Iggy Pop upsets 2 subis

BBC under fire over '****' word
23/10/2007 11:28 - (SA)

London - Britain's broadcasting watchdog criticised the BBC on Monday after ageing rock wild-man Iggy Pop used the expression "**** shop" on live television.

Pop made the comment during an interview after playing a set at the Glastonbury Festival in June, telling BBC 2 about how much he enjoyed walking around north London.

"The beauty of being me is that you can wear expensive clobber and you can walk down Camden High Street at a **** shop..." he said, in rambling comments late at night.

The presenters did not say anything about it at the time, but the BBC issued an apology the following day, saying Pop was probably not aware that the expression had passed out of "polite usage" in the last 30 years.

Small grocery store

"Iggy Pop is one of the wildest men in rock music and, as such, he has a built-in content advisory warning," said the BBC, which received two complaints about the remark.

But the Ofcom watchdog said the term breached broadcasting guidelines.

The BBC "failed in its responsibility to ensure that the offence caused was justified by the context, for example by lessening it through issuing an on-air apology as soon as possible after the incident occurred," it said.

"**** shop" used to be a widely used British term for a small grocery store, generally run by Pakistani or Indian families, which typically open later at night or on weekends than other shops.

It is now seen by many as having offensive or racist overtones.

What's the word?

P.A.K.I

TBH, while I understand it is offensive in Britain, I still don't get it. Aussie, Saffie, Kiwi, Subi . . . ???

A whole 2 complaints.

The entire community must be up in arms about this.

taipan wrote:A whole 2 complaints.

The entire community must be up in arms about this.

From filosofee and Makaveli.

Nah, were both from Fluffy i would guess.

Why do they have to be 'subi's? The way I see it, I wouldn't have complained but would've been mildly offended by his ignorance. Even the yokelist yokels I know wouldn't have said that. It's not hard to say 'corner shop' AFAIC.

Batfink Begins wrote:Why do they have to be 'subi's? The way I see it, I wouldn't have complained but would've been mildly offended by his ignorance. Even the yokelist yokels I know wouldn't have said that. It's not hard to say 'corner shop' AFAIC.

I would give pretty good odds that they were.

taipan wrote:I would give pretty good odds that they were.

Depends their vehemence on the subject. I mean, as I said, I wouldn't have complained but I'm so apathetic towards television etc. that I wouldn't complain about anything. Were I more keen or whatever, who knows - I may have complained.

Problem is, Iggy Pop is such a count that it would probably be one of the last things I would be watching.

More likely that the complaints came from guilt-ridden PC-liberals TBH. The event happened a few months ago now.

I think the whole point is that the upset was so mild that only 2 people complained. The proverbial storm in a teacup.

Well, it is a storm in a tea-cup - but the fact is it's never been 'OK' to say that and with all the undertones to the comment I'm not surprised.

Batfink Begins wrote:Well, it is a storm in a tea-cup - but the fact is it's never been 'OK' to say that and with all the undertones to the comment I'm not surprised.

I never said it was okay.

But the fact remains that only 2 people out of millions complained, thereby underlining the insignificance.

Iggy Pop, you pathetic little loser, there's no way on earth you're a hope in hell of getting onto the Anti-PC Hero Club when only two people complain. And they were most likely your agent and your mum, assuming they're two different people. If not the other one was most likely some hack from NME.

Like Madonna, you used to shock many years ago but now you merely bore.

taipan wrote:I never said it was okay.

But the fact remains that only 2 people out of millions complained, thereby underlining the insignificance.

Pfft, Iggy Pop's a non-event. I'd be surprised if there were more than 10,000 watching...

Phurt...

Old goat aged past it rocker in a shocking comment on TV shock...

It's not hard to say 'corner shop' AFAIC.

Depends. Our rugby administrators can't even say "Well done."

tac wrote:TBH, while I understand it is offensive in Britain, I still don't get it. Aussie, Saffie, Kiwi, Subi . . . ???

It is because in the UK, during the dreadful 70s, the word P***, which could be considered a shortened descriptive term, was used as a word of hate (and I am not over-emphasising by using the word hate.)

You f***ing P*** would be a common term.

I don't know if at the very beginning the N word was a relatively neutral word, derived from Negro, meaning black; but now both terms, because of the correct association with appalling abuse are now considered abusive, racist terms (although I think Negro may still be used properly in anthropology to differentiate races, but I may be wrong on that.)

The use of the word P*** in the UK will grate horribly on any right-minded individual because of the fact it has had a deeply racist use.

Strangely though, the term P***-Shop is not necessarily as offensive (although that is arguable.) The term may be used in a more ironic way to refer to the plethora of corner shops, owned by Asians (many of whom are not Pakistani) who worked every hour God sends and on which almost everyone in the country has relied on at some time (munchies at midnight anyone?)

The Asian band Corner-Shop called themselves that in a similarly ironic manner I would say.

The fact that the term refers to a phenomenon, rather than an individual, and has been used ironically in the UK may account for the paltry number of complaints. I would not be surprised if the 2 complaints were from sandal-wearing PC whiteys rather than Asians.

The use of the term by the drug-addled brain of Iggy smacks of ignorance. It would be best not to use the term.

It would be interesting to hear the view of any British Asian on this board, but i am not sure we have any. If I am wrong on what I have said I would happily stand corrected.

In South Africa "the Greek (or Portuguese) on the corner" is a well-known phenomenon, as far as I know not offensive - but it may become nowadays, as many of them are now more likely to become lawyers and doctors than take over Daddy's corner shop.

In Australia, most towns had a Greek fish and chip shop.

doctorspin wrote:

tac wrote:TBH, while I understand it is offensive in Britain, I still don't get it. Aussie, Saffie, Kiwi, Subi . . . ???

It is because in the UK, during the dreadful 70s, the word P***, which could be considered a shortened descriptive term, was used as a word of hate (and I am not over-emphasising by using the word hate.)

You f***ing P*** would be a common term.

I don't know if at the very beginning the N word was a relatively neutral word, derived from Negro, meaning black; but now both terms, because of the correct association with appalling abuse are now considered abusive, racist terms (although I think Negro may still be used properly in anthropology to differentiate races, but I may be wrong on that.)

The use of the word P*** in the UK will grate horribly on any right-minded individual because of the fact it has had a deeply racist use.

Strangely though, the term P***-Shop is not necessarily as offensive (although that is arguable.) The term may be used in a more ironic way to refer to the plethora of corner shops, owned by Asians (many of whom are not Pakistani) who worked every hour God sends and on which almost everyone in the country has relied on at some time (munchies at midnight anyone?)

The Asian band Corner-Shop called themselves that in a similarly ironic manner I would say.

The fact that the term refers to a phenomenon, rather than an individual, and has been used ironically in the UK may account for the paltry number of complaints. I would not be surprised if the 2 complaints were from sandal-wearing PC whiteys rather than Asians.

The use of the term by the drug-addled brain of Iggy smacks of ignorance. It would be best not to use the term.

It would be interesting to hear the view of any British Asian on this board, but i am not sure we have any. If I am wrong on what I have said I would happily stand corrected.

Thanks for that, doctorspin. BTW, former forummer fluffy is a British pakster.

Makaveli and Ash are both British Asians (AFAIK).

I don't know if at the very beginning the N word was a relatively neutral word, derived from Negro, meaning black; but now both terms, because of the correct association with appalling abuse are now considered abusive, racist terms (although I think Negro may still be used properly in anthropology to differentiate races, but I may be wrong on that.)

Some summarised information from Bill Bryson's Made in America:

N****r first appeared in print in 1587 and was, at first, just a variant of the preferred term, negro. Until the 1880s, "blacks' or "coloreds" were preferred. In 1909 a black human rights group decided that Negro - now capitalised - should replace the above terms. Black made a comeback in the 60s and soon replaced Negro. Since then, there's been African American, to name just one...

mynah wrote:

I don't know if at the very beginning the N word was a relatively neutral word, derived from Negro, meaning black; but now both terms, because of the correct association with appalling abuse are now considered abusive, racist terms (although I think Negro may still be used properly in anthropology to differentiate races, but I may be wrong on that.)

Some summarised information from Bill Bryson's Made in America:

N****r first appeared in print in 1587 and was, at first, just a variant of the preferred term, negro. Until the 1880s, "blacks' or "coloreds" were preferred. In 1909 a black human rights group decided that Negro - now capitalised - should replace the above terms. Black made a comeback in the 60s and soon replaced Negro. Since then, there's been African American, to name just one...

Thanks for that, I would consider Bryson a reliable source. So it seems that the N word and P*** have had sort of analogous routes into taboo through their adoption by racists.

And Tac, I forgot about Filo, she would certainly be qualified to comment, but her responses to a thread involving certain forummers may skew her slant somewhat. A British version of Furry, or Doremi (as long as Agarkar is not involved) may be considered more reliable.

When I played cricket regularly, it was in a club that had a majority of Asian members, so I could have asked them. But I'm not playing at the moment, and in any case, the cricket club was never the best place for serious discussion.

They would call eachother P*** and didn't object if the likes of me did, but that was from a position of being good friends and them knowing that you did not hold racist views and were an all-round good bloke. Had to reciprocate by allowing them to call me a f***** Yid so quid pro quo and all that. As they were mainly muslim it seemed the perfect model for solving the Middle-East problems. I'll get on to Tony Blair straight away.