Home  New Features Brownshirts in the ring
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Written by Unite Cru
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Friday, 19 January 2007 |
Social convention tells us: "hey, it's ok to be casually racist!"
We were determined to bypass the latest display of vacuous ninnies on Celebreality Big Brother without passing comment, but three chavscum anti-celebs have gone and been racist and classist to a Bollywood celebrity. The shits have not been hit by their fans (they have none), but it seems Endemol's amoral situationist prank has paid off: Shilpa ‘Poppadum' was put in to provoke racism among the lumpen no-marks and it worked. Cleo Roccos has been sage in covering up her Brazilian background, though that nation we like (look down on) and she's old so she's probably alright.
Thankfully you don't have to watch any of CBB to plug into hategate. Just check the facts and the reaction in the rest of the media and you can ignore the variable fortunes of Wacko's bruv, Everett's assistant, the A-team joker and the ragtag fodder of Heat.
Reaction by the middle classes in my office has been qualified; greasy office types seem to prefer a more demonstrative derogation (like Little Britain's "fish and chips" - "say it again" maybe?) and of course they are used to all sorts of nuanced sophistry to justify their own turgid products and banal existence. So they refuse to admit those celebreal munchers were being racist; they say it's "not out and out" racism (no it's not, the class element scored 9.5 on the offensometer too). It is ironic and indicative that these bourgeois paper shufflers, who do practise some citizenly responsibility, do not expect the same standards either from the prole lumps or the new uncelebs. These baggy-jeaned days it's not cool to be so uptight about racism.
This is a typical trope of the ‘new' racism; if it's not overt then it doesn't count. Casual racism assuages one's conscience. This is a bubbleworld where Jade, Danielle and co don't think they're being racist or offensive and even if what came out of their glib gobs was racist, it doesn't count either because they weren't thinking straight at the time. When will these thick cunts get it into their heads that's it's this covert treatment that is the most disturbing, and the most damaging in the long term? R Miles' Racism was one of the first to expound the view that there has been a shift from what he terms old racism to the new racism. The old skool was characterised as being based on racial difference and the view that the white race was inherently biologically superior to other races, who were often portrayed as savages or mentally inferior.
One of the main characteristics of the "new" racism is the notion of cultural superiority; ie, the way we live our lives. Thus Asians are portrayed as having large families and living in crowded accommodation, of having oppressive arranged marriages (and oppressing women in general), and eating strange, smelly food. The "new" racist does not couch his prejudices in the terms of the old racist, but they are still racist, albeit in this more covert fashion. Then there is the competitive element of the new racialist virii. In this country it's seen as perfectly acceptable to be racist about Germans, French and Australians - ie, westerners who we battle over GDP scores with - as this is seen as humorous and harmless, even essential in a Darwinist way.
The racists...
Although they can contribute to an often unfair example of a typical Brit, the S-Klunk idiot and the Goodies are probably more representative of their ‘individual' backgrounds and insecurities over their longevity in the public eye (and attendant advertising and other relatively lucrative but short-term contracts) than all white working class people. However, they do reflect some wider attitudes in Anglo-Spaxon society. Danielle and Jade are from places (Liverpool and SE London) where whole areas are prone in specialising, nay wallowing, in a self-defeating, disenfranchising celebration of underclass. Jade's mixed-race background is no get-out clause, though she might think it is; Danielle has been taking lessons from that well-known white supremacist, her squinty-eyed quarantine partner Ted ‘old enough to indulge paedo impulses' Sheringham; and Jo O' Meara was in Hess Club 7 or Stops so is already trial-able at the Hague for crimes to popular culture. To see the look of fear on her face when a rock and roll pastiche walked in, you could have predicted the difficulties in dealing with an exotic other beyond the usual transactive expediency. Maybe McGroot's visionary social cleansing programme should be rehabilitated after all.
...they wear fashionable clothes
All three are at the nexus of the new, even dumber celebrity culture, whereby you can get to some level of fame and recognition with your dodgy views intact (indeed this is a condition of your mephistolean pact, because you'll be returning to cheap cigs and chicken wings sooner than you think) and where your relationship with your audience (the same people just drinking in a slightly cheaper bar) relies on a nudge and a wink treatment of atavistic attitudes. ‘Celebrity' is so all-encompassing a term these days (sleeping with a celebrity makes you a celebrity) that most are ignorant shits who are too dim to realise that on-camera they should hold back their racist bile as it tends to be career-damaging. In what sense is Jade Goodie's boyfriend a celebrity? What are we celebrating about him? Celebrities used to be people we idolised, now they are people we look down on and pity. While the protagonists do not think they are racist or bigoted, they probably are. All that coke and bubbly warps the judgement to feed even more jealousy and inverted snobbery.
Not just racism?
Where Shilpa has a life beyond CBB (based on hard work, dedication and talent), the others need it to propel them into the limelight ...and then, what, a couple of appearances in OK, Heat, and possibly FHM (all together now - phwoarh) and then disappear until one (if not all) appear on ‘Reality Celebs and Their Pets' on channel 874. In this context, it's hardly surprising that the Goodie mob and sour faced S-KKKlub irritants display racist insecurity in the presence of Shilpa. She's the only genuine celebrity in that pit of egotistical despair, adored and admired for her CREATIVE OUTPUT by millions, while the famous-for-being-famous/music business proxies can only snipe and criticise in an increasingly racist manner because they don't know anything about anything or anyone from outside the M25. Once they're out, the jingo trio could form a ‘pop band' with Jack Tweedledumb, call themselves Essex Brains and perform in Woodford after nights of perfecting their dance routines.
So we must thank Shilpa for being actually, properly Indian and therefore subject to greater severity from the white pack of female bullies. Due to England's glorious colonial past in India and there being a more sensitive reaction to Anglo-Indian relations or, in this case, the lack of them, a difference perhaps originally predicated on non-racial lines has touched a racial nerve very specific to the UK: while Cull feels more than comfortable treating this as a racist incident, other factors like that insecurity clearly had an influence. We can take the Brazilian case more seriously here, if it was a Brazilian famous woman like Daniela Mercury, who is almost royalty in Rio, then I don't think accusations of racism would have come out as fast, and it wouldn't be as acutely felt. Also, UK-born woman of Indian descent, say Meera Syal or even a better-known Indian woman like Madhur Jaffrey (both of whom are also senior in age), would not have been as innately disrespected by three younger white women. A specific xenophobia, laced with youthful rivalry, class and education, comes into play.
Big Brother is laughing - the antics shown on these reality shows just encourage people to watch (while this kind of bullying happens all the time, at work, at school, etc). They won't evict anyone and their ratings have soared. CBB (and BB) seem to exist to provoke psychological warfare among the contestants. It's like the shared house from hell, the one you can't escape from and you have to share a bedroom with flatulent dullards. It can only be hoped that this makes a major dent in the fortunes of reality TV: the format is moribund and that even regular watchers are tiring of the twists on twists (let's get Jade back in; yeah, but let's go one louder and get her boyf in; and her rough mother; no guys, let's notch the ante and get Goody's grandparents in too! Aargh!!!!!!!!!).
As far as the matter that matters, we're far from sure that this cultural dynamic could not have been anticipated by Endemol and that they're certainly not using the endemic racist culture that exists in minor celebrity circles and in the white working class culture from where they are invariably harvested to breath fetid air into the lungs of a tired format. The fact that C4 is contracted to screen Big Bollicks for ANOTHER 10 YEARS is neither here nor there - it's over there, rubbing its genitals at the prospect of restored viewing figures/revenue streams. The saddest thing is that when a truly vicious form of racism is discovered in the news, (Manchester police officers in training espousing blatantly racist attitudes in that Panorama documentary for instance) there is a kerfuffle, but it takes fucking Big Brother to really kick off the debate. We hope that the episode goes on to highlight and do something about the insidious racism passed off not only in our society but also in the media, particularly TV. But given the disproportionate respect/interest that the public hold in media figures, Cull is doubtful if this episode delivers any substantive change in Britons' regressed attitudes, maybe that hope is misplaced. Unfortunately, racism is far too prevalent in this country and is most overt among the lower classes. And frankly the higher castes in the media, who have been better educated to have race-hate knocked out of them) do nothing to discourage it. That's the UK - a happy, having-it party until there is a test and then the other is to blame.
With help from Starrzinho, Stickboy, Il Francese and Lindsay
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Last Updated ( Friday, 19 January 2007 )
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