Open Letter – Racially Derogatory Remarks about Chinese People in the UK

Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson has a habit of making on-air gaffes and saying the wrong things on a regular basis.

In the past few months, Clarkson has managed to offend nearly every time he has opened his mouth. Back in November, he said public sector workers who went on strike should be "executed in front of their families" while the BBC received complaints of Clarkson mocking Indian culture during Top Gear Christmas special filmed in India.

Clarkson has been at it again, this time making a tasteless comment about the cockle picking disaster in Morecambe Bay in which 23 Chinese migrant workers died.

And it seems it is not only Clarkson who thinks it's OK to make light of offending the Chinese community.

Here, Olivia Boland, chairperson of the Suffolk Chinese Family Welfare Association writes an open letter about the derogatory remarks made about Chinese people in the UK and the lack of action taken by the Office for Judicial Complaints for offensive comments made by a judge in Ipswich.

Open Letter – Racially Derogatory Remarks about Chinese People in the UK

Jeremy Clarkson slammed for joke about death of 23 Chinese cockle-pickers

Jeremy Clarkson has a soul mate as far as racially derogatory remarks are concerned. We have Judge Thompson in Ipswich who had not just failed to tackle racially derogatory remarks made about Chinese people in his Court but joined in himself in his Judgment referring to the Chinese people as "People who were washed upon our shore in the night".

Despite the complaints, the Judiciary and the Office for Judicial Complaints have done nothing so far.

We have a Judiciary that is made of almost entirely white Judges from a particular background. Our Judiciary is structurally and blatantly institutional racist to the extent itself has to be exempted from Equality Act 2010.

It is an insult that the very institution we depend on to judge and punish us on matters of equality and discrimination, has to be excluded from complying with the laws. What does this say about us as a country?

The Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC) has no record of upholding any racial complaints. Frankly, OJC’s record is even worse than that of the discredited IPCC which investigates racial complaints against the Police.

The Judicial Appointments Commission and the Judiciary need to give us a reasonable time frame for the reform required. There is no democratic mandate for the elected Members of the Parliament to make Equality laws that exempts the Judiciary, unless there is a specific time frame for the completion of its reform and for the compliance of the Equality laws by the Judiciary itself.

Olivia Boland

Chairperson, Suffolk Chinese Family Welfare Association

Image: Jeremy Clarkson