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BBC radio presenter sacked for racism...

60 replies

TheArmadillo · 12/11/2008 18:11

here

Local radio presenter Sam Mason has been sacked for racist comments (there is a transcript on link).

These comments weren't however broadcast and were a private conversation between her and a mini cab firm (the woman who she had the conversation with recorded it secretly and has since been sacked), arranging for a cab to collect the presenter's teenage dd, where she stated that she didn't want a driver with a turban as her dd wasn't used to them (paraphrased)

However most the comments, or at least a large proportion, seem to think what she did wasn't racist (I was surprised at this as I think it would be considered clearly racist). The argument from most of them being that it was a parent's right to dictate what taxi driver picked up her daughter.

So wondering what others think.

Was what she did racist?

Should she have been sacked for things she said when she wasn't working?

Would it have been ok if she had just requested a woman driver? Is it ok to specify sex of driver but not race? Would it still seem ok to request a male driver?

I think what she did was clearly racist, but am wondering if they had grounds to sack her because it wasn't while she was working.

And I do feel it is ok to specify the sex of a driver, especially if it was a young lone woman say, travelling at night (no idea if this person's dd was actually travelling at night) - though I can't exactly justify why.

OP posts:
Kathyis6incheshigh · 13/11/2008 08:21

Chequers/Beanie - ok, I'm sure there must be some Asian woman taxi drivers, but they are a tiny minority. I have certainly never seen one and I take taxis a fair bit, usually in Leicester where nearly all the cab drivers are Asian.
It would not be right, but pragmatically if you had some kind of bizarre racist problem with Asian cab drivers this would be the easiest way to avoid getting one.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 13/11/2008 08:39

apologies for over-generalising though.

Flossish · 13/11/2008 08:57

Don't see why you can't complain about foreign call centres. Anyone you talk to will share the problem with you. The conversation sometimes gets ridiculous. Thinking mostly of a conversation when a cash machine seemed very dodgy, asking me to enter my (correct) pin twice. Tried to ring and report it and the representative was at a complete loss as to what was going on and I was left to hope for the best!

It does sound racist on the womans behalf. A woman driver, fair enough but not specifying anything beyond that.

Elffriend · 13/11/2008 11:23

Racist.
Correct to fire her.
Very clear cut.

Also mortifying now for her 14 year old daughter I would have thought.

wahwah · 13/11/2008 11:40

Read transcript. Racist.

ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 13/11/2008 13:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

chipmunkswhereareyou · 13/11/2008 13:21

Asking to speak to someone who can understand what you are asking for is fine. Asking for a woman driver for a young girl is fine.

Asking for a particular race of taxi driver is not fine. It is clearly racist and outrageous.

Yes I can't imagine how embarrassed her daughter is now.

chipmunkswhereareyou · 13/11/2008 13:22

And pregnanthedgewitch - do you think her daughter would be uncomfortable with my incredibly well-spoken, well educated, well-behaved, 'more English than the English' dh who just happens to have parents who came from South Asia?
It's just not acceptable.
The mother should be working out what it is that makes her daughter feel uncomfortable and tackling it if there is really a fear.

EffiePerine · 13/11/2008 13:23

HW, you can;t ask for someone of a specific race to do the job because it is illegal. You wouldn;t put in a job advert asking for a white British male, would you? Just because you are paying for a service does not mean you can discriminate .

EffiePerine · 13/11/2008 13:24

like demanding a white person serve you in a shop - I'd imagine you'd (quite rightly) get chucked out.

lulumama · 13/11/2008 13:27

why would she be uncomfortable with asian males, why would a different skin colour make her uncomfortable?

it is presuming there is a reason for her to be afraid of asian males, which is tarring a whole race with the same brush, which is stupid and thoughtless

would she object to a man wearing a skullcap? or a woman wearing a sheitl? (wig observant jewish women wear) or jsut a problem with turbans?

revolting behaviour

onager · 13/11/2008 13:45

I've been thinking about this and I see we've getting muddled here. This woman probably IS racist, but in general asking for someone who isn't wearing a turban isn't racist. It would equally apply to any person from any race who wore a turban.

Poppycake · 13/11/2008 13:52

isn't it just that you're not looking to see why you're/anyone else is uncomfortable? If you don't try and understand your own prejudices you're not going to get anywhere. A lot of women thought it wrong that women should get the vote before women's suffrage - and in the same way, if you don't think "actually, I'm uncomfortable but I've actually no right or basis for being uncomfortable" then nothing will ever change.

And the telephone thing isn't relevant - you're not asking to change (presumably!) because you don't like the colour of the skin, but because you can't understand the person, which could be because they're from Delhi, Glasgow or Truro, but the point of the phone call is to communicate with each other. No one would suggest that you can't drive a car with a turban on...

Elffriend · 13/11/2008 14:12

Onagar - that is wholly incorrect.

Asking for someone who does not wear a turban is a textbook example of indirect discrimination under the law.

In any event, it is quite clear from the transcript that Ms Mason was objecting to having a driver who was not white and english.

If she were that bothered by the prospect of nasty foreign menshe should have driven her own daughter rather than shoving her in a taxi. Arse. (Her not you).

onager · 13/11/2008 14:20

Well elfriend I was refering to logic not the law. Clearly it could be (and probably was in this case) used as a means of achieving racial discrimination in a roundabout way, but not liking a turban is not racist in itself if you see what I mean?

It may seem like splitting hairs, but these distinctions are important.

savoycabbage · 13/11/2008 14:23

The 'distinctions' are so not important! You can't get away with saying things and then saying 'well technically that's not racist'.

My neighbour used to call my dd a monkey. I can assure you that it was absolutely racist.

Rhubarb · 13/11/2008 14:29

I wonder why the call was recorded by the taxi company. It implies that she had done this before and this time they recorded the conversation.

Iklboo · 13/11/2008 14:32

I saw a tv prog once. An australian guy was renting out his flat and put an advert in the local paper/ The advert said "no asians".
LOADS of local reporters swarmed down to his house with cameras, microphones etc and collared him as he got out of the car, calling him racist etc. The guy was very bewildered, saying he wasn't racist.
"But you specified 'no asians' when you phoned your To Let ad into the paper" said one reporter.
The guy looked at him like he'd gone mad.
"No, I said no agents"

BUT - this instance was defintely not right. And why couldn't 14 year old daughter ring her own taxi?

shootfromthehip · 13/11/2008 14:38

What a silly cow? So being permissive of your child not being used to other races will allow her to get used to it how exactly? Moron. Glad the BBC got rid.

ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 13/11/2008 15:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Elffriend · 13/11/2008 15:40

onager, if we are talking about splitting hairs....

She says of her daughter: ?I don?t want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on, it?s going to freak her out. She?s not used to Asians."

Clearly, if she were to be making an abtract statement such as, "I really don't like pasta and I'm not keen on turbans either", then logically it would not be a racist comment. However, in the context used , ie.e. differentiating someone on the grounds that they wre wearing a turban then it IS racist.

You wrote that, "asking for someone who isn't wearing a turban isn't racist. It would equally apply to any person from any race who wore a turban."

The point is, less people who are sikh (and therefore generally of asian origin) would be able to comply with this specification than others who are not sikh. Therefore it is indirect discrimation. Which IS unlawful.

You are right, distinctions are important.

rebelmum1 · 13/11/2008 16:00

What if he took off his turban would he be ok? She sounds extremely ignorant if you ask me.

catsmother · 13/11/2008 16:10

I don't buy the "my daughter's bothered by turbans" line at all.

This family haven't been living on a remote Scottish island all their lives, population 79, with no TV. They come from a large city with a significant Asian population including, presumably, some Sikhs (I have no idea of the proportional religious breakdown of Bristol's Asians).

If this girl's family are racist - and her mother certainly seems to be - she may well have inherited some of their bigoted views, but I cannot believe she'd be "apprehensive of the unfamiliar" when it's extremely unlikely turbans are "unfamiliar" to her.

I don't think it's anything whatsoever to do with the daughter's thoughts on the matter, and everything to do with the mother's own personal prejudices.

spokette · 13/11/2008 16:36

In the 1960s, immigrants looking for accommodation were often met with signs such as "English (ie white) only or "No blacks, no Irish, no dogs".,

The fact that this woman felt that she could still insist on this type of xenophobia in 2008 is frankly depressing. Well done to the BBC for getting rid of her.

mm22bys · 13/11/2008 16:57

"She's not used to Asians".

Surely at 14 it's time enough already to try?

Definitely racist, good she was gooten rid of (great English I know!)

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