Racism in Big Brother?

pmqs · Street Demonstrator

http://bucf.wordpress.com/2007/01/16/racist/

steven · Black Bloc

The Tory Party - friend of the working man (unless the working man is of Indian origin)!

Oktober · Black Bloc

Hey, don't make the Tories out to be so narrow, they are much more inclusive than that. They f**k over all minority groups equally.

Pyro · Meeting Facilitator

This story has taken an interesting turn with involvement from both the PM and Gordon Brown.
The BBC takes the full lead in reporting the progression from simple comments to full blown demonstrations in the streets of India. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6269953.stm)

Despite the PM not having actually watched Big Brother (surprise surprise!), he issued this statement in response to Keith Vaz's EDM (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmedm/70116e01.htm number 639) on tuesday
"We should oppose racism in all its forms."

Well said Tony! Apart from stating the blindingly obvious, he's actually on the right lines.

This whole episode has shown some interesting faces of the celebrities we'd previously not seen. Danielle Lloyd - former Miss UK (or something) was recorded to have said "You don't know where those hands have been," while Shilpa was cooking dinner for the housemates.

Former S-Club 7 star Jo O'Meara (a figure i remember religiously watching in S-Club's TV shows) has clearly overstepped the mark with her comments about Shilpa being unclean.
She suggested "Indians were thin because they were always ill as a result of undercooking their food."

To date Endemol, the production company for Big Brother is yet to release a statement to address the issues raised by the PM, Chancellor and MP Keith Vaz.
However.. Channel 4 has published a press release, (http://bigbrother.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds11618.html) arguing that
"To date there has been no overt racial abuse or racist behaviour directed against Shilpa Shetty within the Big Brother house. However there has undoubtedly been a cultural and class clash between her and three of the British females in the house."

Toeing the line very gently here, Channel 4 have pretty much denied any wrongdoing. However, they go on to say that Housemates should pretty much be left to battle it out amongst themselves.

So just because they haven't broken the rules, doesn't mean they're not wrong?
Secondly, what would happen if these weren't celebrities, but you said that an indian woman was unclean, and you said it in public?
I'm no law student, but i'm pretty sure you could be breaking the law.

In my opinion, Big Brother has finally overstepped the mark and gone too far. I think they should pull the plug, and find a new reality tv show to engineer. This scandal comes the most recent in a long line of them recently. Allegations of fraud are still continuing after BB bosses allowed Nikki to re-enter the house last series etc.

For now, that's all. But this story is a long way from over.

Oktober · Black Bloc

It's on the news again. It's a total frenzy. Has anyone actually seen it though?

Pyro · Meeting Facilitator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cAxbkkzPms