Big brother racism has gone global

tenpence · Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 174

So what do you think about the way they are treating bollywood star Shilpa Shetty?

I wonder if she was chinese would anyone make this amount of complaints or would chinese people just bury their heads in the sand.

do you think it shows how racist britain really is? scarey

ex-VAG · Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 445

It's all been blown out of proportion by the Indian community over here, as they do with anything similar they can find.
It was plain and simple bullying by ignorant unintelligent chav birds, nothing more nothing less. There's nothing racist about that. But yet again we see the PC brigade and the Indians themselves jump on every available bandwangon to cry foul. It makes me sick.

And if it were a Chinese person, do you think the media would have caused such a stink? Probably not, there aren't any Chinese at a high enough level to think it's worth milking. Is there even a Chinese MP to bring these things up in parliament?

Mark-gor · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 23

A tough one to call. I think it's a bit much to call it overt racism, but then the things said were SO ignorant that one suspects Jade knew what she was saying and doing. For example:

"Shilpa this, Shipa that. Poppadum Shilpa!"
"Do you live in a house or a shack?"
"If you don't like it here you should f*ck off home back to where you're from."

I reckon those statements demonstrate racism because they're ignorant and aimed to hurt, they're bullying emotions attached to them, and they make fun of another culture (the food - poppadum, the living conditions - shack, etc.)

How would we feel about this:

"Po Ling this, Po Ling that, Crispy Duck Po Ling!"
"Do you live in a house or a pagoda?"

Most of us on this forum would probably cry racism at the top of their voices. I don't think it's very pertinent to claim that Indian community is more touchy about racism -- how exactly does that help the fight against racism in general?

Is it really a case of "some cultures and races complain more about racism so we should just disregard that as noise"?

ex-VAG · Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 445

Hmmmm see what you mean, how much of it is down to igorance, though I have to disagree that "If you don't like it here you should f*ck off home back to where you're from."
That's just a statement, its not racist in any form, or I can't see how anyway. Surely if you don't like it anywhere then you should leave?

Yes we would if we'd experienced it, but in my experience the Indian community are the first to cry foul at every opportunity be it a racist incident or not, they try to make out that it is.
Take the youths who were bashed up by the Leeds players the other year, there was nothing racist about that. The fact of the matter was that some pissed up lads outside a club got a bit lairy when they saw the footballers, both sets of people being pissed didn't help the matter and it got out of hand. Now it doesn't matter what colour skin they were they were pissed up louts giving large and got a kicking when they bit off more than they could chew. Next thing you know it was a racist attack!!! If they were white lads who got bashed it'd probably never even made the news, that's my point.

Oh and when was the last time a Chinese race case was in the news? A Chinese woman was murdered a few weeks on her way home from the take away/restaurant, the thieves thought she had the takings with her, how much coverage did this get? Double page spread? No. Headlines in the newspapers? No. Headlines on the news? No. She got a couple of paragraphs on the BBC website and since, nothing. It's like oh what a shame, we've reported the attack and death, that's it. Where's the rest about the killers, what the police are doing to catch them? Nothing.

tenpence · Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 174

I totally did'nt hear about that murder at all, where di d you find out about it?

chopstickheaven · Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 3

Are the comments racist? The comments are racist, Jade Goody herself said it was racist in more than two interviews and shes one of the culprits, although she denied she was a racist. There was mimicking of her accent, lots of ignorant derogatory racial references about the physical shapes and looks of indian people, that is racism- its ridiculing to her race, her ethnicity, her nationality etc.

is it overt racism? if the racist comments were directed at Shilpa in person then yes, but almost all of the malicious statements were said privately behind Shilpas back, so its not overt racism.

When Danielle said 'shilpa should f**k off home,' We all know what she meant by that, it doesnt need explaining or justification.

If Shilpa was Chinese, would there be such a furore? No, there wouldn't, unless she was a famous chinese actress from China, then it would be a national outrage, if it was say Lisa Huo going back into the house as a celebrity, there wouldn't be so many complaints to Ofcom, over 40,000 complaints, but when you consider the size of the Asian population in this country, thats not many, I'm sure a sizeable number of those complaints were made by caucasians. The Asian community doesn't overact to these racial incidents, in fact most asians of the first generation prefer to stay away from politics and keep their head down, Channel four went to Leicester to ask the Asian locals what they thought of the Shilpa incident, most of them weren't even bothered. Its the second generation Asians who are a lot less tolerant who kick up a fuss, i think thats also reflected in the chinese community, although the second generation chinese are still a lot more apolitical than their asian counterparts. The Commission for Racial Equality is dominated by Blacks and Asians, but where are the chinese representatives? The chinese community doesnt have any MP's, but even if they did, it would probably be some old school first generation immigrant who isn't particularly clued up. But what can you do, you can't force people to be radical or progressive thinking. Chinese community are at a huge disadvantage because they're dispersed all over the country, there no stronghold ghetto areas and the other problem is the lack of a coherent cultural British chinese identity, forcing you to chose between either being predominantly caucasian or traditionally chinese.

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

Another point is that the majority of the chinese here who could kick up a fuss either can't speak, and hence can't see racism in action in the media; or high flying city toffs who are know the Brits are racists, but will tolerate it as long as they milk every penny out of them in their city jobs.

Those who do care and understand about this form of racism, and want it to change so they can have better, settled lives here, are probably all British born with no powerful networks or links to the media.

ex-VAG · Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 445

Mark-gor · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 23

Ex-VAG, I do agree with you that crimes against Chinese appear to attract less reporting. However, I'm, not sure I believe there's anything insidious about this. Others have mentioned factors like the relative size of the Chinese population and cultural factors such as the tendency to be apolitical (an example being the lack of representation on the CRE -- an organisation whose priorities include ensuring fair representation of races and cultures in all things).

Whatever the truth is, I don't think having a pop at another ethnic minority is the way to tackle the imbalance of reporting on Chinese in the media. The Indian/Asian population shares exactly the same view as the Chinese on racism in this country: it shouldn't be tolerated. Criticising them for complaining about it too quickly merely gives ammunition or justification to racists to carry on doing what we all suffer, irrespective of race or culture.

ex-VAG · Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 445

That's a very level headed response Mark-gor, but I just can't help it getting on my wick when these other races jump and and down so quickly with the old racism badge. I don't mean to have a go at the other races, maybe it's the way it comes out?! :oops: does that make me a racist?

Found this on the census website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=273&Pos=4&ColRank=2&Ran k=1000

Chinese total population count as of 2001 - 247403!! Is that all, I can honestly say I'm totally astounded to see such a low figure!!

And yes, the sooner we have representation on the CRE the better it will be for us.

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

Having such a low figure isn't really a bad thing - I'm not particularly a big fan of new arrivals from China simply to do business and "use" the country.

Look what happened recently in the Solomon Islands:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4930994.stm

While the overseas chinese can simply go back to China, same can't be said for bbcs who have settled here for ages.

As for representation, if you look into those stats further, only a third are born here - considering the rest are, like the previous poster said, apathetic to their cultural/political/social surroundings, and further still a lot can't even speak the language, that doesn't leave much to represent.

Take the Jewish community for example, similarly sized in the Uk as ours, but I would imagine far more involved with current affairs, and hence more likely to group together if required. Whereas the Chinese here are disparate in their goals and motives.

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