Nadiya Hussain responds to critics

[PruthePrune]

Nadiya Hussain responds to critics

I can understand her being upset that her shows have been axed, apparently ratings were falling, However, I find it hugely disappointing that she has brought race/religion into it. No one is entitled to a BBC show and I think she has had a bloody good run. AIBU?

I am sure they had no intention to hurt. Mentioning stuff like this on a public place like this may perhaps prevent a similar mistake being made on a future occasion. I would also say NEVER try to add light at the end of the tunnel for the recently bereaved. If anyone doesn't know what to say stick to "I am sorry for your loss" and maybe ask if you can do anything. Its not difficult.

Again, I ask: is it wilful ignorance or poor comprehension that you’re showing?

We
Are
Not
Talking
About
The
Show
Being
Axed.

We
Are
Talking
About
The
(well researched)
Expectation
For
Immigrants
And
Their
(Brown skinned)
Descendants
To
Be
Grateful
To
Britain.

Fucking hell. How much clearer can the point be?

I watched a podcast on Hollywood stars who said the same, when you're on the up, everyone calls you, if you slide no-one takes your calls. Was so interesting. The older top stars have risen and fallen and risen again.

Go live your life await the next breaking wave and ride it.

But people can take offence at that too. I knew someone whose ds died she was furious when someone said 'sorry for your loss', she said to me 'really! How careless of me to to lose him as if he were a handbag'.

I think when people offer condolences they should be accepted or ignored but not criticised, their intentions were good. Understandable when griefstricken to be angry of course but people want to help.

So you're saying that she has to be sweet and smiling at all times, or she will lose the goodwill she has built up?

No that's not what I'm saying at all, @ExercicenformedeZ, but then if you'd read my posts instead of leaping to make some silly point you'd already know that

Worth remembering too that "I think you meant (this) ... so you must have done ... so you did" doesn't really work terribly well among those capable of nuance

But isn’t this just a confusion in culture. In the Uk from small we are constantly bombarded with the idea of being grateful/thankful/blessed. It is a Christian country and pretty much all of us would have very Christian focussed school assemblies that repeated the messaging about being grateful. If you are Catholic no doubt you would say grace with is all about being grateful and thankful. Gratitude and showing it is cultural in the Uk.

if you have emigrated from another country which is different culturally and have a different religion which doesn’t focus on those attributes than I can se how you would be a bit put out with the idea of being grateful and it is why people here are put out with the idea she wouldn’t be because we take it for granted that we should be grateful which you are given something.

Has she been treated unfairly?

Sadly, people get axed/made redundant/fired all the time, it stings, but what has her race and culture got to do with it, why does she need to bring that into it?

Yes, and surely cookery programmes are a bit dated now? Like so much else, much of that has migrated to the internet. Why sit through an hour long TV programme on the off chance there might be a recipe you like when you can get exactly what you want on YouTube in minutes.

Yes, it can be nice to see things you might never have thought of, and some enjoy the 'banter' from the hosts. But the format does seem a bit past its prime these days.

She's pathetic.

I don’t know anything about this case but women and POC get their shows and columns axed all the time because of misogyny or racism so there is no “of course” about it.

And also white men or Nepo babies, ir socially prominent/aristocratic people get carried through difficult or declining popularity all the time as well as they tend to have powerful family, friends, or backers who will support them at a loss for the company.

Some Murdoch productions have run at a loss for years as a loss leader or because of the importance of the propaganda goals to the whole enterprise. So even a head to head comparison between her ratings and a native born white person’s are not clearly relevant.

I've always enjoyed her shows but thought the last couple have been poor. Too many ad-hoc family recipes and too many shop bought ingredients in them. I watch cooking shows for inspiration/aspiration, and can't ever imagine serving up watermelon rind curry sorry.

She's had an amazing run since Bake Off, most usually do a book and that's it. But I feel she's responsible for her own demise here.

I saw her video a couple of days ago and wondered if there would be a Mumsnet thread about it.

I think she looked tired, very upset and older in it and I felt for her. It must be really difficult when you have a long-running show cancelled but that is the nature of her chosen profession and I think she seems to have forgotten this?

I think she should be grateful. Not because she is brown or because she is a woman, but because the career she has had from the BBC, the support and the exposure have been phenomenal! It's a dream come true scenario really that many ordinary people and even celebs would give their right arm for. It's true that she is talented and personable and people love watching her - but she can still be grateful for the opportunity.

Once the Britain you are expected to be grateful to has gone, and it is almost gone isn't it as it's only 25 years until white English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh under 65 are a minority, where will this anti-gratitude be directed at?

Will all the new British.people from 40, 50 or 60 countries all have categories for who is racist (eg Indians v Pakistani and vice versa) when the majority of people you work with and live with are now from 40, 50 or 50 countries?

And will that multi country racism be anti-gratitude based when the majority here have been in Britain two to three generations at most?

Who will anti-gratitude be framed in opposition to then, when Britain is simply a word on a document that anyone from anywhere in the world has for the majority?

Watermelon rind curry is an actual thing she didn't make it up in her head, I think she does "twists" on traditional Bengali/Indian food doesn't she ?

That posting aside, she does talk about the unfairness of it.

Agree, I think streaming means people just choose other stuff, I do.

I don’t know anything about this case but women and POC get their shows and columns axed all the time because of misogyny or racism so there is no “of course” about it.

"All the time"? That's a big claim.

Have you got any examples to illustrate your point?

It’s not uncommon for talent to kick off when their shows are not renewed or they are replaced. Quite often it’s very rich white men who kick off (Noel Edmonds is a case in point), and lots of people tell them “You’ve had a great career, quit moaning, let someone else have a chance.”

I don’t blame Nadiya for being upset at being cancelled as it’s going to hurt, whoever you are. However I think she is reading racism into it which isn’t there. Sooner or later all TV cooks get phased out and someone new (just like Nadiya herself a few years ago) gets a go. Nobody is entitled to a TV show for life in the basis of their skin colour (or gender or anything else).

In your professional experience, what puts white working class males at a disadvantage and what could be done to improve their circumstances?

What is the difference between a white working class girl that makes her more likely to excel, and the white working class boy who is less likely to do the same?

Why can't people be grateful for good luck and good fortune? It's part of being a functioning adult. Is thankful a better word?

I completely understand her argument that women/brown women/brown anyone shouldn't be told to be grateful for the scraps on the table, for having a job in the first place, for having the basics in life and the same opportunities as everyone else regardless of sex or race. But this isn't what she had in the BBC employment. She had a fantastic, elite job that ran for 10 years! I think she's conflating (Mumsnet favourite word) two issues.

Unless of course she can show us hundreds of comments that are saying "you should be grateful because you are Muslim". I know that there will be some cunts who meant or implied this, but I don't think for one minute that they will be the majority.

Poor Nadiya.

Must be awful having lifelong financial security for her and her children from something she enjoyed doing and let’s not pretend she won’t have any further opportunities.

@Extravirginolive Only about 13% of people in England (less in other parts of the UK) are BAME. It feels unlikely that in 25 years time white people under 65 will be in a minority, unless immigration rules change dramatically.

I read the link provided in the OP and she's not angry about the programme being axed but about people telling her to be "grateful" which puts a very different perspective on it.

@EasternStandard You say she also talks about the unfairness of it (the programme being axed I presume?). I can't see that in the article, is it me?

It’s not about not suiting the narrative; in the context of this debate comparisons should be made against her white peers, not random poor, white people.

This is one of the weirder things I’ve read on here. Brits aren’t permanently grateful because they were told to be in school assemblies. Plus Nadiya Hussain is a second-generation British person. She was born and educated in Luton in British state schools. She would have attended all those school assemblies you seem to imagine as so formative of the British psyche. She is part of your ‘we’. Unless you think that her being Muslim somehow meant she didn’t imbibe the cultural imperative to ‘gratitude’?