h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So Top Gear's in trouble again. This time they used a term derogatory to Asians which I had never heard in the UK. I guess they were aiming at the US market, maybe?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27123434

Now it's in the open and all over the press, I guess the term has instantly become racist here, too. Should we go on a purge and examine all innocent uses of this word to see if there are any hidden racist overtones? Should we ban the word altogether and go for a neutral alternative like 'gradient'?

What's your inclination?

Never heard of that term either.
I've not seen that show so I don't know the context.
I think it's up to each individual to make their minds up as to whether to watch or not.
If you think they are going too far stop watching, and by all means submit a complaint.

>>Should we ban the word altogether and go for a neutral alternative like 'gradient'?

'Gr*dient' is offensive to the Gray community.

Can't say I've ever heard of that and wouldn't have thought it had a racist connotation had I watched the episode. Is this a rare instance of Jeremy Clarkson not meaning to be offensive?

<BB<

Comparing the contours of a structure to the physiological contours of those who built it might not be especially smart, whether it's racially derogative or not. The exception would be in the case of a structure that is intended as a sculpture.

Derogatory? Maybe. Smart? Probably not.

People should stop watching top gear... and not pay any attention to whoever the presentor is, and anything he/she says Usage of words can be offensive, words themselves cannot be, IMO... ; its the beliefs, and intentions of those who use wahtever word it might be, that determines the intent of their 'view' really, I guess

I did actually see the episode, and from what I remember there was absolutely no racist overtones in it at all.

I'm going with this being a case of some idiot not getting enough to complain about, and the BBC's constant drive (no pun intended) to sell its shows to the US, and therefore making them more for US audiences than UK ones, backfiring on them.

As for the term itself, I've never heard it before. Having checked with the font of knowledge that is Urban Dictionary though, it seems to have been in use elsewhere for quite a long time. So well done to those complainants, you've brought another offensive term into use in the UK

The BBC may [and apparently does] sell its shows to the U.S., but (a.) many of us Yanks can't make out half of what's being said or meant, and (b.) it quickly becomes apparent that the BBC's "masterpieces" are not all of stellar quality . Benny Hill, for instance. Or "Are you being served?" Or that new one about the department store.

When the beeb make programmes, they're usually very good.

When the beeb make programmes for a particular audience, they're usually very bad.

I think the reason is that they listen to think tanks or boards of people whose job entails thinking what other people are thinking. And that never works.

So when they try to make a programme that's more appealing to say, the American market so they can sell it on, it usually falls flat. You'd have thought they'd have learned their lesson from how bad American pilots of English shows fail. Red Dwarf and IT Crowd spring to mind.

I have heard the term used in Australia and occasionally heard in in American films it is deeply offensive and I given the adolescent laddish attempts to be controversial that Clarkson and co have got rich on I doubt it was inadvertent.

Is it this 'Clarkson and co ' to blame though... (whoever they might be, I don't watch TV), or is it the one assumes, large viewing public, who watch whatever program this is, who one assumes, lap up their attempts at being controversial or 'laddish'... One assumes they'd not be conducting themselves as they do, were there not the public 'demand', or 'desire' to watch/hear such 'behavior'

To all those people saying "Is it a racist term? Well, I've never heard it before." I can only say, you haven't been paying attention.

In particular, you presumably have never seen Pulp Fiction, or if you have, you were just pointing your face at the screen, slack-jawed and oblivious.

If you have seen Pulp Fiction, and were paying attention, you'd have seen Christopher Walken deliver a tour de force performance, thus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVxl__61vKI

Specifically, at 3 minutes and 43 seconds into that clip, Mr Walken clearly uses the word "slope" as a racial slur. Or rather his character does, the character of Captain Koons.

Ahem.

Hearing a word once, in the middle of a tirade, isn't exactly knowing it as a slur is it?

It's in the OED as US offensive slang, first published reference 1948. 'Slant' is identical, from 1942.

There's also quite a lot of other words in the OED I've never really heard

I never saw "Pulp Fiction," Hoo. I may have broad tastes, but they aren't *that* broad .

No one is required to put nasty words into movies. I remember with fondness "Johnny Dangerously," which used words like "icehole" instead of common swears.

Were Rodgers and Hammerstein's shows any less great because they used expressions like "Hed for leather?" Granted, they used the "D" word in "Bloody Mary is the girl I love," but not to do so would have made the servicemen in the show seem less authentic. Hammerstein went around listening to the way real servicemen talked.

I suppose they had to use the "N" word in "12 years a Slave," as it was set in pre-Civil-War America. I can't imagine how they would manage to avoid it, other than not make the movie at all.

But in the case cited in the original post, "slope" was totally gratuitous. No one really needed to go down that road. It was an aside. I just think the options are all bad: they were stupid, they were careless, or they were trying to be witty without the necessary talent for wittiness.

Slope is a new one on me too.

I do know that Top Gear have used racist words to refer to Irish Travellers in the past, so it wouldn't necessarily surprise me.

TRiG.

You're all making me nervous -

I've been a 'Whitey' and a 'Roundeye' (among the printable epithets) ... should I have complained to the 'Powers That Were'?

Private citizens seem to be cut some slack for what they say in private. What we're talking about here is words that were used in public media. Public figures can sometimes get in trouble even for things they said in private years ago. Paula Dean, a television chef in the Southern USA, had her series canceled when it was revealed that she used the "N" word in private in the 1970s and early 1980s. Apparently there is no statute of limitations for such things, nor does it help her that she wasn't saying such things in public.

Mel Gibson made some spectacularly offensive remarks in California a number of years ago. Had he been a private citizen, chances are he would not have gotten coast-to-coast media attention for it, but since he was a famous actor and director, everybody knew about it.

Living in a fishbowl is not good, not even for a fish....

Probably not, Rod, if you're a member of the majority population?

I've been called a "roundeye" and a "longnose" when I've been the only westerner in a room full of Koreans which was disconcerting so I told them to stop it. And they did.