Too much has already been written on Shilpa Shetty and her "traumatic" experience in Channel 4's reality show 'Big Brother'.Wait... don't get me wrong, I'm gonna do exactly the same now.
As always, my ultra-sensitive fellow countrymen reacted "strongly" and our over enthusiastic media stoked their emotions. No one bothered to actually verify whether Jade Goody (without two shoes actually) did utter the words or were they just media speculation. Barkha Dutt wrote in her article 'Pride and prejudice' in HT (Jan 20) that Jade (who'se father is of African origin) called Shilpa a 'cunt' instead of 'Paki' as the media reported. Another participant slyly asked ''I don't know how Indians eat with their fingers.. I mean who knows where the fingers have been''. Shilpa was also told go back to her 'slum'. Ironically,she was called a 'dog' by one of the bitches too. So hearing all this hurt out pride, awoke our dormant nationalism and brought out generalised and hypocritical remarks against Britishers.
Why do I say hypocritical? Because..
1. To us, Indians of the northeastern states or people of east Asia are 'cheeni-meeni' or 'chinki'
2. We call Africans or people of African origin 'Kaalu'
3. We consume tonnes and tonnes of fairness creams every year to get ourselves or our daughters to be pretty (meaning 'fair-skinned') as we feel anyone with a dark or dusky skin tone is inferior and less pretty.
4. Most of the marriage proposals in our newspapers include: 'Wanted,a fair..bride"
5. A foreigner coming from Europe ,the Americas or Australia is referred to as 'gora' or 'firrang'
Isn't all this racist? If we are so proud of our colour then why do we prefer 'white' grooms? That's pretty racist isn't it? Lets get our own house in order because accusing Britain and its people of being racially discriminating shall we?
Now that Shilpa has in fact denied being racially abused by saying that she didn't feel Jade's abuses were racist leaves us (media+aam junta) embarrassed doesn't it? Now whether Shilpa really didn't take Jade's comments as racist or whether she denied it because she was discreetly reminded by the Big Brother management about her fat fee (3.5 crores) and the losses the channel may face, your guess is as good as mine.
7 comments:
I concur. Racism is everywhere, and really no one should be pointing fingers at others. And even when we point a finger at others, we fail to remember that four fingers are pointed back at us, an indication to our guilt.
Exactly! The kind of people we are, the media only has to blow up the story a teeny bit and every second Tinu (Tom),Dinku (Dick)and Hiru (Harry) from every nook and corner of Bharat starts with his ridiculous rants against the 'Goras'
A similar opinion has been expressed by some guest columnist in today's (22nd Jan) TOI, editorial page
Ya dude, all of us, knowingly or unknowingly indulge in hypocrisy at times....
Hello! Phani...that was very well written. The fact that Ms. Shetty went to the show was to get some big bucks and publicity for herself internationally. I cannot fathom if she is popular in the international(read "phirang")arena. So she is getting her share of publicity(with the money as well) and our news hounds are getting some "headlines" as well!
Spot on Phani. I'd like to add that - along with racism, racialism is also quite rampant in our country.
"In the 1960s, the Indian Workers' Association in the UK said there was a difference between racialism - the prejudice of those who do not know any better - and racism - the deliberate political use of racial hatred. " - Source Wikipedia. The instance that you quoted as cheeni-meeni; all south-indians being branded as madrasis - and coincidentally all of them eat only idli, dhosa!, gujjus are money-minded, and the list goes on are glaring examples of racialism. I think this stems from an exaggerated sense of pride in one's ancestral roots and identity, and abject apathy and ignorance towards other communities, sects.
hmmm...u r absolutely right,phani...n for a change,adi,i agree with u too ;-))
v very conveniently forget tht our so calld oneness/unity in diversity lies only on-paper[remember the school English composition days?:-)]...thts abt it...as u pointed out so very correctly,v r ultra-sensitive but only long enough to react when smbody points a finger at us coz v jus cant resist from reacting immediately n in an over-the-top manner thx to the media tht loves adding fuel to fire rather thn help douse it...
Damn! I was gonna write a post on this subject. Only my post was going to also include sex, music, cultural assimilation and more. But you beat me to it, and very well at that! Enjoyed reading this. Will do justice to your efforts and read all of what you've written. Cheers!
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