitly advocated racism:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9247835/J...

You should watch the show before you speak about it. They make fun of each other, they make fun of Americans, they make fun of the Welsh, they make fun of people from the North, they make fun of the French, the Germans, Mexicans, Africans, Koreans and many more. Literally everyone. The show was about them pushing limits. They were cast as hyperbole factories. They were caricatures of middle-aged white English guys.

As I said, when you have a group consisting exclusively of middle-aged white English guys, then making fun of "everyone" is not really as equitable as you're making out. Punching down isn't the same thing as poking fun at yourself. If me and my white friends get together and tell some racist jokes about black people followed by some racist jokes about white people to "balance it out", that's not ok.

He makes fun of himself, his co-presenters and basically everything about the UK and British people constantly (especially when it comes to manufacturing).

For that matter, they've done entire episodes about how terrible the UK is at things, like the British Leyland cheap car challenge.

If he made those comments about anything else, someone would call them offensive. I find that double standard and the concept that you can't make jokes about anything far more concerning than the content of his "controversies" aside from the punching.

I don't see how that's comparable. He's used racist slurs against various non-white ethnic groups and explicitly advocated for discrimination against certain (non-white) ethnic groups. If he's done the same with regard to white people, I'd be interested to hear about it.

You never heard him talk about the French?

(Or Germans, for that matter.)

Yes, I have often heard white Europeans making fun of other white Europeans. The idea that it's ok to tell racist jokes as long as you also poke fun at more privileged groups of people simply makes no sense. That being said, Clarkson's xenophobia is hardly any more defensible than his racism.

First you say you are interested if he makes fun of white people, and when it is pointed out that he makes fun of white people, it is not interesting because then he is just making fun of "privileged" groups.

Clarkson makes fun of everyone, himself more than anyone else (call that privilege). That is why he is funny.

You don't seem to understand why the two cases aren't comparable. There's a huge difference between making fun of a group that you belong to and making fun of other groups. You can't excuse racism just by making a few digs at yourself.

>and when it is pointed out that he makes fun of white people

He doesn't make fun of white people as such. Making fun of Germans for being German is not the same as making fun of white people for being white.

Thanks for the links.

The more I read from this guy, the more I like him.

It's sort of a fine balance - we can't have everybody on tv making fun of gypsies and mexicans. On the other hand it feels too sterile when nobody can say what 90% of the people think.

I'm glad he exists.

"what 90% of the people think"

I think a lot of people like to think that 90% of the population have the same rather twisted prejudices as them.

Yeah, yeah - stereotypes are all false. And twisted!

I nominally agree that I don't think this says much about Amazon, and that Clarkson probably isn't an out and out bigot. His does have a fairly significant track record of controversy that makes it easy to paint him as such though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson#Controversy

One thing people have to remember about Clarkson is that he grew up in an entirely different generation. It's not an excuse, but it's plausible that the man simply messed up. In the unfortunate era he was brought up in, the word wasn't tigger.

EDIT: Also, not saying he's not a total arse sometimes. Just saying that I think in this particular scenario he got kind of shafted.

Clarkson isn't that old.

Clarkson made an allusion to the racism in the original rhyme by mumbling something vague, and then got punished by people who didn't distinguish the difference between referring to racism and actual racism.

The 'slopes' thing was racist though.

Other people his age seem to manage just fine not saying racist comments. Why is he an exception?

Most other people don't spend hours and hours in front of camera trying to come up with material that can be brought together to a funny show with lots of jokes.

So the default position of running out of material for jokes is racism?

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