LONDON — President Obama has been asked to consider blocking broadcast in the U.S. of BBC motoring show “Top Gear” after its star, Jeremy Clarkson, was accused of allegedly using racist language.
A firm of lawyers, Equal Justice, is to write to Obama and the ambassadors of more than 200 countries in which “Top Gear” airs to ask them to consider the evidence, and then decide if the series should continue to be broadcast in their countries, the Guardian has reported.
The firm was referring to footage from the show in which the nursery rhyme “eeny, meeny, miny, mo” was recited, and in which it has been alleged the n-word was used. The footage was not broadcast, but the Daily Mirror has put the footage on its website. Clarkson claims he mumbled something that sounds like the offending word, but not the word itself.
Lawrence Davies, director of Equal Justice, said: “Clarkson claimed he ‘did everything in my power to make sure that that version did not appear in the program that was transmitted’ … The obvious thing that any non-racist would have done is to not use the rhyme at all or failing that to simply substitute another word such as ‘tiger’ in the take. There was never any need to mumble the N-word repeatedly.”
Davies added that the BBC should have sacked Clarkson and his team for alleged “gross misconduct,” but won’t because “they are making money out of the show.”
It is not the first time the show has been accused of using racist language.
Equal Justice repped Indian-born actress Somi Guha when she filed a complaint to the BBC about “Top Gear” after Clarkson used the word “slope” when referring to an Asian man.
The firm also repped Iris de la Torre, who complained about the use of racial stereotypes in an episode about Mexican vehicles.
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Εἰς τὸ στόχαστρον τῶν κομμουνιστῶν παλαιόθεν ὁ Clarkson, ὦν έθνικόφρων, μὲ τὰς ἐπιθέσεις εναντίον του νὰ ἐντείνονται ἐπ' ἐσχάτων, ὅταν ἀπέδειξεν ὅτι τὸ Tesla (τὸ ὁποῖον εἶναι βασικῶς ἕν προϊὸν ἐντατικῆς καὶ πολυδάπανου προωθήσεως) δὲν ἔχει τὴν δηλουμένην αὐτονομίαν.