Shalini Sinhaexamines the motives behind the personal attack of Shilpa Shetty by Jade Goody in the Big Brother House
Celebrity Big Brother has taken over. Not just in its usual way with its numerous spin-off programmes, its 24-hour viewing opportunities and its domination of the tabloids. No, this time it has leaped from entertainment (in the broadest sense) to current affairs.
It's headline television news, reaching every radio talk show and is all over the print media. The main issue: Is there or is there not racist discrimination?
As an Indian, born and raised in the West, I want to share my thoughts with you. As I will be touching on issues of identity, inequalities and racism, I must first say this: over the past three years I have written a regular column for this newspaper. I have written on issues that touch humanity - our relationships and potential, as well as our deepest struggles and how to move through them.
As readers, you have regularly written telling how you have been supported, encouraged and inspired. This has been greatly appreciated.
In all this time, I have written only three articles where I mentioned issues of culture, ethnicity and difference (two by editorial suggestion and one of my own enthusiasm). Sadly, each time I received hate mail, sometimes by post, sometimes by e-mail, sometimes anonymous, sometimes signed, always painful.
So, let me start by saying this article is about what I know about racism from my work and experience. If you are one to send me hate mail afterwards, save your mental health and look away now. I do not want to receive it.
If you still feel compelled, write straight to the health editor. Whatever he deems appropriate for me, he will pass down.
An interesting way to start a discussion about racism, don't you think? Yet, a fair reflection of the current situation, and a good structure to have in place in the face of destructive behaviour and something to which inmates of the Big Brother House do not have access.
Celebrity Big Brother has become a big story, not because reality TV is that interesting, but because there has been an unprecedented response by means of complaints. And so it has become a socio-political issue. Notably, if not surprisingly, the key question being asked is this: Are the attacks on Shilpa Shetty (Bollywood star) led by Jade Goody (reality TV star) racism or bullying?
As a society, we are very confused about racism. It has hurt us deeply, each one of us. And we have gotten confused, so much so that we are no longer sure what it looks like, how it operates, and if we are seeing it at all.
The first thing you need to know about racism is that it can (and most often does) operate at a very subtle level.
It is not necessary that every comment or gesture is racist, not every racialised person need be targeted by it, it needn't happen all the time. But it does happen and it is extremely hurtful.
Most importantly, a situation need not be racially motivated for there to be racism in it.
I do not think Goody targeted Shetty solely because of her cultural background. The issue arose from jealousy, which hooked on to class, and racism was used as a weapon in the attack. I think many of us can see this. We must not let it be excusable.
Because of our own wholescale confusion about racism, not only do we struggle to identify its subtle operation, but we deny it.
In so doing, we force the person attacked by it to explain and justify themselves in the face of terrible mistreatment.
Sound like the experience of abuse? It should, as the two are related. Similarly, the average person who experiences racism becomes silent and internalises it.
Notice how this affects your mental health. Your voice is not heard, your experience is denied, and you are slowly invalidated.
This is possibly Shetty's first experience of it, and so she is not behaving in this way (a fact that makes me proud), but this is what happens to the rest of us who grow up with the daily fight for our survival against it.
Do we have a collective will to end racism? While we might wish to, we deny ourselves the skills. In our confusion, rather than supporting the voices that enlighten us about it, we get stuck in asking "does it exist?" and defensively argue about who is and isn't racist. But this isn't a personal problem, it is a social one.
It is not necessary that Shetty define for us the racism in the situation, for us to acknowledge what has been the undertones of this bullying.
Shetty is a star, who has achieved successes that Goody herself would like to achieve. If Nicole Kidman had entered the house - beautiful, extremely successful and well poised - the same jealousy would have arisen but what we witnessed would not have occurred.
What racism does is make people unrelenting in their attack, and feel justified in it. It is irrelevant for Goody to assure us that no racism was intended, if this is the flavour of her bullying. At the end of the day, when a bully can use racism, they will.