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Editorial: Celebrity Big Brother dialogues – the global pantomime of race

Ash Sharma — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:54:43 +0000

The banality of the UK Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) reality television show prepared no one for the global media spectacle of the fracas between the b-list Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and the d(?)-list British super-ignoramus Jade Goody.^[1] To debate whether…

Big Brother, Beyond Britain

Joanne Lim — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:44:14 +0000

..only now do we recognize how little at home we are within ourselves^[1]

A rather small column in an insignificant section of a local Malaysian newspaper alerted me to the Big Bully saga involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, which…

Celebrity Big Brother 07: For Better or Worse?

Sarita Malik — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:40:04 +0000

On a recent trip to India I had to sit down frequently, reeling from the shock that the name “Jade Goody” was mentioned by on average three people a day. The absurdity of this preoccupation with a runner-up from 2002’s…

Racism for anti-racism

Ben Pitcher — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:21:35 +0000

…people are fascinated, terrified and fascinated by this indifference of the Nothing-to-see, of the Nothing-to-say…

Such was the reckoning of Big Brother propounded in a late lecture by the freshly dead Jean Baudrillard. His words are familiar, his argument quite…

When Shilpa met Jade: Celebrity Big Brother and Racist Enjoyment – schematic notes

Ash Sharma — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:20:59 +0000

A guide to the Schema:

This is a diagrammatic mapping of the racial logic of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB). Reworking Lacan’s schema from Seminar XX Encore it outlines the relationship of the three registers that structure human subjectivity:

Imaginary…

Another ‘race row’ in multiracist Britain?

Dhiraj Murthy — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:16:33 +0000

“Racism does exist. Just because when you walk down the street, you don’t get spat on in the street, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” – DJ Kayper, BBC Asian Network ^[1]

Despite New Labour’s efforts at papering over…

Damn Correctness, Let’s Talk Politics Please!

Angshukanta Chakraborty — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:15:44 +0000

Interrogating the Britain that made and unmade Jade Goody.

When I looked up Wikipedia to ‘research’ Jade Goody [oxymoronic as it might sound] I was partly stunned by her stated ‘occupation’ on the webpage: Reality TV Contestant! Having come to…

Does Shilpa Shetty’s victory indicate the triumph of anti-racism?

Parm Kaur — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:14:24 +0000

I was first made aware of Jade Goody’s racist remarks by friends – white friends – keen to get my point of view. Momentarily, all other aspects of my identity – as a poet, writer, artist and educationalist – were…

Bollywood Brother – the days in which Britain was out-Britished?

Safi Rowland — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:13:20 +0000

Reality TV is now a well-established point of interest for cultural and social theorists, consternation for ‘traditionalists’ over the loss of ‘higher forms’ of entertainment, and gossip for the audiences. Its role for projecting the real issues of the day…

Racist overtones and class undertones in UK Celebrity Big Brother

Jimmy Kinyera — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:10:27 +0000

Big brother is essentially an annual ‘reality’ television programme broadcast on Channel 4; it’s renowned for its diverse concoction of personalities and pious tabloid coverage. However this year’s Big Brother was not extolled for its intercontinental assortment of contestants, but…