BBC radio presenter sacked for racism...

[TheArmadillo]

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.

I am having trouble here.

She's saying it'[s her daughter she is talking about.

Then she says 'I don't want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on'

Also she is using a lot of insinuation rather than getting to the point - 'you know' etc

I reckon maybe, just maybe she is confused (or pissed) about what she's trying to get across. Perhaps she means her daughter's grandmother would be freaked out by the daughter turning up with an Asian driver?

Which isn't any better really but possibly someone old would be more likely to be freaked out by other cultures etc etc etc

As I've said I'm not defending this woman since I expect she was being racist.

"the distinctions are so not important"

That's what the crowd thought that wanted to burn the paediatricians - close enough!

We must always make careful distinctions between different people and situations because we are the good ones. Unlike the BNP who lump large groups of people together and unthinkingly claim they are all the same.

Elffriend, 99 times out of a 100 you'd be right there. I just don't want people saying later "not liking turbans is illegal. I saw it on mumsnet".

Not asian, DH is. What someone says in a private conversation is nobody's buisness IMO. Is eveyone of us always PC in private? I don't think so...

The person at the other end of the line was right to express desagreament with this BBC presenter but wrong to go to the papers with it. Is there some sort of witch hunt as far as BBC presenters are concerned?

Oh give me a break - a 14 year old scared of turbans?

There are female drivers out there as I am one (Carbs Shuttle & Feminine cars) Birmingham. Can I just say, I have worked at at good few private hire firms and the drivers have enough to put up with from drunks and druged up clubbers without people making sweeping generalisations about them because of their race, creed or colour.

I am a female driver with my own firm and I am struggleing to get work. This firm was contacted had a driver available to do the job and specified that the driver must not have a turban?

That is so wrong, but no one knows what the problem was, was there some kind of previous incident that made this parent so cautious.

I dont know if this womans comments were racist, but i think the history should be checked before we cast our opinons. Something could have happened previously, then again she could have racist views, only she knows.

Amazingly daft of the woman to try the 'don't you know who I AM' line while making racist demands...

I'm just imagining the 14 year old walking towards the taxi, she's fine, everything is OK, but wait... what is that on his head? Noooo, a turban! She falls to the floor in an incomprehending swoon.
A man in a turban, driving a taxi, in BRISTOL! WTF!?

I'm sure the whole traumatic episode would feature heavily in her autobiography.

It does sound a bit dubious but so does Mutt's Bushism above "The people who don't think what she did was racist, would be racist themselves."

Otherwise translated as , "You're either with us or against us".

My brother is 16, special needs and he is "freaked out" by turbans and very nervous about people he doesn't know or who have a strong accent. He recently had a new driver to take him to school. The driver was Asian and my poor brother was shaking and clinging to my mum as she tried to get him in the minibus. Yes, he would have been nervous with a new person of any colour but the turban and accent made the poor driver seem more of a stranger to him.

My mum would not of dreamed of asking for a white driver or non-turban wearing one (and my brother is now comfortable with his driver) but I do have some sympathy if the presenter's daughter has special needs.

not have (too much red wine!)