General Chat

The nasty term 'pikey' is used when refering to gypsy's, therefore 'pikey' is a racist term.

Hmmmm The Official BB website is unavailable ............... Maybe something is being done Gwynne

I haven't been on the General for a few days so have obviously missed other discussions about this.

Just watched GMTV and Fern made a very good point that we should be carefully we are not perceived as Bullies as we are only observers, cos of all the bad press I agree with her 100%, The statistics show that a bullied person can become a bully, I don’t think the Jade has done her self any Favours at all and has done a complete U turn as far as her Career goes she has just committed Career Suicide. Yes and anyone can be perceived as being racaist dispite colour greed Culture sex etc we are aware of that but also need to beaware that allegations should not be made without facts. The only people to benefit from this will be Lawyers and Channel 4 Lilxx

I think a lot of people know that Jade's father was mixed race and even if they dont does it matter? It doesnt mean that she can't be racist and offensive towards Shilpa. Ju

I haven't watched much of this BB at all.... What I would like to say is: I wonder how many people know that Jade Goody's father is/was half West Indian...? I rest my case. Sylvx

Jeanette Black and white can be used to refer to people's race whatever the actual content. The word 'paki' is offensive, rude and racist. The reason that the racist behaviour of Jade, Danielle and Jo has been highlighted is because people have contacted Ofcom. As Rose said, in American 'white trash' means the same as 'pikey' which is how you would describe someone like the character Vicky Pollard. However, if people were offended by Jermaine, then they should also make an official complaint. Ju

Hi Rose I don't know what pikey means either! Is that a southern saying? So if it's ok in America to say white trash, is it ok then to say black trash or paki trash? I doubt it very much. I guess what I'm trying to say is that racism works both ways. The fact that Jermaine uses the word 'white' singles out a person's race and that is racism. Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning the behaviour of Jade and her gang. Far from it. It just seems to me that when a 'white' person complains of racist slurs, they are laughed at and that is wrong. Jeanette x

*round of applause for Ken* Gwynne

Jeanette, Jermaine is American and in the US the phase 'White Trash' translates to Pikey Chav. It's not considered a racist comment. Rose

lol Jeanette-with those wise words no-one could associate you with her. catherine xx

When Ken, Donny and Leo asked to leave the BB house, I thought they were just being awkward. But in hindsight perhaps they could see what was brewing and did right by getting out. I haven't watched all of BB so I haven't heard the alleged racist comments against Shilpa. BUT I have heard a racist comment from Jermaine Jackson.....white trash. He is quite entitled to his opinion of Jackiey, and quite frankly she is trash! But to add the word WHITE makes it a racist comment. Why haven't the media made more of this? It would be interesting to know how many people have complained to C4 about that. What I have seen though from Jade and her crones is complete ignorance of other people's culture....but let's face it there not the brightest buttons in the tin so should we expect anything less! While I'm here, could I please ask for people not to refer to Jade as JG.....they actually happen to be my initials and I do not want to be associated in any way with such a thick, ignorant, gobby, common slapper! LOL ;-))))))))) Jeanette x

I dont watch BB, so i cant really comment and im sure the bits ive seen on the news have been edited?? I only say that, as so far ive heard no racist remarks, just JG being her awful gobby rude self. But it sounds like alot of bullying has gone on, disgusting.

Part 2 assimilate large numbers of society is glaringly obvious? I’m no expounder of political correctness. I like to see people free to make mistakes in public and to cross-pollinate closed societies with the fresh air of rebellion and outspokenness. But when a mean-spirited, close-minded group of people are seen to be gathering strength in numbers and fan clubs, overcompensating for their own feelings of weakness by singling out someone based on colour or costume, it must be noticed and stopped.

On Shilpa and the racist peril in the BB house By Ken Russell in the Telegraph Why do Jane Goody and the rest of the' terrorists', as I call them, detest Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty? Because she is different. That is why the angry mob ganged up on her, while the others retained what they liked to think was a dignified silence but looked more like gutless acquiescence. Fans of Celebrity Big Brother are watching in increasing discomfort as the unfamiliarity between Shilpa’s culture and the Goodys’ looks increasingly less like a failure to communicate and more like an agenda on the part of the Goody Gang to scapegoat and belittle the Bollywood actress. I was the second 'terrorist' hostage to escape from the Big Brother House, but I have followed every moment since my departure. The racist overtones have become undeniable. Jade, with enormous vigour and obsessive needling, has instinctively formed a bullying cadre of Jo O’Meara, Danielle Lloyd and her boyfriend Jack Tweed against Shilpa for no discernable reason. With phrases like “dog,” “bitch,” “who does she think she is,” “you’re just a cook,” “c***” and “what are you, a hairy man?” accumulating from the Goody Girl-Gang-and-Toyboy, a nation squirmed under the impression that there were distinct racial motivations to the bullyers’ body language, insults and apparent agenda to exclude and attack Shilpa. Other than an inherent dislike for the spiritual Shilpa’s being different, pretty, full of integrity and fairly secure in her personhood, Jade had no other provocation other than the thrill of self-righteousness to crucify the poor girl. Jermaine Jackson, also a person of colour, escaped bullying because he was a Jackson, and perhaps too because he didn’t overtly seek to antagonize Jade’s Viper Pit and thus make himself a target. Jade’s mother Jackiey called Shilpa 'the Indian girl’ and seemed to blame Shilpa for Jackiey’s own inability to pronounce her name, as though Shilpa had intentionally set out to irritate Jackiey by having a name that Jackie would have a difficult time pronouncing. (Compare that with Shilpa’s own gentle self-reproach for mispronouncing Dirk’s name “Duck,” an error she then practiced diligently to overcome, and did.) For Jackiey, Shilpa would always be “what’s-her-name.” Former Miss Great Britain Danielle Lloyd, obviously wanting to be accepted by Jade as having “street cred,” began accusing Shilpa of “doin’ ’er ’ead in”. One saw in Danielle a pitiful need to “belong” to the “tough girls” who weren’t afraid to bully someone whose skin, manners, gracefulness and openness set her apart from the Pillowtalk Gang-of-Three. Having been bullied herself in the past, she no doubt had learned to protect herself by clinging to the most effective abuser like a bodyguard. Inflamed herself with drink and hostility, she went on to call Shilpa a “dog” and to say “we (meaning Jade and Danielle) are friends and you’re just the cook.” Singer Jo O’Meara, driven by a restless impulse to match her girlfriends’ obsession with Shilpa, called the unoffending Indian actress “a control freak.” She too claimed 'the Indian girl’ was “doin’ ’er ’ead in”. The girls repeat insulting phrases like a kind of babytalk to bond with each other. All the bullying had a disturbing racist subtext. “She undercooks chicken like that because that’s what the people over there do, and they’re all diseased.” “I don’t want her touching my food.” Any miscalculation Shilpa makes, the three girls leap upon. The stew down the toilet gave them another outlet for contempt and expressions of repulsion aimed at Shilpa. Jermaine Jackson tried to cushion the pain of Shilpa’s scapegoating and exile by explaining patiently that the gangsters showed the mindsets of (he mouthed the phrase) “white trash.” He reminded Shilpa of her spiritual values, her dignity, her need not to win their approval but only to “be herself.” One could feel a nation shouting mentally at Shilpa not to debate Jade, as every argument was only a set-up for Jade to shame her. And were we to believe that Jade’s “dream”, in which Shilpa “in her sari with her relatives and her fat female cousin in saris” kicked Jade, Jo and Danielle, gave some insight into a secret Shilpa? I don’t think so. It was only another means of attacking Shilpa. What does all this say about our larger culture in Britain, whose public policies brag about “multiculturalism” and so on, but whose inability to assimilate large numbers of society is glaringly obvious? I’m no expounder of political correctness. I like to see people free to make mistakes in public and to cross-pollinate closed societies with the fresh air of rebellion and outspokenness. But when a mean-spirited, close-minded group of people are seen to be gathering strength in numbers and fan clubs, overcompensating for their own feelings of weakness by singling out someone based on colour or costume, it must be noticed and stopped.