Turban ‘will freak daughter out’, says host
THE BBC have sacked one of their radio hosts over allegedly racist comments made to a local taxi firm in which she demanded a taxi driver who wasn’t Asian.
Sam Mason made the call to a local taxi firm off-air while presenting her BBC Bristol radio show.
During the call, in which she booked a taxi for her 14-year-old daughter, Mason accused the female operator of being “uneducated” after she was told her request for a non-Asian cab driver was racist.
The taxi firm, who said they recorded all calls in case of queries and complaints, passed the transcript of the conversation to a national newspaper.
Mason is heard saying: I know this sounds really racist, but I’m not being . . . please, don’t send anyone like, you know what I mean. An English person would be great, a female would be better.”
When the operator tells her this is “racist” and that she cannot “penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one”, Mason persists before she is passed on to a male operator.
She continued: “I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one.”
Speaking of her daughter she says: “I don’t want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on, it’s going to freak her out. She’s not used to Asians.”
Mason was initially suspended from her job, but was later sacked by the corporation.
In a statement the BBC said her comments were “completely unacceptable”.
“Although Sam Mason’s remarks were not made on-air, her comments were completely unacceptable and, for that reason, she has been informed that she will no longer be working for the BBC with immediate effect,” the statement said.
