I sent this to Ofcom after watching Big Brother today for the first time:
Jade was heard to say “Shilpa fuckawala” and “Shilpa popadoom”. This is racist. I am asian, I don’t need the broadcaster to tell me what is racist or what is not. I had to endure this garbage in the 70s and 80s and I was broadcast myself reciting poems against racism back then. I struggled against racism so that my children would not have to listen to it on the TV like I did.
Now my children have to see the establishment wring its hands while it tries to decide whether it is offending a large portion of its populace?
I am dismayed that this country is still indulging in racism AND hypocrisy.
And to Channel 4:
I have just had the misfortune of watching Big Brother today after the
recent furore. This is the first time I have ever sat down to watch it.Frankly, I am utterly disgusted at the racist bullying you are broadcasting under the pretence of entertainment. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
As for Jade, I hope her “career” of being vacuous, stupid and now, irredeemably racist hits the rails. Her despicable language “Shilpa popadoom, Shilpa fuckawala” should receive the stronest censure.
You have lots of Asian viewers, why have you not pulled this horrible, racist woman from the airwaves? Are you happy to promote racist drivel? I had to put up with this crap in the 70s. Now you want my children to suffer too? Shame on you!
I look forward to your response.
I don’t think Jade is an exception. There have always been people like Jade. There are far more of them than people otherwise think.
If anyone tries to say that this cunt is not a racist, they are racist themselves. As for the argument that she is not racist because she is mixed race, I’m sorry, but that’s a shit defence. And she looks white enough to me. She’s certainly dumb enough.
After being called into the diary room, she was confronted with her racist outburst. At first she feigned shock. Then she went into defensive overdrive. Utterly stupid. Utterly preposterous. And for people like this hideous, evil cunt, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have to die? So that this sick culture can thrive? This cancerous, rotten, backwards looking, celebrity/alcohol/sex-as-a-sport/drugs obsessed and hypocritical society can continue to pretend to be the last bastion of tolerance and fair-play? Fuck off! What does this country stand for now?
I’m the one asking people to get their feet off seats on buses. And I’m the paki!
I’m the one asking boys in a fast-food restaurant not to swear with ladies present. And I’m the paki!
I’m the one giving up my seat for people. And I’m the paki!
I’m the one helping ladies with prams up the stairs at tube stations. And I’m the paki!
When my friends and family are spat at and sworn at and driven at by black, but after 7/7 mostly white people, I forget that we’re supposed to be the last bastion of tolerance and I wonder why I bothered integrating so much, that it seems that it’s just this paki son of a paki immigrant holding up the last of the so-called-British values.
This country has gone to shit. And I am very close to leaving this crippled society. Amis? You stupid cunt who will never, ever be as good as your dad - you can keep your deceit and your shit and your rotten land.
Jam and Jerusalem? Shove it up your fucking arse!
I’m delighted that this bitch has been aired. Because she is the face of Britain. A lout. A loudmouth. Inward looking. Racist. Hypocitical. Stupid. Dumb. Alcoholic. Selfish. Self-important. Attention-seeking. Vainglorious. And utterly despicable.
The good people of this country are definitely in the minority. I would dearly love to see the minority reclaim it, but they’re intimidated. Why? Because they are decent people, and it’s very easy for decen people to be intimidated by scum, who sadly, occupy every strata of this country - from the bottom (Jade) to the very fucking top (Tony Blair).
It’s official. When only angry pakis like me believe in traditional British values, Britain is finished as a culture. The reason they can’t define Britain anymore, despite Brown’s weightiest exhortations, is because Britain is officially shit - and it’s very hard - very, very hard - to polish a turd.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
MARIAH 01.19.07 at 1:08 am
ITS SOO BLATENTLY RACISM WHAT MORE DO THESE PEOPLE WANNA SEE?.. AND ITS JEALOUSY COZ THE TRUTH IS SHILPAS A MUCH BIGGER AND BETTER STAR IN HER HOMETOWN THAN THEM 3 CHAVS, ALL IM GNA SAY DANIELLE JO AND GOODY CAN KISS THER UNSUCCESFUL CAREERS A FAREWELL COZ I DOUBT THEY WILL B LIKED VERY MUCH, PROBABLY ONLY BY THE BNP..LOL..I BET THEIR LOVING EVERY MOMENT OF THIS!!…
shahid 01.19.07 at 1:14 am
Interestingly enough Mariah, just under 10% of people who entered the Times’ on-line poll voted for Shilpa to go. My guess is that those weren’t sympathy votes for Shilpa.
Gareth 01.19.07 at 2:20 am
For what it’s worth, there are still a few white people who believe in traditional British values, but we do seem to be painfully few in number these days. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that anyone who speaks up in such terms these days is instantly branded an imperialist or a snob or suchlike. And it’s terribly depressing for young and occasionally idealistic types like myself, who would like to hope that we don’t have to choose between being traditionally British but racist, or degenerate but tolerant. Why must tolerance of other cultures imply tolerance of white “trailer trash” like Jackiey (the spelling of which, incidentally, should be enough to make any respectable individual’s skin crawl)?
I suppose I just believe wholeheartedly in our libertarian tradition, but yearn for the days when people knew what self-restraint was.
*sigh*
shahid 01.19.07 at 3:04 am
Gareth - people like you are what gives me hope.
It’s not wrong to stand up for what’s right. What’s right doesn’t have a colour or religion.
Have you read Lynn Truss’ “Talk to the Hand” btw? Brilliant!
Kier 01.19.07 at 11:53 pm
Shahid, you said:
“I don’t think Jade is an exception. There have always been people like Jade. There are far more of them than people otherwise think.”
And sadly, I have to agree. I watched Big Brother tonight for the first time to see what the fuss was about. What I saw, I’ve seen at my school, in youth centres and in places I’ve worked. The only real difference is that it’s being broadcast on TV. But even if the programme had never broadcast it, and pretended it never happened, erasing the words would not make them disappear. Overt racism has been purged from our TV screens for years but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in reality. The fact that Jade became a ‘celebrity’ in the first place because of her appearance on the show the first time just shows how warped things are in the media. We live in a culture where people are held up as role models for having no talent, no skills and contribute little more than a few dumb remarks about thinking regions of England were ‘abroad’ and get drunk and make t*ts of themselves to make them newsworthy. Even the contestants who seem to fade into obscurity make a few quid from nightclub appearances, opening supermarkets and publicity-stunt ‘engagements’ first. Jade Goody is one of a good few famous women who churn out exercise videos to ‘inspire’ other women, then freely admit they follow none of their own instruction, and in Jade’s case, reportedly go and have liposuction themselves. The public are taken for idiots on more than one level. And now she’s shown herself to be, in her own words ‘disgusting and nasty’, I can’t help feeling she’s not the only one who should be taking the blame and the shame. She’s about to be dropped from a great height but the media put her up there. I’d like to think this would be the end of Big Brother and the million copycat shows it spawned, and maybe the end of ‘celebrities’ who are made into media darlings when there was no substance to them to start with. I doubt it though.
shahid 01.20.07 at 12:03 am
Kier, sometimes I think my blog is upside down - many of the comments - and yours is a shining example, should be placed at the head and my stuff should be in small-print.
So - everything you write, I go along with.
The question is, what can we do about it?
And you make an excellent point - Jade is the fall-girl, what about all the vultures? The agents, the producers, the press, the chancellor of the exchequer! It’s enough to make me almost feel sorry for Jade. Almost…
Kier 01.20.07 at 12:46 am
You know what, I’ve been in exasperation about this for years. It’s almost like there’s a formula to it. How many of the vultures are gathered round TV sets on the edge of their sofas waiting for the next idiot they can make a quick buck out of, I wonder. Someone does something in a reality show, that anyone else would cringe over, or they do something controversial and bingo! They’re outside and the record deals - regardless of whether or not anyone even knows if they can sing - come flooding in, they’re writing their autobiographies at 23, they’re making exercise DVDs, being offered their ‘own’ reality show, getting columns in women’s weeklies and for what?
Even I can remember when ‘celebrities’ had some sort of talent, even the types you’d see on Blankety Blank or Celebrity Squares….they might be holiday camp entertainers like Keith Harris or gymnasts like Suzanne Dando, but at least they DID something! What have you got now? Jade Goody. Colleen McLoughlin. What does Colleen do? She goes out with a footballer and goes shopping a lot. Every opportunity that’s come her way, including endorsing terrorism sponsors Coca Cola, has come about because she happened to have a certain boyfriend. Actually WAGS are a whole new breed, a kind of splinter group from the Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie type celebrity, but incredibly similar in that they got famous FIRST - by nothing other than association or connection - and started trying their hands at other things after, because of media opportunities that were eagerly thrown their way.
Every time I go into the supermarket I see the magazine shelves stacked with weekly glossies aimed at women, with these insipid women on the covers. Does anyone who buys them actually wonder why they’re bothering? It’s become so much the ‘way things are’, as much as the whole thing is fake with the ever present airbrush ready to make ‘ordinary people’ feel inferior and then perhaps motivated to be more like the ‘celebs’, buy more magazines, buy more exercise DVDs, CDs and the ‘right’ clothes and be less bothered about what’s really going on in the world. Actually, I’m really depressed now!
The problem with the current issue is that we’re given this message that famous people are above us somehow, yet they’re ordinary people, like Jade Goody who, if she’d never appeared on Big Brother, would most likely have been having those conversations in some nightclub, with her pack of girlfriends who want to stay on the right side of her for fear of becoming a target for bullying themselves.
Racism is very rife in rural areas, where I live, as it’s predominantly white people who aren’t as exposed to other races. I work in a youth centre and last week had a policeman march in with a very distressed woman who’s just taken over ownership of the local convenience store. Five young men from the club had been banging on her window, yelling ‘Paki’ and scaring her and her poor little girl witless. These young people have never interacted with anyone from Asia - there’s not even a Chinese restaurant in their village. Where are they picking up their racist attitudes? From their parents, who’ve probably also lived in the village their whole lives? I read another comment on another post of yours where someone said it’s the fear of the unknown - and I agree. I’ll be doing a lot of work with them this term, and subsequent terms, on the issue of racism, but I know that ingrained prejudices are hard to break down. I’m hopeful, though. Sorry for the long comment!
british patriot 02.03.07 at 11:45 pm
britain is shit because of political correctness,people arent angry at muslims because of 7/7,that was a terrorist attack that could have been carried out by anyone.
people are angry at muslims because while we are being told to tolerate,accept and intergrate with muslims,we see footage of muslims calling for our death,did you watch dispatches on channel 4?or the cartoon protests?
everyday we read,see,and hear stories of muslims and their hatred of us,are we not entitled to feel angry?
if everyone was left alone,and given a choice wether to intergrate or not,maybe there would be less hatred,but our govt. is forcing us together,like putting two strange dogs in a small box.
my fear is that the hatred will spiral out of control and this country will once again see civil war.
shahid 02.04.07 at 12:15 am
Your fears are genuine, I can see that, but people like you and me don’t want a civil war, we represent hope.
My point in many of my posts has been to underline the fact that the vast majority of Muslims do integrate and are tolerant and respect our country. We are angry at being so terribly misrepresented by the media.
The Dispatches programme you refer to was a sham. A shoddy piece of journalism. Look - do you think some of the worst excesses of the far right represent the views of the majority of this country? I don’t. And I don’t think you do either. So please don’t imagine that the majority of the Muslims are anything like what the media and the government portray.
Stick around, you will see that we have more in common than you might fear.
We shouldn’t all be forced together, but we should be tolerant and we certainly shouldn’t be hatefully driven apart.
british patriot 02.04.07 at 12:21 am
i dont think they represent all muslims,but its worrying to see inside one of englands most respected mosques there is a man preaching hatred,and nobody challenges him
James 02.08.07 at 1:42 pm
Racism? Now thats funny coming from a from a paki cunt like you.
Just because you are fucking black or brown does not excempt from similar accusation
See you later arsehole.
James.