A bit more than racism

What’s happening in Big Brother is not easy to label. Like with those tiny bruises sustained in the everyday cut and thrust of life in a multicultural society, I am not even sure labelling would be helpful. However, an understanding of the factors that have led to the behaviour may well lead to some sort of sensitization.

Let’s get one thing straight. If this had happened in a British schoolyard,Mme. Shetty might have had a concerted campaign of physical assault to contend with. She may well have been beaten, kicked, spat at, or, as has happened in the past, occasionally stabbed. As happens with thousands of school kids across this country, who have the misfortune to wear the wrong clothes, belong to the wrong social class, have a disability or a deformity, have the wrong accent, wear glasses, be confused about their sexuality, be black/white/brown/yellow in the wrong town, listen to the wrong music, be too pretty or clever or hardworking or all three etc. Heck, if there is one common thread to bullying, it’s that the factors that lead to it are pretty egalitarian. And very context specific. What makes you a victim in South London can make you an object of admiration in the Home Counties.

Race can be a factor, but then, it is a factor that can work in either direction. So what did Jade Goody say? She said Shetty is ‘up herself’ because she won’t talk about shagging and doesn’t burp or fart. Nothing racist there, that’s just about class (either the presence or the absence of it, looking at it another way). Jade called Shilpa a ‘Poppadum’. Just like the now deeply dismayed British public called her a ‘Fat Pig’ when she won the non-celebrity version of BB. Actually, they said ‘Kill the Pig’. But that’s okay, since Jade’s White Trash aka Chav, and it’s culturally acceptable to want to kill a fattish Chav. And that's the subtle faultline here, with Middle England pointing fingers at less-than-middle England. It's the chavs' fault, you see.

Now, onto the really racist bit. Danielle, who’s had to forfeit her Miss Great Britain title to a certain Preeti Desai (surprise, surprise) said she didn't want to eat a chicken that Shilpa had grilled, on the grounds that it was undercooked plus she didn't know where Shilpa's fingers had been. Danielle then called Shilpa "a dog". Danielle also said that Shilpa ‘should f*** off home’, the one unambiguously racist remark of the lot. One would imagine, if Preeti’s parents had f***ed off home, that would have been one less problem Danielle had to contend with in her desperate bid for Z-list celebrityhood. Generations of immigrants, from Slough and Brixton to Southall and Leicester, can tell you that this is the one sentence they have grown all too weary with over the years. It is not an easily forgotten one.

Which brings us to perceptions of racism. For the working class Afro-Caribs of the Windrush generation, the Amin-fleeing Gujaratis of Leicester and the asylum seeking Somalis of Woolwich, being told to ‘fuck off home’ is resonant with menace and meaning. Put it on prime time TV and you re-open barely healed wounds from the dark days of Powell and Thatcher. For the current crop of supremely confident, globe-trotting, fresh off the plane, highly skilled Indian migrant, it is something mildly disconcerting, but no more. And for some of these quasi-liberals, even acknowledging that such a remark is racist is akin to threatening their carefully cultivated (and protective) intellectual confidence. Especially since home’s already Bayswater or Sutton Coldfield. Unless they have to contend with something like this.

Channel 4 has clarified that Jade's unemployed and barely literate boyfriend Jack, also a housemate, had referred to Shilpa as a "c***", not a "Paki". The implication was that since the lad’s restricted himself to gynaecological descriptions, that’s all right. Given that two male contestants on the Australian version of Big Brother held a female housemate down while one of them slapped his penis on her face, Channel 4 is saying, ‘he just called her a c***, for f***’s sake, can’t these people take a joke?’ And here also they have a point. After all, BB is supposed to be a mirror to our society. And what do Eton educated stockbrokers in the Square Mile mutter under their breath when confronted by a confident, more successful female peer? They usually call her a c***. That’s allright, then.

The Indians, probably the Shiv Sena or some Tamil outfit with a sideline in self-immolation, are burning effigies. Of what? For what? Maybe they’ve figured out a way of getting some votes out of it. Or maybe it’s because everyone, from Germaine Greer downwards, seems to think Shilpa is a Tamil. Sorry, guys, she’s a Bunt (Yes, I know. It rhymes). So don’t waste your kerosene.

So BB is just doing what it’s supposed to i.e. hold up a mirror to society. It’s doing a good job, no? It’s not just shrill bloggers with traces of intelligence who can fight the dirty fight and stimulate some debate. Traditional media can do it much bigger and much better. So let Shilpa do her thing (and she’s doing it remarkably well, you must admit). Stopping the show is about the daftest thing you could do.

And, everyone who’s tuning in and jamming up the messageboards is saying pretty much the same thing. As for me, am I glad I don’t even have a b****** telly! I meant a f****** telly. With Fat Pigs, WAGs, down-at-heel singers, Bollywood starlet-star in-betweens and Jacks on the dole popping out of it. Enjoy.