Racism On Celebrity Big Brother?

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Originally posted by Duncan Fullerton:

quote:

Originally posted by Diode100:
For god's sake, A month ago this actress was a virtual unknown ...

That comment is just as ignorant and unthinking as those on the program referred to above. But, just like those comments, not racist as such but more a reflection of some peoples narrow horizons and lack of worldliness. QED.

FYI she is massive in India.

Duncan

So why is she in a UK show ? There is a Big Brother franchise in India, if she has a burning desire to be on the show, why isn't she on that one? This isn't just a cynical ploy to establish her in the UK ?

Seems to me this is a 'reality' TV show that is only displaying to the nation the 'reality' of such comments that occur in countless households every day.

The fact that some people are offended by it is only a reflection on the offensive behaviour of the general public.

Should it be on TV? Absolutely. Lets us have a good look at ourselves.

OK, lessons we have learnt.

1. Big Brother is incredibly manipulative and designed to appeal to sad, uneducated and gullible Britons, run and owned as it is by very clever, greedy Tories (Endomol/Peter Bazalgette).

2. Anyone else can jump on this bandwagon and use it for their ends. Good for them.

3. The head of Channel 4 is unbelievably rude, ignorant and insensitive (Radio 4, Today, Jan 18).

4. There will always be racism in this country.

quote:

Originally posted by rupert bear:
OK, lessons we have learnt.

1. Big Brother is incredibly manipulative and designed to appeal to sad, uneducated and gullible Britons, run and owned as it is by very clever, greedy Tories (Endomol/Peter Bazalgette).

2. Anyone else can jump on this bandwagon and use it for their ends. Good for them.

3. The head of Channel 4 is unbelievably rude, ignorant and insensitive (Radio 4, Today, Jan 18).

4. There will always be racism in this country.

How about some comment on the 'celebrities' and their motivations ?

because everyone has to become a success in this new millenium and who cares how or what you leave in your wake.
i don't blame the celebs. good on you, JG. thick-skinned millionairess after all!
she has achieved through determination what her school never could give her.

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i don't blame the celebs. good on you, JG. thick-skinned millionairess after all!
she has achieved through determination what her school never could give her.

I feel that she has achieved all this through exactly what her school gave her and it is so very wrong that both national education policy and the local school governors allowed her to leave school armed only with what we have seen over the past few days on the box.

Education, education, education - this mantra sounds a bit hollow after ten years, now I know that Jade's education may not have all been under the eye of the latest people in number ten but the education of millions of other school children has and that is something we have to look forward to.

quote:

Originally posted by Diode100:
There is a Big Brother franchise in India, if she has a burning desire to be on the show, why isn't she on that one?

Is that a round about way of saying "why doesn't she go back to where she came from"? Sound like Alf Garnett is alive and kicking ...

Duncan

This incident throws up an awful lot of issues.

An (inteligent?) young Asian woman, plus her UK resident agent deliberately put themselves into a well known situation of tv-journalistic-gutter-conflict.

A dumb blond half-wit of an Essex girl and her mates do likewise.

Obscenities and bullying follow. Possibly a few racists remarks are made (news reports are not specific about this?)

Shortly afterwards the whole world likens the ENTIRE population of India and Pakistan to the young Indian woman and the entire WHITE population of the UK to three dumb Essex girls.

And you think we should be worried about raciscm? you bet we should!

Put the thing back into perspective.

Cheers

Don

If the people involved in this show are guilty of raciscm and the programme controllers have allowed such raciscm to be broadcast, they should be prosecuted and punished in accordance with our law.

Regardless

Cheers

Don

I see that Ms Shetty has now decided (or has been told?) that she does wish to make a complaint of racial abuse.

The poor lady will be crying all the way to the bank (and her next film).

Bless.

John.

quote:

Originally posted by Jagster:
These are the comments taken from the BBC News website:
On Monday night's episode, former S Club 7 star O'Meara reportedly suggested that Indians were thin because they were always ill as a result of undercooking their food.

The trio also complained that Shetty had touched other housemates' food with her hands.

Former beauty queen Lloyd said: "You don't know where those hands have been."


Stupid and un-educated comments, IMHO....

Yes but not necessarily racist.

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Originally posted by manicatel:
At present, I am in India, where the issue is dominating a lot of their tv. I do find this fairly hypocritical, as the Indian caste system, which is still prevalent in their cultural heirarchy system today is surely just another form of racism. I stand to be corrected if someone can clarify this for me.
matt.

Racism here in the UK is comparable with the caste system in India in terms of its legal status and the way it is abhorred by the more enlightened sections of society. Would you therefore label Britons who objected to the caste system as hypocrites? Somehow I think not...

Oh come on. It's all bollox.

quote:

I see that Ms Shetty has now decided (or has been told?) that she does wish to make a complaint of racial abuse.

The poor lady will be crying all the way to the bank (and her next film).

Bless.

John.

John,

On the 10 o'clock new it seems Ms Shetty has now decided that she does NOT consider she has been subjected to racial abuse.

Is it up to the Hertfordshire Police to collect evidence and for the local CPS to decide whether to bring a prosecution? Is this regardless of Ms Shetty's (seemingly changable) views?

Cheers

Don

I have just scrutinised the title: A question arises. What is a "celebrity?" If one did not have a television, would one recognise who these people were? I have not heard of any of them. I do not have a televsion. So they must be creations of the televisual medium, and nothing more...

Are they significant in daily life, or the saving of the planet, and human existance?

Golly, this is a storm in a tea-cup over nonentities...

Fredrik

I am struck by two aspects of the issue.

The first is the difficulty that some people seem to have in recognising racial prejudice in the absence of direct racial insults.

The second is the importance that has been attached to the issue of whether or not the abuse was racist. If one thinks such behaviour is vile and unacceptable then what difference does it make whether it is racist? The implication seems to be that mindless bullying is fine as long as there is no cast iron proof that it is racist.

A more important question, IMO, is that of whether a show that repeatedly creates conditions that allow brutish bullying to thrive is a legitimate form of entertainment - particularly when the bully, as in this case, appears to be an easily manipulated woman of limited intellect and self-awareness.

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Golly, this is a storm in a tea-cup over nonentities...

Fredrik, in your world and the world of those who think like you these people are nonentities but in eyes of others these people are fabled beings and must be treated as such. A clash of cultures of a clash of civilizations?

Ain't it funny how Jade and Shilpa are both up for eviction tonight.

quote:

The first is the difficulty that some people seem to have in recognising racial prejudice in the absence of direct racial insults.

The second is the importance that has been attached to the issue of whether or not the abuse was racist. If one thinks such behaviour is vile and unacceptable then what difference does it make whether it is racist? The implication seems to be that mindless bullying is fine as long as there is no cast iron proof that it is racist.

A more important question, IMO, is that of whether a show that repeatedly creates conditions that allow brutish bullying to thrive is a legitimate form of entertainment - particularly when the bully, as in this case, appears to be an easily manipulated woman of limited intellect and self-awareness.

Jeremy,

Nice sentiment, but unrealistic, i'm afraid.

Mankind is racist. Its part of the survival instinct. It might even be in our genes. It isn't confined to middle-aged white men harbouring racist attitudes and behavious towards aboriginal people from Africa, Asia, Australia or America. Its wide-spread. Its probably existed from our emergence from Africa 75,000 years ago and might even have been the cause of that exodus. Its been freely practised since then, until about 50 years ago and only been actively discouraged here in the UK for about 25 years (general time-scales). You ain't gona change human nature like this in a single generation. Yes, you can introduce laws, and education etc and start the change process. But natural instincts will test the legal boundaries for quite a long time - generations perhaps. Only time and education will change fundamental beliefs and nature.

Mindless bullying in our everyday life is probably considered unacceptable by most Europeans, including Brits. BB seems to be an artifical environment, specifically designed to see what happens when such behaviour is actually encouraged. I don't think its worthwhile entertainment and I would prefer that it didn't find air-time. But it seems like a lot of people enjoy what they perceive as "watching natural insticts take over" from a relatively safe position in an armchair.

The best we can do, given the basic instincts that we are dealing with, is apply the law as it stands, revise the law if this would help, and increase the education effort.

Emotional appeals to peoples' better-nature will only be effective with the converted.

Cheers

Don

Best comment I heard all week was that Jade Goody probably thought a racist "was someone that took part in a race"

Proud to say I have not watched one second of this programme.

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Mankind is racist. Its part of the survival instinct. It might even be in our genes.

Can't you see it:-
Neandertal to his mates down the pub "Bloody Homonids moving in and ruining the area, we'll have to move to Germany before the cave prices start falling"

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Neandertal to his mates down the pub "Bloody Homonids moving in and ruining the area, we'll have to move to Germany before the cave prices start falling"

Yep

and our species saying to the Neandethals "Sod of back to Africa where you originated from"

Ironic, isn't it?

Cheers

Don (who's roots go back to Africa 75,000 years ago)

quote:

Originally posted by long-time-dead:
Best comment I heard all week was that Jade Goody probably thought a racist "was someone that took part in a race"

Proud to say I have not watched one second of this programme.

She's not bright enough to have made that joke herself. It's all cooked up for the ratings. Turn off that TV!

If you can believe all you read, Jade Goody admits her remarks were racist and she is a bully, according to The News Of The World. ???
Lets not forget that JG (as seen for the last 4years) was created by the media and they could just as easily destroy her.
But there again, this may be killing the golden goose.

This whole nonsense about the C4 TV programme 'Big Brother' being 'racist' or not is entirely incidental to the fact that, like football, it is popular with the same sort of half-witted yobbos who vote Labour.