It’s “official.” The controversial host of BBC’s Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, is not a racist. Or, at least, that was conclusion arrived at by BBC Director Danny Cohen after a “health check” investigating those involved with Top Gear. It is just as likely, according to the Daily Mail, that Cohen wanted to take disciplinary action after a string of offensive comments on and off air made by Clarkson, but the BBC Director was asked to back off by BBC Director General Lord Hall.
The latest and most severe of Clarkson’s offensive remarks was during footage in which he was quoting the nursery rhyme “Eeny Meeny Miney Mo” and said he intended to mouth a racist word associated with certain versions of the rhyme, but was heard as having said it. The racist term in question, which happens to be the N-word, caused outrage and calls for the investigation, if not the resignation, of Clarkson.
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Danny Cohen released a statement that, “Whilst Jeremy and I disagree on the language some have recently found very offensive, I do not think he or anyone on the Top Gear team are racist.” He added, “I want Top Gear to maintain its unique take on the world, but more controversies of this nature would serve no one well.”
Least of all, Jeremy Clarkson, who seems likely to get sacked if he slips up one more time. His slew of offensive statements makes another faux pas seem likely, since offensive talk is like an addiction, with its own illicit pleasure and positive feedback of shock and anger from some or adulation from others.
A few examples of Clarkson’s other charming statements include: using a term associated with anti-Asian sentiment when on location in Burma, ridiculing people who commit suicide throwing themselves in front of trains and saying their “gooey bits” should be eaten by birds, a comparison between synchronized swimming to the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in 2004, saying public strikers should be “shot in front of their families, ” and other compassionate, inspiring remarks, political correctness be damned.
