Of Bigots, Bigotry and all things not nice!

Finally we all have a breather! The whole brouhaha on the jade goody/Shilpa Shetty drama has finally subsided and now we can talk about other things…or can we?

First of all a background on the incident I mention as above. In the U.K at the moment, celebrity big brother is on, a dire pedestrian nonsense of a T.V show which does nothing for me. Anyway, it follows the same format but instead attempts to fill the house with has-been’s (usually 80’s pop stars and 70’s TV stars). Perhaps in a bid to up the ante, the producers this year decided to insert a bit of “current” in the form of bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. In all honesty, as a self confessed Bollywood addict (Fav’s are kareena Kapoor and Preity Zinta and of course Rithik Rhoshan), I had never heard of Shetty before…but they say she is a star. Anyway, to cut the long story short, apparently intimidated by Shetty’s confident beauty and all; Goody and her posse (a silly WAG {wife and girlfriends-term for partners of British soccer stars} and an ex pop singer) turn on her which unfortunately backfires and is called racist and we all know the story from there!

Just as the world’s so-called leading news channels stopped ranting on about the whole episode, another happened …but this time with a different face. Isaiah Washington, star of world famous Grey’s Anatomy apparently called his co-star a faggot! And he was not talking about British cigarettes. Despite the offence, there was no brouhaha, hardly as much noise and definitely no leading news bulletins on BBC news24. Hmmmm

So what is Bigotry anyway? What is discrimination? Why is some form of discrimination acceptable and others not? Whilst I do not label myself a gay sympathizer, I do admit that I am a guardian totting liberal who believes in the right to be what you want to be and I am frankly disgusted that nothing is being said about this whole Isaiah Washington incident…is it not just as bad? If the said co-star had turned around and called him a nigger as the argument goes, would he not have been hounded off the airwaves al a jade goody? Perhaps the West is finally collapsing under its own weight of political correctness.

On the Other hand, is Washington just another target here? Is he another black man who is about to be made fall guy? What about the shetty, Goody incident? Was shetty not trully annoying, swanning around the house all hoity toity with a superior attitude? Why was it that in the whole racism palavar was intepreted in the format of Goody the attacker/ Shetty the victim? No doubt about it, this would be a feast for scholars of identity and subjectivity.

During my recent trip home, it suddenly became how evident and intolerant even the people we love are. Tribalism, racism, sexism, homophobia and a host of other isms! I was shocked at how freely my folks made such awful remarks as “thank god those Igbo people have gone home, at least we will rest for Christmas”. Whilst I do not assume the identity of a saint in these matters, I try to fight my prejudices everyday. I think it’s about time we all did!