Celebrity Big Brother
Whether you watch it or not if you are in the UK you would be hard pressed not to have heard at least something about the current Celebrity Big Brother..
Celebrity big brother is like the normal show we have in the summer which involves a house, housemates stuck in the house and cutoff from the world where one is voted out each week and they perform tasks for their food budget and little extras. Though the interesting part is not the tasks but rather the interactions between people. The Celebrity version held each January lasts much shorter and where votes usually occurs every few days. The celebrity version tends to get C list celebrities and former big celebrities from past years usually including two token American celebrities.
Now this year though many of the British public will not have realized the show got a superstar. Someone we do not know much about here or in North America, but where she comes from she is huge, a bollywood actress.
She is a lady who has some flaws yes, she can perhaps be a little bossy, perhaps take over doing things in the house a bit too much. But otherwise is a perfectly nice, dignified woman. However there are three girls (I wont call them woman as they do not seem to have grown up) who come from working class backgrounds in the house who have started bullying Shilpa (The hollywood actress)
I feel the reasons are they are jealous of her beauty and success and they take issue with her class. They are from working class backgrounds and she from a middle class to upper class background and unfortunately some working class people take an immediate dislike to those from a different class and automatically assume they are 'stuck up' when they are now.
Now the bullying has got bad and it has been horrible to watch and some things have been said which some have called racist. This has blown up into a huge thing over here and in India with it becoming headline news and even supposedly damaging the UK's relations with India. Now there have been many complaints sent in (broke records) and the sponsors of the show carphone warehouse have pulled out. There are even calls for the show to be taken off air.
I personally do not think this should be the case.
First of all we need to look at if this is racism. Well I think the term racism should not be thrown about lightly. Racism is a nasty hateful monster, something people actively pursue or express which also leads to persecution based only on race. I would not apply such a strong term to this for that cheapens the impact of the term racism. For me this is cultural ignorance. People who already dislike a person based on other issues such as class might in heated moments express or state something with is a culturally ignorant view based on a lack of understanding of where another person has come from and the culture there. This certainly applies to the three girls who have it out for Shilpa.
I don't think this show should be pulled despite all the complaints because there is something positive that comes from it. People are talking about it. What is racism? What is cultural ignorance? Is there underlying cultural ignorance in todays UK society. It might even make people question their own person views and ignorance.
As long as the people involved in the show are okay to continue then the show should continue. I am willing to bet many of the people who made the complaints did so not wishing to see the show pulled but to highlight the bullying within it and I feel Shilpa herself shall come out of this feeling vindicated and realizing that the UK for the most part likes her and the views of these three girls is not representative of the entire nation.
Celebrity big brother is like the normal show we have in the summer which involves a house, housemates stuck in the house and cutoff from the world where one is voted out each week and they perform tasks for their food budget and little extras. Though the interesting part is not the tasks but rather the interactions between people. The Celebrity version held each January lasts much shorter and where votes usually occurs every few days. The celebrity version tends to get C list celebrities and former big celebrities from past years usually including two token American celebrities.
Now this year though many of the British public will not have realized the show got a superstar. Someone we do not know much about here or in North America, but where she comes from she is huge, a bollywood actress.
She is a lady who has some flaws yes, she can perhaps be a little bossy, perhaps take over doing things in the house a bit too much. But otherwise is a perfectly nice, dignified woman. However there are three girls (I wont call them woman as they do not seem to have grown up) who come from working class backgrounds in the house who have started bullying Shilpa (The hollywood actress)
I feel the reasons are they are jealous of her beauty and success and they take issue with her class. They are from working class backgrounds and she from a middle class to upper class background and unfortunately some working class people take an immediate dislike to those from a different class and automatically assume they are 'stuck up' when they are now.
Now the bullying has got bad and it has been horrible to watch and some things have been said which some have called racist. This has blown up into a huge thing over here and in India with it becoming headline news and even supposedly damaging the UK's relations with India. Now there have been many complaints sent in (broke records) and the sponsors of the show carphone warehouse have pulled out. There are even calls for the show to be taken off air.
I personally do not think this should be the case.
First of all we need to look at if this is racism. Well I think the term racism should not be thrown about lightly. Racism is a nasty hateful monster, something people actively pursue or express which also leads to persecution based only on race. I would not apply such a strong term to this for that cheapens the impact of the term racism. For me this is cultural ignorance. People who already dislike a person based on other issues such as class might in heated moments express or state something with is a culturally ignorant view based on a lack of understanding of where another person has come from and the culture there. This certainly applies to the three girls who have it out for Shilpa.
I don't think this show should be pulled despite all the complaints because there is something positive that comes from it. People are talking about it. What is racism? What is cultural ignorance? Is there underlying cultural ignorance in todays UK society. It might even make people question their own person views and ignorance.
As long as the people involved in the show are okay to continue then the show should continue. I am willing to bet many of the people who made the complaints did so not wishing to see the show pulled but to highlight the bullying within it and I feel Shilpa herself shall come out of this feeling vindicated and realizing that the UK for the most part likes her and the views of these three girls is not representative of the entire nation.