Celebrity Big Brother: is it really racist or 'just' bullying and bitchiness?

[LucyJones]

I'm really not sure where I stand. A lot of it just sems like school girl horridness

sorry whats big brother?

This is racist because
The 3 girls clearly think that Shilpa is inferior to them, depsite the fact she is talented, beautiful and intelligent, because she is Indian.
The reason they treat her with contempt is because they believe, as she is Indian, she is inferior to them.
They are bullying her too, but this seems more like the way in which they are carrying out their racist behaviour.
Racism is not just the big obvious stuff, it is the insiduous comments and the pervading attitude in day to day life.

TwoIfByThe Sea - oh yes I remeber that and was beginning to think I was the only who did!! Jade and a girl called Adele bullied Sophie - Adele got no end of flak for being two faced. Jade meanwhile was applauded for being honest and outspoken. I never understood why and felt sorry for Adele who bore the brunt of it all.

It's interesting that some posts say they are jealous of Shilpa because she is educated - one of the main ponts of contention seems to be that they think she is stupid for flushing soup down the toilet (why didn't any of them tell her not to?!!) and notknowing how long to cook a chicken for...

I don't think they think she's inferior to them because she's Indian, I think deep down they know she's wildly superior to them and they resent it

Without meaning to split hairs, I think it would be more appropriate to call their behaviour xenophobic than racist (which is no more acceptable btw).

They are ignorant of her culture, and don't know how to get on with someone from India because they are too thick to realise that she could be a young woman, interested in the same things as them.

They are nasty bullies, but for some reason I get the impression that had she been a British born asian woman, they would have felt less threatened by her 'Indianness' and would have made more of an effort to get to know her rather than focusing on what they hate about her IYSWIM.

Anyway, I've not watched CBB, just following the latest furore, so correct me if I'm talking crap.

I wonder how many people - this is pure curiosity here on my part b/c I am foreign-born - would consider their behaviour racist if the situation were reversed.

Say, you had a huge British star in a BB house in India and the other housemates said things like that about Britain and abused the British person like that.

It depends how they were doing it. The overall impression to me here is that they just happen to have picked on the most obvious "difference" to use in their bullying, it's not the "reason" for the bullying. Had she been white they would still have bullied her because she's beautiful , successful and a woman.

The bullying uses her race but is not because of her race. I think.

But come off it if you get a bunch of women or girls together what happens? They bitch about others, school gate syndrome anybody? Who is driving a new car, Look what she is wearing!!! Did you see what she just did? I am sure that there is no one here on this thread that hasn't bitched together with their friends about another woman and what she is wearing or her hair or her children's behaviour. I have for sure. I bet none of you can honestly say you are innocent. Their whole world is in that tiny house and everything that goes on and what others do is all they have to talk about

UCM i was the person who started the thread on that programme Undercover mosque the other night, and yes only about 5 posts on it.

As usual it is fine to incite racial hatred against english/british/christians/jews etc and no-one says a word. But if its BB then everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

FWIW i think their treatment of Shilpa is racist to a point but as others have said, if she were white then they would still bully her because she is attractive and intelligent. They appear racist because they are quite frankly not very well educated and pretty ignorant, I dont think its intentionally racist, not that thats an excuse.

Having suffered racist comments almost on a daily basis (english living in wales) i think they are going over the top with it a bit bringing it up in the HOC. If i phoned my local station and told them I was being racially harrassed I would be laughed off the phone!

it is really just a pile of old shite

tbh

I honestly do not think this is a racist issue, its school girl bullying at worst. Those girls are picking on someone probably through jealousy, after all Shilpa is beautiful and clever, neither of which could apply to them.
However, Shilpa is no victim when she arrived on the show she came over as someone with an over inflated ego, self obsessed and very precious. Why would someone totally unknown by the British public go on BB other than for exposure and self gain.
I find it incredible the amount of racial tension this is creating when I have not heard anything remotely racist from these horrid girls, just a load of jealous comments.
I also find it totally amazing that Jermaine Jackson has been shown to describe Jackie (Jade's mum) as WHITE TRASH. WHERE IS THE UP ROAR, WHERE IS THE DEBATE ABOUT THIS IN THE MEDIA, NOWHERE. WHY IS THIS? THIS IS TRULY RACIST AND NO ONE HAS BLINKED A EYE. COULD IT BE THAT IT IS BECAUSE IT CAME FROM A BLACK MANS MOUTH?? ABOUT A WHITE PERSON???
DOUBLE STANDARDS DOESNT EVEN BEGIN TO COVER IT. I AM TOTALLY AGAINST RACISM IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM, BUT SOMETIMES PEOPLE WILL USE ANY SITUATION TO JUMP ON THE BAND WAGON. (In this case a group of stupid insecure jealous little girls)

'White trash' is not seen as a racist term in the US.

This is the context that Jermaine uses it in, b/c he is . . . American.

And he called Jade that, NOT infer that everyone in England is white trash, that everything they cook will give him the runs, that their hands are unclean. Or refuse to use her name and just call her 'The White Trash'.

A few of the differences.

leo called the Goody family white trash.
jermaine repeated it.
to an american 'white trash' is a term on a par with 'chav'. believe me, it's the truth.

and if i were a beautiful and clever black woman being bullied for being beautiful and clever but the way that was being expressed was by denigrating my culture 'do i live in a shack?' 'no-one knows where those hands have been' etc etc, would i really have to look into the hearts of the people bullying me to discover whether they were racist or not?
or would their bullying and racist behaviour towards me be enough to prove the case?

White people call each other white trash all the time.

There's even a White Trash Cookbook available in the US.

It's a top seller.

I got it for one of my best pals as an Xmas gift.

I'm not white. She is, and refers to herself as 'white trash' and 'hick' all the time.

That's the term I was looking for, Aitch!

White trash = chav in the US.

They do not have 'chav'. They would NOT know what that means.

(but expat, of course we would use the correct terminology... ned)

I don't think it's racist. I think it's ignorant and uninteligent and reflects just the kinds of people that go into that house and that we look up to as "celebrities". Why the hell did Jade ever become a celebrity in the first place? now if ever we needed a description for the term "chav" Jade would fit that description perfectly.

I think they all know what they're doing. They've all been in the spotlight in their time, so they're not going into this blind as it were, they know that whatever they say will be caught on camera and that the more they bitch, the more they will make the news. And I just don't believe that they forget the cameras are there. the cameras are everywhere.

And when they come out they'll go back to their lives, Danielle will appear in playboy or whatever trashy mag she appears in, jade will open a new beauty salon and will be on this morning talking to Phil and Fearn about her experience of going back on bb and what she has planned for the future, and Jo will be seen at crufts showing off her latest dog (it is dogs she breeds isn't it?) and what they do in the future will superceed what happened on bb. And Shilpa will go back to Bollywood where she came from and will never be heard of again, because let's face it, only those who watch bollywood films would have ever heard of her in the first place, and only those will ever care what happened to her.

DH also uses 'nedettes' .

No form of name calling can be OK, it is all wrong, no matter what the origins of a term is.

Danielle is the most nasty and unpleasant of the threee, IMO.
When Jade was recounting the dream she (allegedly ) had about Shilpa, Danielle sat scowling. When Jade finished with a description of how DreamShilpa had kicked DreamJade, Danielle muttered "Bitch!".
Soooo, she's slagging off someone because of what they supposedly did in someone else's dream!
It's so pathetic, it's almost funny.

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but if people don't like it then they shouldn't watch it. Switching off has a far greater effect than complaining.

The more people complain the more press coverage it gets, the more coverage, the more people watch to see what it's all about, the more people watch the more votes are cast, and the more votes are cast the more money c4 make. Boycotting is by far a more powerful tool. As long as they're getting viewers they'll continue to show it, but if the viewers deminished out of protest they would ultimately abandon it altogether.

as i have said a number of times before, being ignorant and stupid explains why they are racist, it does not excuse it.

with a few dishonourable exceptions, racist people tend to be ignorant and stupid by nature.

fact is, it's class war and that's how it was set up. yes, she would have been bullied by them regardless, but the fact that they feel in some way superior to her (because their food hygiene is exemplary, because they are cordon bleu chefs, because they use cutlery, fgs...) they are honing in on her cultural background as somethign to bitch about. that's racist, actually. if they did it at work they'd be sacked. and this is, don't forget, their job.

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe I agree completely

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