To this post.
The whole Celebrity Big Brother fracas has resulted in loads of editorials being written about the racism, discrimination et al. Most of these op-eds, from what I've read, have chosen to berate the Indian government and society for an over the top reaction. Many have drawn parallels between the intrinsic caste-ist behaviour of Indian society and racism of the kind that was drawn attention to by Jane Goody's conduct. The implication has been that as a society, India is ill-equipped to cast stones, given its own propensity for discrimination based on caste. I think that this is rather missing the point.
What these people seem to be arguing is that somehow Jane Goody's crimes (such as they were) are mitigated because India is so deeply racist. While the episode is as good a time as any to draw attention to our own shortcomings, I don't understand what the purpose of contrasting the ills of our society to the wondrous (or not, depending on the editorial) qualities of Britain's are. We have a lot of work to do, yes, but the point of this whole episode is to showcase that so do others. It is ultimately irrelevant that India is racist; this story is about Britain's racism, about Britain's prejudices. Lets not cloud the issue, or give it a pass, simply because we as a society also have many many things to repair.
The whole Celebrity Big Brother fracas has resulted in loads of editorials being written about the racism, discrimination et al. Most of these op-eds, from what I've read, have chosen to berate the Indian government and society for an over the top reaction. Many have drawn parallels between the intrinsic caste-ist behaviour of Indian society and racism of the kind that was drawn attention to by Jane Goody's conduct. The implication has been that as a society, India is ill-equipped to cast stones, given its own propensity for discrimination based on caste. I think that this is rather missing the point.
What these people seem to be arguing is that somehow Jane Goody's crimes (such as they were) are mitigated because India is so deeply racist. While the episode is as good a time as any to draw attention to our own shortcomings, I don't understand what the purpose of contrasting the ills of our society to the wondrous (or not, depending on the editorial) qualities of Britain's are. We have a lot of work to do, yes, but the point of this whole episode is to showcase that so do others. It is ultimately irrelevant that India is racist; this story is about Britain's racism, about Britain's prejudices. Lets not cloud the issue, or give it a pass, simply because we as a society also have many many things to repair.
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