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BBC says Top Gear' s use of ' racist word' was acceptable

Chris GreenMar 17, 2015 An internal investigation by the BBC concluded that Top Gear's use of the word “pikey” was not racially offensive. The ruling by the BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee, which is due to be published on Tuesday, was condemned by Gypsy and Traveller organisations who accused the corporation of “legitimising the use of a racist word”. We are horrified by the BBC’s green lighting of the use of the word ‘pikey’ by the Top Gear presenters. Over 100,000 Gypsy and Traveller children are now open to even more abuse in the playground – abuse that has the official sanction of the BBC Trust.Traveller Movement spokesman The complaint lodged by the Traveller Movement charity relates to a Top Gear episode aired in February last year which featured a race of popular 1980s hatchbacks. During the programme, presenter Richard Hammond’s choice of a Vauxhall Nova is ridiculed, before Jeremy Clarkson is seen erecting a placard at the start line bearing the words “Pikey’s Peak”. In its ruling, seen by the i paper, the BBC committee acknowledges the fact that the word “pikey” related to Travellers. While it “accepted that the word ‘pikey’ did have the potential to be deeply offensive to the Gypsy and Traveller communities”, it said there had been “no intended racist reference” by the Top Gear team. “The Committee believed that the word ‘pikey’ had evolved into common parlance among a number of people to mean ‘chavvy’ or ‘cheap’,” the committee stated.Keep reading...Show less

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