Another day, another high profile figure embroiled in a racist scandal. This time it’s across the pond in the United Kingdom, where BBC Top Gear TV host Jeremy Clarkson was allegedly recorded using racist epithets – not once but in two incidents towards two minority groups.
In unedited footage from a February 2013 episode of Top Gear obtained by the Mirror, a British tabloid, Clarkson recites a popular nursery rhyme – ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’ – and finishes it with what sounds like “catch a n***** by his toe.”
Clarkson had just finished test driving a Toyota GT86 and a Subaru BRZ on the BBC show’s race track when he stood between the cars and performed the rhyme to jokingly illustrate the cars’ similarity, according to the Mirror.
“Both cost the same, they have the same bodies and the same interiors with the same equipment,” Clarkson said on the show. “They are even built by the same people in the same factory. You might imagine then that it’s quite hard to chose between them, but actually, it isn’t.”
The show ultimately ran edited on BBC, but the unaired episode contained the n-word. It is not clear how the Mirror obtained the footage, and whether it acted legally in publishing it.
Clarkson, who earns £1 million per year, took to Twitter to deny he used the epithet immediately after the Mirror’s report.
I did not use the n word. Never use it. The Mirror has gone way too far this time.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) May 1, 2014
Today, he also tweeted a link to a video response to the allegations. In the video, he is “apologizing and explaining that he personally requested that segment never air because after seeing the footage, he realized it sounded like he did use the N-word, despite efforts (by mumbling and changing words around) not to.”
this is my statement. http://t.co/mfOqcltZAV
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) May 1, 2014
Fellow Top Gear hosts James May and Richard Hammond tweeted in support of their embattled colleague, stating they do not believe he is racist but used bad judgment. Others on social media have demanded that Clarkson be fired.
Jeremy Clarkson is not a racist. He is a monumental bellend and many other things, but not a racist. I wouldn’t work with one. #ThatIsAll
— James May (@MrJamesMay) May 1, 2014
I 2nd May’s comment re Clarkson. I can list a million things wrong with him, but he is absolutely not racist. An idiot, yes. — Richard Hammond (@RichardHammond) May 1, 2014
Clarkson is no stranger to racially tinged controversy. He used the word “slope” while filming in Thailand for the BBC’s show, a remark considered derogatory remark towards people of Asian descent.
Photo Credit: Newspress
