what did Jade call Shilpa?

[jonnoman]

what racial names did Jade call Shilpa?

DON'T ANSWER IF THEY ARE REALLY RACIST THOUGH!!!

[Backdrifter]

It's the standard stock response when someone thinks race has unnecessarily been cited - "There they go again, playing the race card." To be filed alongside "It's political correctness gone mad!" Not to mention "liberals", "wet liberals", "bleeding-heart liberals", "do-gooders" etc etc etc.

I think the general concensus is correct - Goody's comments were not borne from racism as such, just ignorance and inarticulacy. Also as has been said - there's no getting away from it, people of different classes and levels of education put each other's backs up, and I don't think I'm speaking out of turn to say this is especially true when it comes from the likes of Goody and her family. I understand this Shilpa is an articulate, well-spoken, well-educated person - that is often a red rag to someone like Goody. I've witnessed this too many times for myself, and been on the receiving end of it too - a kind of automatic resentment, you immediately have to justify or prove yourself or be taken down a few pegs to show you're no better than they just because you've got a degree or whatever. I'm sure many people WITH degrees DO think they're better and deserve a bit of a grounding, though.

It's the same sort of reason for the 'rosbif' and 'cockney git' remarks - it's a safety valve for those people, an easy way of categorising you, the stranger/outsider, without having to think about it. Ultimately, it's just plain lazy (see also "boffin" and "luvvie").

Anyway, from what I can see this is almost certainly the root of it and Goody has gone into this knee-jerk reaction mode which, coupled with her inability to articulate any better than these pathetic, stupid playground-style "popadom" comments, has created this silly brouhaha. And I disagree Pippa - it won't run and run, despite our best efforts here on AB. Soon it will be shoved to one side by some other lame, minor bit of nonsense. That's the way things go, it's the bird flu syndrome. <

[Pippa68]

I totally agree with your post, Backdrifter.

What I meant by 'run & run' was that it will follow Jade around like a bad smell for quite a while..obviously not infinite, but enough to make sure she loses a shed load of earnings for the foreseeable future.

Mind you, any publicity is good publicity in the celeb world..yes? it didn't do Kate Moss much harm did it? mind you, it seems drug taking is far more acceptable than bullying!

[galltin]

Personally I didn't think the poppadum remark was racist or indeed meant to be.
I did however think the remark " you should visit your fans in the slums" was.
The bullying , as others have said was outrageous.

[luckyeight]

I think the predjudicial references that Jade used are clearly racist - they were derogatory remarks designed to associate Shilpa with her country and race alone.. , and also carried on the implication of 'whatever her name is' just like Jackiey's refusal to pronounce her name and slighting reference to Shilpa as 'The Indian'.

[luckyeight]

Just as an afterthought - does it really matter what Jade's motive's were when she used the language she did? Even if it was Jade's resentment of Shilpa for things that had nothing to do with race, Jade resorted to making offensive, racist comments, which is how they deserve to be judged. Surely Jade's ignorance is no excuse?

[jonnoman]

shilpa th indian isnt bad! she is Shilpa, the indian.

thats like sayin 'oh look, its Kevin, the British man'

thats not bad

[Backdrifter]

jonnoman, with respect I think you're missing something - on paper it's easy to just say all they're doing is making a statement of fact but that doesn't take into account the context. To refer to someone as "The Indian" may not be particularly bad and certainly isn't racist but there is an aggressive sort of ignorance to it. It's partly her apparent refusal to just say her name supposedly on the grounds she "couldn't pronounce it" (oh, come on!) and partly a refusal to acknowledge someone she thinks of as an 'other' or outsider - a tactic often adopted by those who are unable to accept someone from outside their sphere of experience. In this case, it's probably more to do with her being an educated well-spoken person than being Indian. No it's not really bad but it isn't good either.