| Re: Channel 4's exploitation of Big Brother Racism for profits |
| 23/01/2007 |
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Friday 19th January To: Luke Johnson Re: Channel 4's exploitation of Big Brother Racism for profits We are writing to outline our complaint at your handling of racist comments being broadcast during Celebrity Big Brother over the past week. Channel 4 has stated that there has been no "overt racism" in the program. However, you may be aware that mimicking the Indian accent, references to lack of hygiene, suggestions that Indian people thin not because of poverty, but because they are unable to cook, refusal to pronounce Asian names, referring to people as "poppadom", and comments that half of Shilpa's fans from her ethnic region are not from great backgrounds, and she should "F*** off home", are common examples of casual racism that Asian people experience in Britain. To see it going unchecked on a prime time national TV programme is distressing for many people in the Asian community. There have been no formal warnings or official intervention from the program makers to make it clear that they do not tolerate racism. Instead, profits are going to be generated from increased viewing figures and advertising. The only solution to stopping racism that your channel seems to be offering is that complainants participate in the vote to remove the offending contestants (depending on whether they are nominated or not), meaning that the serious issue of racist bullying has been subjugated to the rules of the gameshow. You may also be aware that fascist websites such as Stormfront are now posting racially abusive comments about Shilpa Shetty on their site -this site has previously incited violence against minority communities. The casual racism on display is similar to the experience of Asian people in playgrounds and workplaces across the country. Such behaviour would not go unchecked in these instances. By allowing such behaviour to go unchecked on your program is making itself complicit with the racism that Asian people face in society, and is ignoring the calls from politicians, community representatives and ultimately the viewing public who have complained overwhelmingly for you to take immediate action about this. We understand that there are plans to donate the revenues from tonight's vote to charities. We welcome this gesture but in our view this does not go far enough to challenge the racist bullying that has been displayed in the house. We would suggest that any contestant displaying racially abusive behaviour is given a warning or removed from the Big Brother house. These incidents have shown that your channel does not have adequate procedures to deal with racism in your programming which is damaging your credentials as a broadcaster. Failure to take immediate action on this means that Channel 4 and Endemol will be perceived as being complacent on this issue, favouring the adverse publicity and ultimately the profits generated by advertising revenue, increased publicity and higher numbers of viewers. Yours sincerely, Ruqayyah Collector, NUS Black Students Officer The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students. All links in blogs will open in a new browser window. The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/ruqayyahcollector/273759.aspx |
