36000

33000

so the globe is gripped with an argument about racism on big brother.
and hey who am i not to get involved.

so let me a few things clear. i have never seen big brother, when it first started i didn’t think it would be something i would be interested in. hearing my colleagues talk about it i realised that i made the right decision. no matter what endemol say big brother is cheap car crash television entertainment.
other things to make clear: racism is bad. bullying is bad.

ofcom has had 36,000 (and counting) complaints about celebrity big brother. i suppose i should cheer that so many should care, but the cynic in me sees it as more about victim culture, (but that is for another blog).

as ever people in the office have been talking about this series of big brother. yet i only found out about the racism of big brother when radio 5 lives breakfast show hosted by nicky campbell and shelagh fogerty (a superb double act) were interviewing people about the furore over the treatment being meted out to a bollywood film star.

now it is radio so all i got to hear were snippets of dialogue from the show. what shocked me was how dull the snippets were. yet i was told that they were all examples of overt racism.
cue the concerned media maven who went on about the racism, when questioned by nicky campbell he couldn’t actually point to a specifically racist comment. a quick change of tack and it was no longer about the comments, but it was in the tone and the body language.
when asked why wasn’t it racist when jade’s mother was described as “white trash” the media luvvie had to fall back on the tired it isn’t the same and whites have the power in britain.

it is about this moment when i can’t help but lose patience with all the commentators on this. if racism is bad then it is bad no matter who perpetrates it and who it is aimed at.

but surely as a left thinking individual i should be against any hint of racism, and it is true some of the women i most want to sit on my face are black (see what i did there?) the situation in big brother seems to me to be one of nasty playground style bullying, rather than racism.
as we know from big brother history no one cares about bullying, as there was not such a “groundswell” of public outcry when it was jodie marsh being bullied by the men in the house.

hold on pat you put “groundswell” in quotation marks, why? i have to admit i am a little suspicious of the sheer amount in such a quick time, so rather than it being one of concerned citizens getting involved it smacks of a concerted effort on the part of interested groups.

now we have everyone jumping on the bandwagon, everyone desperate to be seen as being an anti-racist, calling for the head of the bosses of channel 4, to condemn the ladettes of the house. so much so the big brother molehill is turned into a media mountain. true this is an easy story for all the media to run with, there are clear lines drawn and an obvious side to be on.
it is taking up time in parliament, started by keith vaz, again allowing people to spout their platitudes. all of the language highlighting how brutish certain sections of (the word white is the elephant in the room that no one wants to mention) british public, while in india protests take the form of the more civilised burning of effigies. gordon brown is in india on official business but has had to field questions about big brother. the indian government had said it will investigate the situation, so it seems that slights offered to a very well paid bollywood actress outweigh the casual racism that is offered up to indians on a regular basis in the uk. it is nice to see that the indian government is just as keen to be seen to do be doing something as the media savvy politicians are in the uk.
the media wrings it hands and complain about channel 4 making money from this racism, all the while splashing it across their headlines. opinion pieces bemoan the popularity of the show, while all the time giving it the oxygen of publicity.
carphone warehouse milked their announcement that they would be abandoning their sponsorship of the show. after all they wouldn’t want to be seen to be making money from racism, but they can string it out in order to get their name mentioned several times over several days.

racism is a malicious evil, but seeing it everywhere and accusing everyone of it at the drop of a hat devalues it. racism does need to be combated and stamped out, but it has to be seen for what it is: not something that occurs by just one section of the community and aimed at just one section of the community. if you will excuse the pun, it is not a black and white issue.

what has happened in the big brother house is bullying and for that alone the people involved should be pilloried and examples made of them.
if what has occurred over the last week or so means that there are sensible debates about racism and bullying then it will have provided at least some service.
if it means that big brother and jade are never seen again – then we can all celebrate.

sadly though the real winners of this will be the endemol bosses and shareholders who must be rubbing their hands in delight as they think of the windfall they will get from the phone calls that will decide the next eviction.
but capitalism is colour blind it just sees the money.