(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

"I can tell you from my own experience, living in the US, Mexicans work themselves to the bone doing all the dirty thankless jobs that the white middle-class natives won't do."
- Steve Coogan puts the boot into Top Gear for that oddly harsh and random slagging off of Mexicans. (I will also pay the comment "He's not even a real hamster.") There may not be many Mexicans in the UK, lads, but millions of Americans watch you. So please don't. Especially not you, Rich. Don't spoil my dirty thoughts involving those jeans and the bonnet of your Porsche 911 by reminding me that IRL I'd probably be inching away from you as from the drunk at a barbie.

ETA: Hammond via his Web site: "Look, I was talking about the cartoon characters in western movies we all watched as kids and I am really sorry if I've offended anyone. Yes, we were stereotyping on Top Gear and yes, that can go wrong - as it rather has - but it can also be quite funny and that's what we were hoping to do."

You and your jeans are excused, mate. Now stick to taking the piss out of folks like the Germans and Australians: nations made up mostly of white people on a comparable social and economic footing to yourselves. That is funny - especially when they've got the chance to give some of their own back, Nigel.

Comments

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

Sadly, like all racial stereotypes, the comments on last week's show only serve to reveal the speaker's ignorance. The Top Gear hosts are very well-traveled men of the world, but judging from that one exchange, you'd never know it...remarks like that sound like they were uttered by someone who's had no more experience of Mexico than watching an old Speedy Gonzales cartoon.

And yes, speaking as someone who lives in an area with a lot of Mexican immigrants, what I see is them absolutely working their asses off in menial jobs every day of their lives. Thus the boys' comments (which seemed to come totally out of the blue) were a very WTF?? moment for me.

(As a side note, I think it's worth wondering why Clarkson could probably have gotten away with a stereotypical remark like that - yes, there'd be letters, but we'd all just collectively roll our eyes and sigh 'oh Jeremy' and move on - but when Hammond and May try it, then we get upset. Coogan's metaphor of the weaker kids hiding behind the school bully sadly begins to ring a bit true here, I'm afraid.)

Don't spoil my dirty thoughts involving those jeans and the bonnet of your Porsche 911

...You fantasize about Richard washing his dirty car with his jeans?

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

...You fantasize about Richard washing his dirty car with his jeans?

*whimpers*

Is he wearing anything else?

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

Soap suds. :)

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

A gag.

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

...You fantasize about Richard washing his dirty car with his jeans?

Doesn't everyone?

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm for Captain Slow.

[tysolna]

I'd rather have Mr May - brain wins over looks every day.

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

Not enough brains to keep his mouth shut, alas!

[tysolna]

I think it was scripted. I hope it was scripted. Even then, not good.

[tysolna]

What made me go "huh?" when I saw that segment was the shoe-horning of it into the show. It all seemed so forced and random somehow.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

This is the thing about Top Gear that galls me. Over and over again.

On the whole, the show is a lot of fun. We joke in my house about how I'm the James May to my roommate's Clarkson. And yet, they don't seem to have a consistent handle on how to be funny consistently without bashing gays or minorities.

[george potter (from livejournal.com)]

I lived on the Northwest side of Chicago for five years, in a Hispanic dominated neighborhood, about 90% of which were illegals(in that even the legal residents had not-quite-approved family members living with them). Not just Mexican, there was also Venezuelans, El Salvadorans, Colombians, etc. My girlfriends (very white) family was horrified that we lived there, and I never understood their problem. Other than my hometown in rural KY (where most everyone was family) they were the finest, friendliest, and best neighbors I've ever had. I couldn't walk to the store on the weekend without being stopped half a dozen times, offered a beer and a seat, something tasty from the grill. They kept a wary eye on our apartment when we were away. When my daughter was born and we brought her home from the hospital the whole street celebrated, throwing a block-party that went on for two days. They also brought over copious amounts of food and sent their extremely polite daughters over to take care of the housework while Mom recuperated.

People can say whatever they like, and live where they want. As for myself, I'd never ever hesitate to move into a Hispanic neighborhood.