to be unsurprised that Jeremy Clarkson used the N word?

[lessonsintightropes]

Abject apology here.

Surely the Beeb will have to sack him now?

I don't know what HNH does but if their idea to combat UKIP is to go door to door telling people that if they vote UKIP they are racist, or words to that effect, they might as well stay at home. If you're going to try and counteract UKIP, take their two clearest policies, the EU and mass immigration and try to explain to people how they have benefitted from these two things and how Britain would be a worse place if we were out of the EU and did not have mass immigration. Because anything else is pretty much just feeding the idea of UKIP being a rebellious party under attack from the establishment.

I'm in my 40s and I had only ever know a version with "baby by its toe." This is the first I'm hearing that there ever was a racist version.

I learned the 70's non PC version

And it was years before I learned what the word meant. As a kid, I always thought it was a kind of fish.

Trust the godawful Harperson to jump on the bandwagon

What is this word 'slope',that I dare not utter,or 'squaw'? Must I travel the world to seek some previously inoffensive words to offend me,or simply watch 'Django Unchained',and limit this thread to it's original ( very British) stance. Arnie has got by fine,with his name.

Schwarzenegger. And your point is??

Point is,you,especially,would complain if he were called 'Blacknegro'.

Point is, you're misinformed.

'Schwarzenegger is a German surname that means person from Schwarzenegg, which is both a town in Switzerland and a place in Land Salzburg in Austria. The name also translates literally to "black ploughman" in German.'

Do try harder.

Google can be friendly obv.

And you can also be wrong.

Happy to help.

I feel so stupid. I used to sing that nursery rhyme all the time when I was a kid but saying "lion" instead. I wondered why my mum used to hate it and now I know! I'm black too,I hope I didn't sing it in front of my gran...

xx Squoosh

Ah, ok, apologies: never heard of HNH before and just read the point about distributing UKIP leaflets at face value. I'm sorry.

I'd never heard of slope being offensive before the Top Gear debacle.

I'm 37 and learnt the non pc version of eeny meeny at school (in the playground, not in class!) and remember my parents correcting it to tiger.

So, what was he reciting the rhyme for then? Just fancied a sing song and thought 'ah, I'll sing that one then' I suppose.

I couldn't care less if he's hauled over the coals for being a crass idiot. Not that I think he will be

Some people clearly don't give a flying fuck about racism. Because it's all sport, what, chortle chortle.

Longing for the colonial era when a gentleman could say anything he damn well pleased about the subaltern because it was all in jest, what ho?

its a non story to be honest and now he has "been reprimanded" for what?appearing to say something he didnt?

i never knew slope was offencive

i learned the rhyme with the n word in it

i don't really see why black people can use it and white can't either you can all use it or you can't

really if people knew what i almost say about them on a daily basis...........

i don't really see why black people can use it and white can't either you can all use it or you can't. Intent. Like all these kinds of words, pretty much the only people you can absolutely guarantee don't have any negative intent behind them are the people they refer to.

Honestly this thread is depressing.

The reason rappers use it is an attempt to reclaim it from the being a term of abuse. To take away that power.

A white man using it in a humourless context is not the same.

The rhyme refers to a time when ethnic minorities were viewed as sub human. FFS the next line is 'if it squeals let it go'.

How can you not see why it is so offensive? How can you think it's just an innocuous nursery rhyme?

The bridge incident in my view was even worse. I didn't know it was a term of abuse either but Clarkson clearly did. The glee of 'aren't I clever getting this one past' is obvious.

Top Gear is the BBC'a biggest export and it is shown in countries that would find it incredibly offensive - from a time when people in living memory were killed and abused by the people who used it.

It's not the 'PC police' who need to grow up.

The glee of 'aren't I clever getting this one past' is obvious

Spot on, newpencilcase

really if people knew what i almost say about them on a daily basis... What do you say about them on a daily basis? Do you just throw about casual racism then?

Exactly newpencilcase
Top Gear is off to Barbados in a few days.
I do feel that clarkson has a I can do what I want,say what I want,attitude and get away with it because the Beeb needs me.

Newpencil - you said "The reason rappers use it is an attempt to reclaim it from the being a term of abuse. To take away that power."

So, if rappers do reclaim it from being a term of abuse, does that mean at some point in future we'll all be able to use it in a nice friendly way? Who gets to decide when that point has been reached so that we can all go around calling it to each other in the same way as we might say "hey mate, how are you?"

I hadn't read this properly in the news and thought it was recent and he had said it. This rhyme was being used much more recently than 55 years ago. Not sure where Owl Capone lived but I'd have said it wouldn't have raised any eyebrows at my primary school in the 70s.

Newpencil don't over egg your pudding. Of course the rhyme is unacceptable with the original word but the next lines referred to "he" and "him" not it.

I'm roughly the same age as JC and I'd be wary of using it at all simply because our generation learned it with the original word. I'd feel the word was still there in the background.

I have never heard of"slope"meaning anything other than an incline.