Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jeremy Clarkson’s latest race-scandal is perhaps the most damning yet. The Mirror have obtained unaired footage from an episode of Top Gear where Clarkson appears to use the original version of the children’s rhyme “Eenie Meenie Miney Mo.” In the footage Clarkson is seen choosing between two cars before reciting the rhyme. Although it is not clear exactly what he says, he appears to be saying, “Catch a nigger by his toe.” It should be pointed out that Clarkson mumbles this line, which he does not do with the rest of the rhyme, and as such it’s unclear exactly what he’s saying. In the version broadcast, the word used was “teacher.”

In the wake of this many have come out in defence of Clarkson. A lot of the arguments used to defend Clarkson are quite honestly moronic, so I thought I’d take the time to go through some of the most used arguments in his defence.

  1. It’s free speech.

Ah yes, free speech. It seems these two little words can be used to defend anything. Few people seem to know what free speech is. It gives people the right to say what they want without fear of government interference. That’s it. If your best defence for something is that it’s not technically illegal, you know it’s immoral.

If the BBC were to fire Clarkson, that would not be violating free speech, that would be a corporation making a decision. The Mirror reporting on this isn’t taking away Clarkson’s right to free speech either, and the people on Twitter calling for Clarkson to be fired certainly aren’t. Let me be perfectly clear, free speech cannot be used as a defence for racist speech. Jeremy Clarkson has the right to say whatever he wants, he does not have the right to be exempt from criticism when people take offense to what he says. Furthermore, the people taking offense have just as much right to voice their opinion, something that is easily forgotten by the types of people why cry “Free speech!”

  1. The rhyme has been around forever. We used to sing it on the playgrounds as kids. It’s harmless.

Times change. A lot of things that were once considered acceptable no longer are. The rhyme was used when racism was still a very open part of society. Now we’re supposed to be better than this, although honestly it doesn’t seem like we are.

People say that words are harmless, that it’s the context that matters. And I agree. Note that I have already used the word in this blog. If I was saying any use of it is racist, I would be saying I am racist. I was quoting the word as it was allegedly said by Clarkson, and I have no problem using it in a matter-of-fact, “he said or she said this” kind of way. I can see how some people find Clarkson’s alleged use harmless too, after all it was harmless when they were kids. But when they were kids they didn’t know better. Using the rhyme when variants like “tiger” and “teacher” work perfectly well, is essentially harping back to a time where racism was more accepted. It’s nostalgia in a way, almost as if some people want to return to that time.

  1. If rappers can say it in a rhyme, why can’t Jeremy Clarkson?

Because he’s white. Sorry if this seems oh-so unfair to you, but you didn’t go through centuries of racism, the effect of which can still be seen today. Black people have long used the word to reclaim and devalue it. To take its racist intended use away from white people. A white man like Clarkson can’t do this, because he hasn’t experienced the same baggage that they have.

The other aspect of this argument people use is that it’s racist for one group of people to be allowed to use a word while another is not. I honestly don’t know how I can even respond to something so stupid. Honestly, if you’re a white person you haven’t experienced racism the way black people have. Someone may have called you a “cracker” or a “honky” but those words can’t hold the same impact that nigger does because I guarantee you haven’t had any major troubles in your life caused by racism. I’m reminded of a joke by Louis CK where he talks about how lucky he was to have been born a white man.

“How many advantages can one person have? I’m a white man. You can’t even hurt my feelings. What can you really call a white man that really digs deep? ‘Hey Cracker.’ ‘Uh, ruined my day. Boy, shouldn’t have called me a cracker. Bringing me back to owning land and people. What a drag.’”

  1. It wasn’t even broadcast, what’s the big deal?

The BBC hires thousands of people. Many of them work on Top Gear. Some of the people who work on Top Gear are most likely black. Take away the cameras and the celebrities and transport this story to a simple office environment, and you can surely see how it is still offensive.

  1. Clarkson is politically incorrect. That’s his thing.

Well maybe he shouldn’t be. Nowadays politically incorrect is just another term for openly racist, far too many people use it to justify them speaking their backwards, hurtful opinions.

And here’s the thing. Clarkson has been involved in so many race rows at this point it’s just ridiculous. If he wasn’t such a money-maker for the BBC he would have no doubt been fired years ago. Even if you think this one particular case isn’t that bad, surely you have to add them all up and see the trend. At this point, even with his popularity, it’s a wonder he hasn’t been fired.

  1. He’s mumbling. You can’t tell that he said it.

You can’t tell that he didn’t either. People are claiming he said “Nissan” but even that would clearly be alluding to the racist version of the rhyme anyway. I find it funny that people claim he’s definitely not saying nigger because he’s mumbling, and as such he could be saying anything. Surely anything means anything right? It seems weird that people would throw away the possibility that he was using racist language just because he mumbled.

Besides, why did he mumble? The rest of the rhyme is spoken pretty clearly, if he was delivering a clean version of the rhyme, he’d have no need to mumble. To me the fact that he did is the most damning evidence against him.

 

So there you have it. Six arguments used in defence of Clarkson and hopefully I’ve made a decent enough case as to why they aren’t good arguments at all. Honestly I’m just sick of people defending this kind of thing as “just banter” or whatever. I read a lot of tweets and comments on various news sites to prepare for this blog, and it was just disheartening. You know the famous Stewart Lee routine where he justifies claiming he wished Richard Hammond had died in his famous car crash with “It’s just a joke, like on Top Gear.” Of course, Lee was parodying the kind of outrageously offensive kind of things Top Gear presenters like Clarkson and Hammond say, something he even explicitly points out in the routine. And yet it seems to me that it’s still used by so many people to defend racism and bigotry. “It’s just a joke.”

I think you can joke about pretty much anything, I have a fairly dark sense of humour. I tend to subscribe to Anthony Jeselnik’s views on the subject. He claims that you can joke about anything as long as it is more funny than it is offensive. But even with that in mind, race is a whole other thing, and the use of racist language should not be taken lightly. Top Gear’s now infamous slope joke from a couple of weeks ago failed at being more funny than offensive to many people. But this, if Clarkson is saying nigger, isn’t even a joke. It’s just a completely casual use of the word. That’s what ticks me off, it’s so casual. Clarkson has proven time and time again that he is stuck in the past, but this may be the last straw.