Shilpa Poppadom

[Guest pwest13]

I know Big Brother is something which alot of people don't approve or care for but every forum in the world has this question but MoDaCo so i thought i would post it!

Did Jade utter a racial remark or idiotic insult?

Does it even matter if she mean't it, just the fact she said it?

IF your unsure what i am talking about just google shilpa poppadom.

My view is that there seems to be a blurred line to what is racism. Any comment can cause someone distress, such as the french being reffered to as frogs (no offence) us english as limeys. I think its all aboout how we accept these comments, I can laugh them off and choose to as i feel its the best way. I think Jade is guilty of bullying not racism, alongside the blond from S-CLub 7, and Danielle. I can't believe the blond (i think her name is joe) acted this way on BB as i distinctly remember watching a show in which she explained she was victimised and bullied as a child and explained to children not to bully. Erm? The words 'paint', 'kettle' and 'black' spring to mind!

Discuss :)

Edited January 21, 2007 by pwest13

[Guest Samsonite]

personally, i think the media have gone seriously overboard with the issue.

I would agree that Jade has been bullying Shilpa but is not guilty of racism. Jade is not a clever girl and is guilty of ignorance. That is not necessarily a defence but it does mitigate the circumstance somewhat.

Was Jermaine racist in his description of Jade's Mum when he called her White Trash? Again, i think not but the level of intelligence that Jermaine obviously has gives his comment a different context. Was he explaining in lay terms his impression of Jackiey (sic) or spitting some venom? I think the former.

I actually feel for Jade. She will be crucified by people far stupider than her and not have the diction or presence of mind to adequately defend herself.

In my view, Danielle Lloyd is the more dangerous person on the floor. She is duplicitous and (unknowingly?) manipulative. Jo from S-Club has shown some unfortunate hidden depths too.

[Guest chucky.egg]

I never heard the comments, but from what I've read in the news etc it was insults based on race.

Whether that makes Jade racist or not I don't know. She's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and to her they may just have been simple insults.

Making a racist comment, and being racist are not the same thing.

Now if the politicians (Keith Vaz, Blair, Brown and Trevor Phillips in particular) will just butt out maybe we can clear this up without having to waste any more of their precious/expensive time on it.

[Guest pisquee]

Jade was bullying Shilpa, along with the Jo and Danielle, and Jack. As said above, Jo was bullied. As a child Jade was both bullied and a bully. It just seems that the cycle is continuing. Looking at Jade's mother, after seeing her in the house, to me, the way Jade is immediately made sense.

Jade and co were bullying Shilpa, and as part of that there was an undercurrant of racist remarks. Racism was not the driving force of the bullying, but was certainly a big part of it.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

How can you call someone 'Shilpa Poppadom' and have that not considered racist? That's clearly an attempt to demean someone based on their race, and for me, that's racist.

I haven't watched CBB and now have no plans to, but that and the comment (by someone else) for her to 'go home' means for me the program has gone too far.

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

For me it is significant that this is not the Real World. In the house they know almost nothing about each other.

It's human nature to pick up on things that either you have in common, or that differ with other people. And if you don't like someone you focus on the differences, in a negative way.

When i was a kid, and to this day, i'm called "Speccy four-eyes". That doesn't mean that those people are anti-spectale wearers, it just means they perhaps don't like me as an individual.

These days people seem far too nervous about being seen as racist, and too quick to label people as such.

In the real world there are very few racists left, as most people are better educated and integrated. Not a reason to be complacent, but reason to be positive and not so quick to accuse.

[Guest pwest13]

I share Samsonites view Jade did make a comment that when spoken to the masses is blatently going to cause trouble. I didn't watch the show and when i heard what Jade said a laugh escaped me. I'm now not sure what this means? As if this is a racist remark does that make me racist :S

Did anyone else find it funny?

[Guest genaldar]

Personally I think it's the feeling used when making a comment that make it racist. I'm always joking about his being Chinese with a friend or mine (whose parents came from China) and he makes jokes about how white I am. But I make fun of every race (I call most of my friends honky or cracker, even if they aren't white). I went to a friends house for a cookout and walked into the yard and called him a "honky a*s cracker", and I was the only white person there at the time. We all had a good laugh about it. Besides you can make anything an insult if it's said with venom. Look at the word Jew, how many racists treat that word like its an insult?

In my opinion the worst racists are the ones who go to such pains to hide it. I prefer racists who are upfront and honest, they save the rest of us the time of getting to know them before we shun them for the idiotic throwback that they are.

Edited January 22, 2007 by genaldar

[Guest Samsonite]

Did anyone else find it funny?

unfortunatlely, i have watched all of this offering of CBB.. sorry :) blame the wife...

i saw the whole thing as presented by Channel 4 (that in itself is worth thinking about) and did not find it funny. At points, it was a jaw dropping conversation, at others it was a shaking-your-head-in-disbelief moment. In general, i was wishing Jade would just close her gob... she didnt and she is where she is now.

[Guest pwest13]

I caught Jade on 'This Morning' this morning, (funnily enough) and it was cringeworthy. Sounded like a broken record too me. I didn't actually see the footage but the way i was told was:

Bro: Hear about what happened to Jade?

Me: No?

Bro: Shs being accused of being racist on CBB.

Me: Why?

Bro: She called an indian women a poppadom.

Its not really the same as the big brother version i guess...

But still i agree with Genaldar in terms of it being a comical subject, its only focusing on a certain aspect of a character isn't it? Like i used to be called 'FA Cup' for having large ears as a child, (i can hear the lols) I used to reply with a similiar insult and these people turned out to be some of my best mates.

Its both a funny and touchy subject i think!

[Guest kurtfhouse]

For me it is significant that this is not the Real World. In the house they know almost nothing about each other.

It's human nature to pick up on things that either you have in common, or that differ with other people. And if you don't like someone you focus on the differences, in a negative way.

When i was a kid, and to this day, i'm called "Speccy four-eyes". That doesn't mean that those people are anti-spectale wearers, it just means they perhaps don't like me as an individual.

These days people seem far too nervous about being seen as racist, and too quick to label people as such.

In the real world there are very few racists left, as most people are better educated and integrated. Not a reason to be complacent, but reason to be positive and not so quick to accuse.

To be honest I agree with every word of what you've said. REAL racists are a dying breed and people now are brought up in more enlightened times. If only the world could now try and let up just a little bit on the whole subject maybe we could start to enjoy what we've achieved.

The fact is its the mental element behind something, the 'mens rea' that would dictate whether a comment was racially motivated or not and that until mind reading devices are invented is impossible to say.

With Jade in particular, I doubt she could even spell racism and I'm surprised she even knows what it means.

The stupid thing is IF she was indeed racist which I personally don't believe, far from ending her career as she feared her throw away comments have probably made her more money. I noticed the day afer she was out there was an interview with her on TV with the New of The World logo all over it, I wonder what they paid her for that?

The reason she has got all the publicity is becuase everyone wants to look like the good samaritan and show that they are not racist by condeming what she said. Instead when someone is as utterly stupid as Jade they should just be ignored. That way they might just go away and not end up richer and in our faces on more low budget tv and in the tabloids.

[Guest genaldar]

Bro: She called an indian women a poppadom.

I forgot to ask what the heck is a poppadom? I've never heard it before. I mean why is it insulting? Is it like sam*o in that it's based on something or is it like ni**er in that it's just always been a racial slur against a certain group.

btw I have a kind of funny story about how non-mainstream racism is now. I used to work in a video game store in a predominantly white suburb and the night before Halo 2 came out we had a Halo tournament (between close at 9 and midnight to re-open to sell the game). Well one of the kids tried to use the name sam*o and I wouldn't allow it. He asked why and I looked at him and said something about he knew why and this kid honestly didn't know. He chose it because he liked the Rambo movies and his name is Sam. The funny part is he came with his best friend, who happened to be the only black kid in the tournament. And that kid had no idea either. Even his dad had no idea. It's sad that a middle aged Black man couldn't spot a racial slur, but at the same time it's kind of encouraging (like that episode on South Park about the flag). At that point I wasn't sure if I should explain why it wasn't appropriate or not (in case one of the little knuckleheads decided to use it at school and blame that jerk from Game Crazy). I decided to fill them in, first I checked with the parents who were there (we made everyone under 17 have a parent with them since it was an M rated game, still don't know why it gets an M but whatever).

[Guest tubaloopy]

I forgot to ask what the heck is a poppadom? I've never heard it before.

It's a type of Indian food. They are served as starters in Indian restaurants with lime pickle, mango chutney and a couple of other options. Poppadoms are very thin and crispy. I think they are made of flour and then fried in oil.

[Guest goochy1]

I didn't see that particular episode of CBB...But...See shouldn't have said it...And was very stupid.

It should never have been said ( i'm unsure whether channel 4 can do much - other than not show it)

Recently on a programme called Shipwrecked ( also C4) a woman doesn't like anybody it seems.

Shilpa Poppadom was a stupid thing to say though has given C4 much viewing figures.

Jo & Daniell do me remind remind me of Karen & Gretcchen out of Mean Girls - first because they followed Jade but now she's gone their following Shilpa.

Anybody else see this??

[Guest drblow]

Personally I saw the whole thing as being failry indicitive of the culture of stupidity that infects modern britain. Kids grow up in school with a huge pressure to act stupid - if you appear to be intelligent you risk being labelled as a "swot" or "geek". I have seen it thousands of times now, where people will mispronounce words that contain more than 2 syllables, they will misuse words and generally try to come across as being thick, even if you can tell they are not. It's a shameful situation and it allowed to continue by the millions of sun/daily star buying public, who appear to care more about football,fighting and getting so drunk they cannot walk on friday night, than anything else. Make no mistake, it is the british culture that has perpertuated this scenario - if culture here was actually tolerant then people like Jade would never appear in the mdeia in the first place.

As far as I can tell, this country is screwed unless a large majority of people here start to actually take positive action against this kind of stupidity. I don't believe that Jade was actually racist, just totally stupid, and the reason for that is that she is encouraged on a regular basis that her stupidity is somehow "down to earth" or "quirky". I believe that one of the main reaosns for all the fuss about it is that the british media has spent that last few years trying to sell us Jade as a funny, quirky English girl who is a bit "silly" but is still entertaining. The truth came out in CBB, and now everyone is trying to distance themselves from it because the public at large has realised the truth.

I honestly hope that this can be used as a positive force in the fight against stupidity, however I don;t think that people realise that by simply buying a magazine or "news"paper with Jade in it is encouraging the entire scenario. I'm sure it will be a while before we see her in the media again, but the fcat is that if people didn't buy into these things in the first place then we just wouldn't see them happen - the media is only interested in selling us what we want to buy, if we are not interested then neither are they.

Unfortunately I think the situation will result in nothing at all. The media & british culture in general are now determined to distance themselves from the whole Jade thing, without any attempt to actually engage in a discussion about how this can happen, or what role we all must play in making sure that it doesn't happen again. Everybody is just away off now talking about how teribble it all is ... yes it's terrible, now wake up & do something about it.