The Big Brother situation...

[faceless]

Here's George's comment on the Big Brother racism/bullying debate that's been in the news so widely

"I would not myself say that it is primarily a racial dispute. I think it's more of a class thing than a race thing. I am appalled but not surprised at some of the ignorance and some of the boorishness from some of the participants.

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Personally I think it's down to simple ignorance and bullying. They're just using anything they can to upset Shilpa, who is from a different planet really - one where dignity and style is valued...

[IRiSHMaFIA]

I thought it was racism myself but the more I see and hear from the muppets I tend to agree with you. It's just a way of lashing out at her and I'm sure they don't mean it in a racist way although it can be seen as such because of mocking her accent and all that.

It comes down to ignorance and bullying just as you've said here, but I find a lot of what they've said inexcusable, such as 'do they eat with their hands in India' etc. It's comments like that that have fueled the anger with so many, and if I were Asian I'd probably feel it was a racial attack.

Either way, their ignorance will be paid off with some pretty harsh reality when the ones doing it leave the house. Most will have lost whatever good they had in life before they went in, and I feel that's rightly deserved.

[faceless]

Ok, so she's been evicted, and I'm wondering now how she'll be treated by members of the Indian community here. I reckon they'll just treat her as they already did - as an ignorant fool like so many other Brits - the sketch below from "Goodness Gracious Me", known as the "Going for an English" sketch is a perfect example of this.

[faceless]

GALLOWAY: ‘THEY ARE STUPID, IGNORANT AND OFFENSIVE. BUT NOT RACIST’
George Galloway says bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house of Shilpa Shetty is not born out of racism, but out of ignorance, stupidity and jealousy of her fellow housemates. Speaking to Adrian Durham on Drive Time, Galloway said: “I would not myself say that it is primarily a racial dispute that is now running between these ‘three witches’ as they have been called and the ‘princess,’ Shilpa. I think it’s more of a class thing than a race thing. I have the dubious benefit of having watched far too many hours of Celebrity Big Brother this year, and like everybody else I am appalled but not surprised at some of the ignorance and some of the boorishness from some of the participants. I think they hate this woman because she is beautiful, because she’s classy, because she’s haughty, because she speaks English better than they do. If you were to provide translation for any of the people in the house it wouldn’t be for Shilpa, the Indian person, it would be for several of the British participants and I think that people have reacted in too knee-jerk a way and I think that a lot of these complaints are therefore misplaced.

“The comment from Jo[O’Meara] that the Indians are thin because they undercook their food and they are always sick, is a monumentally stupid, ignorant and offensive comment. But whilst I cannot climb inside Jo’s head I doubt it stemmed from a BNP mindset. The statement from Danielle [Lloyd], who by the way makes Chantelle look like Simone De Beauvoir, that ‘is it Indians that eat with their hands or is it the Chinese?’ is from a woman who has obviously never seen a pair of chopsticks and never eaten a Big Mac with her hands after a night in the boozer. That too emanated from stupidity, from sheer ignorance and the bigger problem for us is that there appears to be a lot of young people in our country who are so ill-educated that they genuinely think these kinds of things. But then again, I really don’t think that it stemmed from a sense of racism. I think that it stemmed from stupidity and dislike. There is no doubt that these girls really hate Shilpa. But it’s my take that it’s really much more to do with class and behaviour than to do with race.”

Asked by Durham if he thought ignorance was an excuse for racism, Galloway said: “It’s not an excuse. But it shouldn’t be confused for racism. For example, Jermaine Jackson is more black than Shilpa. But there is none of this hatred being directed towards him. Not a single comment about race has been directed his way. Additionally, he’s a Muslim who has been praying five times a day. But there’s not been a single remark about that from any of these three fools and there would be if there was a generalised problem of racism amongst the participants.”

Asked by Durham what he would have done he if were in the house, Galloway said: “I would have intervened at a much earlier stage. I think that the men in the show have been less than manly. They ought to have stood up to this petty minded hatred much earlier. Ian ‘H’ Watkins for example, has been regularly bleating about it in the diary room. But has said nothing about it to the people concerned and I like to think that if I had been in there I would have got these people around a table and said ‘listen, this hatred has gone far enough. Not only is it deeply offensive, it will be shaming you on the outside world. But it’s making life in the house, which is already tough, all but unbearable.’”

Asked by Durham if it was appropriate for Celebrity Big Brother to be raised at Prime Minister’s Question Time, Galloway said: “It probably is justified if Parliament is to be a sounding board for the country. This is a subject that the whole country is talking about it.”

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[eefanincan]

I will agree with you both that it's primarily been about bullying but I can't deny there has been some racism--- but I think that's the larger issue with Danielle. And I think her primary problem is ignorance.... not that that is an excuse but she's so immature I don't think she realizes what she's doing.

[mickyv]

I’m quite happy that Endemol & Channel 4 are in trouble over this year’s show. I think that they have so far got away with many things in the past, the least not being how they treated GG last year. According to GG, they lied to him about him not being censored when they initially approached him into agreeing to taking part, and they also cynically & deliberately intervened twice to stitched GG up during the show, as it was obviously that he was on course to beat them at their own game in being in with a good chance of winning, forcing them to act.

I wonder why GG has not sued them for misleading/lying to him ?

[faceless]

I doubt they did mislead him as they can probably get away with saying they didn't censor him, rather that they chose other conversations to focus on... of course they did censor out a fair bit, but legally I'd guess they had it covered.

[mickyv]

Faceles, GG himself believes he was lied;-

"Not only did I not know I'd be censored, I was told by the Big Brother producers I would not be. In fact one of the main points that they made when they met me in the House of Commons to persuade me to do it was that it would be a good place to be effectively a soapbox for my perspective on events.

"And therefore I was very surprised when I got out to hear the birdsong over any political statement that I made, but hey I'm getting the chance to speak to all of you here, you wouldn't be here otherwise," he told reporters.
Galloway spokesman Ron McKay said: "Contestants can be seen talking about animal rights, but not human rights. We've been stitched up. A complaint has been made to Channel 4."

Of course Channel 4 denied censorship and said the highlights were compiled on “editorial grounds”, which is an obvious blatant case of being economical with the Truth, and does explain why birdsong was only played over GG’s political views but on none of the other contestants, even including past shows that included Germaine Greer & a black gay Tory MP, who both expressed political views.

Maybe GG decided not to pursue it both as a punishment & reminder to himself not to be so gullible in the future !