If you’ve ever watched the BBC’s fantastic show ‘Top Gear’ you’ll know that the presenters banter and carry on and make snarky remarks all the time about everything. So the claim that they were being racist in recent banter about Mexico is absolutely unfounded and wrong headed.
A Mexican woman has accused the BBC programme Top Gear of racism and instructed lawyers to bring a test case against the show after remarks made by the presenters characterised Mexicans as lazy and oafish.
They’ve said far worse about the French and the Germans and the Americans! Someone just wants a bit of money and sees an opportunity to get it via a suit.
In the episode, which was viewed by more than 6 million people, Richard Hammond claimed that cars imitate national characteristics. “Mexican cars are just going to be a lazy, feckless, flatulent, oaf with a moustache leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat,” he said. Jeremy Clarkson went on to joke that being Mexican would be “brilliant” because then he could sleep all day.
Banter. Nothing more. Racism? If you want to see racism at its worst visit Mexico… if you dare.
Zwinglius Redivivus 
World English Dictionary
racism or racialism (ˈreɪsɪzəm, ˈreɪʃəˌlɪzəm)
— n
1. the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others
2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief
By definition, (see above), Top Gear and the BBC were undeniably racist.Of that there is no argument.
Substitute the word ” Mexican” with Nigerian,Ugandan etc………there would of been a serious public outcry .
PS,am a fan of the show in general,but the comments made by TG were bang out of order IMHO.
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where was the ‘superiority’? there are in fact differences between people. thats a fact. its obvious. so the only point at which the definition could apply is in the notion that they intimated that mexicans were inferior. i dont read their comments that way. i read them as intended to be humor of the british sort.
in other words, where you appear to be imputing wickedness, i impute none.
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As a mexican, I surely was disappointed when I heard the comments, but also I realize that us mexicans do give a bad image to the rest of the world, I know my people, who by the way are not lazy nor ugly in any way (most of them), but I also know the situation that we live these days, I live in Ciudad Juarez, “the most violent city of the world”, and it’s been very hard years for us, the working, honest people; I think most of the people in México took the jokes too far the wrong side, we have more important things to resolve in our lifes, in our country than complaining about a joke that actually, if I were not mexican, be hilarious to me. People should think on better themselves instead of crying about something that actually is not relevant at all… that’s just my personal opinion.
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