Big Brother Race Row
This story is huge, it’s all over the UK, in the newspapers (both tabloid and broadsheet), Internet forums, Workplaces and watercoolers… It’s even made it into parliament. It’s the Celebrity Big Brother race row! Dun dun duuuuuuun.
For those of you not in the know, basically anyone not living in the UK or India, here’s a rundown of what’s been going on over the last week…
Shilpa Shetty, stunning Bollywood actress and multi millionaire is one of the contestants on Celebrity Big Brother UK, fine so far. Unfortunately, some of the other contestants on the show, namely Jade Goody, Jackiey Budden, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara are from a slightly different background, neither being Indian or well brought up. certainly none of the latter have servants and live in palatial mansions. So there’s a problem.
The first way this reared it’s ugly head was Jackiey’s inability to pronounce Shilpa’s name right, calling her Shipla, Sheila, Silpy, Princess and finally Oi! This didn’t go down well, particularly when Jackiey made out she couldn’t get the name right as she doesn’t understand Shilpa’s language…hmmm ok then, she’s only spoken English in the house so far. This was made worse during the servant task when Jackiey was harsh on the servants and Shilpa took offence to it.
Jackiey was then evicted, end of problem, ermm not quite. Like mother like daughter, Jade steps into the “I hate Shilpa role“.
Over the course of this week, there have been rows about chicken, whether to cook it for an hour or 2 and a half hours. It turned out they were grilling it instead of oven cooking it, food poisoning anyone?
The house split into 3 groups, with Jade, Danielle, Jo and Jack on one side, Shilpa, Dirk and Jermaine on another, with Ian and Cleo floating around in the middle. Jack never says a word so he’s really only in there for eye candy and can’t be accused of bullying anyone. Which leaves the 3 girls, commonly referred to now as “the 3 witches”. They’v spent this week bitching about Shilpa behind and to her face, resulting in Wednesday night’s disgraceful show of scorn and hatred by Jade directed toward Shilpa. It started as a row about chicken stock cubes but soon turned into a bitchfest with Jade inflicting some nasty vocal scars on her nemesis. Jo and Danielle sat there laughing hysterically as this happened. Danielle then joined in saying she “wished Shilpa would just go home”, Nice. There’s a short snatch of the argument below. And there we have it, the story so far.
Meanwhile, outside the house, all hell has let loose. Newspapers have been screaming with headlines such as “Jade The Racist“, “Big Brother Bullies” and my favourite “Bigot Brother“. Channel 4 have received (to date) 30,000 complaints about the show, mainly due to alleged racist and bullying displays. That’s a record number of complaints for any individual show ever in the history of TV in Britain. Keith Vaz, motormouth rent a quote MP steps in to condemn the show for promoting racism. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone calls for Channel 4 to lose their license to broadcast because of the debacle. Placards are waved in India, and British flags are burned in the street. And today Big Brother sponsors ‘The Carphone Warehouse’ have pulled out, not wanting their company and products associated with the show any longer. ‘The Perfume Shop’ takes Jade’s perfume off the shelves at all their stores.
STOP, hold on a minute, is this not all a bit over the top?
I agree that there is an element of bullying going on, with 3 strong women rounding on 1 that they don’t like. That’s neither good or acceptable, but is it racist? Nope, not in my opinion, and I’ve watched the whole sorry mess develop on my screens for the last 2 weeks. Jade has a black grandparent for starters, and I’ve never seen or heard her be remotely racist ever before. And now in the house, she’s showing her ignorance and stupidity more than anything else. She’s never been the brightest button in the world and her grasp of others cultures and upbringings is stilted at best. There may also be a class issue here, with Shilpa obviously being brought up and used to a much more privileged background than any of “the 3 witches“. A class war isn’t racist though. And even Shilpa is now saying it’s NOT RACISM! On tonight’s show she’ll tell Big Brother that in her opinion the comments from Jade were not racist. So can we all just shut up now please.
As for Channel 4 and Big Brother makers Endemol’s place in all this, I don’t think they have a case to answer. This hasn’t been engineered or made to look bad, they have shown what has gone on, what has happened in the house and that’s it. That’s the point of Big Brother and it’s working extremely well, showing how being confined with people you either dislike or have nothing in common with can strain your patience and cause you to lose it.
Watch the ratings go up, newspaper sales soar and Jade Goody’s career nosedive. And all over a bloody chicken.
Big Brother, Big Brother Race Row, Big Brother Racism, Big Brother Bullying, Shilpa Shetty, Jade Goody, Jackiey Budden, Indian, India, Channel 4, Endemol, Keith Vaz, Ken Livingstone
January 19th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
People of different backgrounds find it difficult to adjust. We experience it in our everyday lives. Shilpa can’t help being privelaged. And Jane can’t help being herself. The animosity could be due to class hatred. Whatever it is, its disturbing that people simply can’t adjust with each other.
January 20th, 2007 at 4:58 am
I agree wholeheartedly Neelima, and I’m glad you commented. I don’t think Jade is racist, but she has been guilty of being a nasty ignorant bully over the past week or so. The Big Brother house is a weird environment to be shoved in to, especially with people you don’t know from wildly different backgrounds and upbringings.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:18 am
I think you miss the whole point. The story is not Shilpa. Some might consider what she experienced as slight. This could be argued. However, for many Asians who have been beaten, harassed, ridiculed and in some instances killed over the last 30 years, it was a way to finally vent their frustration. Although many would argue what Shipla has gone through is not really racism, what many other Asians in the audience felt, including myself, was an affront on national television and a need to finally say enough is enough. We came to this country to work after WWII because Britain had killed off an entire generation in a pointless war, and we suffered a lot for that choice. Now that we are wealthy and our homeland is becoming strong we want some respect. And dammit we’re going to get it. Let this be a warning to anyone else who finds it necessary to tell us Pakis to go home or throws a brick at our face. WE have the power to stop you!
January 31st, 2007 at 8:56 am
Niki, I think you’ve missed the point. It’s a reality show and the story was what went on in the house. If you or anyone else has bigger problems or issues with Britain, that’s a different story. I’m sorry if there are still such idiots around that would tell you to go home or racially abuse you, but that’s not what my blog post was about. I wholly condemn those sorts of actions. Fyi though, Britain didn’t kill an entire generation in a pointless war, there were many more countries involved and it was a war against nazis, people who wanted rid of every non aryan in the world.
February 11th, 2007 at 4:58 am
what an arsehole you are
how you manage to miss the real point
And all over a bloody chicken?
May 30th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
[...] The programme began with Davina McCall (as always wearing black) taking us on a tour of the new and redesigned house. Like the new logo, they’ve gone for a multi-coloured theme to the place with pinks, yellows and all different shades of blue filling the space. That annoying craze for writing instruction words on household objects has also found it’s way in to the house, with the table having “Eat” written on it etc. I know the IQ of BB contestants isn’t usually that high, but I’m sure they know where to eat and where not to. The other most noticable thing was the fact that the kitchen has been spread all over the house, with the fridge in the garden, and the cooker in the bedroom. Why they’ve done this I don’t know. I can only assume it’s to inconvenience the HMs, and also to cause some tension, with people cooking late at night annoying those already asleep. It all seems a bit pointless to me, and bizarre seeing as this is meant to be a happy and argument free house, after the fun we had during Celebrity Big Brother. [...]
May 31st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
[...] her presence in the Celebrity Big brother Show in the U.K sparked off a racism debate and she ended up winning the Big Brother Prize, Shilpa Shetty has been [...]