Top Gear racist remark (again)

Have you heard the term "slope" as a racially offensive term?

  • I'm from the UK and I've heard it

    Votes: 30 9.3%

  • I'm from the UK and I've not heard it

    Votes: 51 15.8%

  • I'm from the US or Australia and I've heard it

    Votes: 99 30.7%

  • I'm from the US or Australia and I've not heard it

    Votes: 67 20.7%

  • I'm from elsewhere and I've heard it

    Votes: 22 6.8%

  • I'm from elsewhere and I've not heard it

    Votes: 52 16.1%

  • On Planet X there are no racial epithets

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • Total voters
    323

Lisa Simpson

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So apparently, Jeremy Clarkson is busy being racist again.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27123434

Broadcast in March, the show saw Jeremy Clarkson use the word "slope" as an Asian man crossed a newly built bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand.

Executive producer Andy Wilman said it had been a "joke referencing both the build quality of the bridge and the local Asian man who was crossing it".
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"Although it might not be widely recognised in the UK, we appreciate that it can be considered offensive to some here and overseas, for example in Australia and the USA.

"If we had known that at the time we would not have broadcast the word in this context."
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My husband had not ever heard "slope" as a term towards Asian people, but I have. So my question is (and poll to soon follow) have you heard the term "slope" used as a racial epithet towards East Asian people?
 
I've heard it in the movie Hamburger Hill and elsewhere plenty of times.
 
Admittedly, I don't hang around too many racists but the last time I remember hearing that one in real life was about 1985 from a teenage kid. He had decided that since his father fought in Vietnam, he should hate Asian people.
 
Hmm, I watched the episode right after it aired, and I can't recall the boys doing or saying anything overtly racist, I guess the joke went over my head. They pretty much had nothing but good things to say about the area, and the people of Burma. I certainly didn't come away from the show thinking that the BBC was "institutionally racist". Watch the show if you think they're racists. Honestly it has almost nothing to do with cars, and you'll see some parts of the world that have rarely, if ever been filmed.
 
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The first movie reference that I recall was in The Karate Kid (194 or 1985), however I heard it used a few times in conversation before then.
 
While Top Gear presenters have made some crass comments in the past, and therefore left themselves open to accusations like this, I watched the episode concerned, and there was zero indication that the use of the word was in any way intended to be racist or insulting. It clearly related to the fact that the bridge they built was sloping. This is definitely not a well known racist expression in the U.K.
 
Pulp Fiction used it. Captain Koons speech to young Butch. He also used "gook" and "yellow bastards". Definitely a racial slur.
 
Stankeye said:
Pulp Fiction used it. Captain Koons speech to young Butch. He also used "gook" and "yellow bastards". Definitely a racial slur.
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You sure he didn't say "slope head" rather than "slope". I can't recall ever hearing the latter used as a slur.
 
Dubious Dick said:
While Top Gear presenters have made some crass comments in the past, and therefore left themselves open to accusations like this, I watched the episode concerned, and there was zero indication that the use of the word was in any way intended to be racist or insulting. It clearly related to the fact that the bridge they built was sloping. This is definitely not a well known racist expression in the U.K.
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And you're clearly wrong. The show's exec producer has even admitted that it was intended as a crass and casually-racist double entendre:

In a statement, Mr Wilman said: 'When we used the word "slope" in the recent Top Gear Burma special it was a light-hearted wordplay joke referencing both the build quality of the bridge and the local Asian man who was crossing it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-hearted-wordplay-offensive-regrets-now.html

(For those who don't know, Andy Wilman is "Mr Top Gear". The show is his baby, and he's intimately involved with the content, script and look & feel of every episode.)

The fact that Clarkson and Hammond dead-panned it as they made the remark does not disguise the fact that it was quite clearly intended as a racist insult (which Wilman stunningly chooses to categorise as "light-hearted wordplay"!). I didn't see the show when it aired - I cannot stand Top Gear, even though I am pretty interested in cars and motoring - but seeing it subsequently I immediately picked up the reference and the intent.

Also, for those who might be wondering about the origin and meaning of the "slope" insult, it's a reference to the sloping nature of the eyes in oriental ethnic groups. I would be surprised at anybody in the UK at least who has any sort of range of general knowledge and any sort of sensitivity to racism who hasn't heard of this term of abuse.
 
I'm from the U.S., I served in Viet-Nam and I heard the term used. Endlessly.
 
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