10 June 2007 10:56

Nirpal Dhaliwal: Emily calling Charley a 'n*****' was a David Brent moonwalk

Even among black people the word 'n*****' isn't a term of affection

Independent On Sunday

 

Who can call whom a "n*****"? It's a question that perplexed Britain last week after Big Brother contestant Emily Parr was evicted for using the word.

 

The middle-class 19-year-old said it while dancing with black housemate Charley Uchea. Charley was swinging her hips, diva-like, when the West Country white girl, in an idiotic attempt at sounding cool, remarked: "You pushing it out, you n*****?"

 

Watching it, I laughed aloud at her moronic cheesiness. It was the equivalent of David Brent moonwalking into work and offering the only black man in the office a high-five. It was as lame and hilarious as that.

 

Emily was the focus of attention last week, while no one commented on Charley's equally retarded reply. "Somebody has already used that word in this house," said Emily when her faux pas was pointed out. "Yeah, me," said Charley. "I'm a n*****."

 

Charley is, in her opinion, a "n*****"; but only other "n******" can call her that. That 20-second episode revealed both the inanity and the complexity of racial politics today.

 

The word "n*****", even among black people, isn't a term of affection. No black people I know use it with their mother, spouse or child.

 

Whenever I've heard it, it's generally been prefixed with an adjective such as "stupid", "dirty" or "worthless". It's a word that belongs to the hard edge of black street culture, which also implies ignorance, coarseness and often criminality.

 

A few years back, the African-American comedian Chris Rock did a brilliant routine outlining the differences between black people and "n******". Black people love reading, he said, but anyone wanting to keep their money safe should hide it in a book. Books, he said, are "kryptonite to n******". Whenever a black person refers to another as a "n*****", they are defining them in base, gutter language.

 

Charley Uchea's declaration - "I'm a n*****" - was just as ill considered and clumsy as Emily's comment and, in some ways, more damaging. Emily revealed herself to be naive, idiotic and pretentious; but Charley's statement reflects the way that many young black people revel in the worst definition of themselves, enjoying the funky status associated with black youth culture while ignoring the connotations of stupidity and crassness that accompany the word.

 

The term has become a fetish in gangsta rap - a narrow strand in black culture that is now a powerful influence on how young black people see themselves.

 

But gangsta rap doesn't reflect the reality of being young and black; its huge success is, in fact, due to how it titillates the fears and fantasies of whites. Gangsta rap is overwhelmingly bought by white kids. Go to any concert by Snoop, Jay-Z or 50 Cent, and you will see a sea of white faces. Mollycoddled in the suburbs, white kids long to live the edgy, anti-social rebellion they associate with these acts. But this definition is sadly one that many black kids now also regard as the authentic blueprint for their identity.

 

The word "n*****" is the trickiest word in our society. It is central to popular culture, yet is the word most likely to cause offence. It's a word I don't know how to handle.

 

In my youth, I used it offensively; later on it became part of my badinage with black friends. Now I might occasionally call a white friend "my n*****" - à la Nathan Barley - to tease him for his white-boy geekiness.

 

Our culture is dominated by subversive irony and identity politics, making it impossible to agree on the acceptable use of the word. It's probably best if we all leave it unsaid.

 

With several allegations from former black contestants in today's News Of The World regarding Channel 4's Big Brother editing out racist comments made towards them. Do you think this should be the end of Big Brother? And do you think it is time that Radio 1 & Music Stations banned all Gangsta Rap records that feature the N word even in the bleeped out form or not?

i wouldnt like it to be the end of bb... i suspect that something similar would be created anyway.

 

if the word 'n/igger' is offensive then it is offensive right across the board, and not selectively. if gangsta rappers use it then of COURSE others will think its ok to use it! its plain common sense.

 

so it should either be totally banned, or not banned when used like emily did, out of crass stupidity. as her intent wasnt one of malice then for me it wasnt a 'sending off' offence.

i wouldnt like it to be the end of bb... i suspect that something similar would be created anyway.

 

if the word 'n/igger' is offensive then it is offensive right across the board, and not selectively. if gangsta rappers use it then of COURSE others will think its ok to use it! its plain common sense.

 

so it should either be totally banned, or not banned when used like emily did, out of crass stupidity. as her intent wasnt one of malice then for me it wasnt a 'sending off' offence.

 

To be honest though, I'm not really sure what her intent was, or if it was at all "innocent"... She has Right-Wing political tendencies, comes from a posh, upper-middle class background so she's incredibly unlikely to have heard it around her immediate environment unless it was in purely derogatory terms and we have to come back to the fact that she is assuming a familiarity with someone she has barely known for a week - incredibly foolish assumptions to make, at best, and at worst, an expression of her Right Wing political views... I think you're being way too generous with her mate.. I dont give a fukk how many Rap records you listen to (and I'm willing to bet I've listened to a LOT more Rap artists than she ever has...), there is just no justification for a middle-class white girl to use the N-word...

 

And seeing as how the brilliant Chris Rock has been mentioned, I post his very well-thought out and succinctly put feelings on just how black people feel about those in their community call themselves "niggaz".....

 

 

 

whatever her intentions scott... the word is either offensive or it isnt. if blacks use it they shouldnt come crying when a stupid white bint uses it.

 

it really is black and white to me.

if blacks use it they shouldnt come crying when a stupid white bint uses it.

 

It's a MINORITY of black people though, dont you get it mate.... For every one black person like 50 Cent who sees it as some "term of endearment" there's probably about a dozen or so more who see it in the same terms Chris Rock does (actually watch the routine he does..) - ie, similar to Chavs, white trash, the lowest of the low in society, it is a demeaning term.... Put simply - the silly ass white girl has NO FUKKIN' RIGHT to use the word, even in a jest, about someone she doesn't even know.... She deserved what she got, ignorance is no excuse....

whatever her intentions scott... the word is either offensive or it isnt. if blacks use it they shouldnt come crying when a stupid white bint uses it.

 

it really is black and white to me.

 

That was/is exactly my opinion viewpoint and that of many other people. To differentiate is a form of discrimination.

 

Which is precisely what happened in South Africa & the Southern States of America until very late in the 20th Century to Afro-Caribbeans.

 

 

That was/is exactly my opinion viewpoint and that of many other people. To differentiate is a form of discrimination.

 

Which is precisely what happened in South Africa & the Southern States of America until very late in the 20th Century to Afro-Caribbeans.

 

What I said to Rob, I say to you as well TiP.....

 

Watch the routine....

What I said to Rob, I say to you as well TiP.....

 

Watch the routine....

 

yeah its a great one

 

also the George Carlin one about 7 rudist words can be read here

 

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40230

 

btw isnt the world news area getting a bit too celeb obsessed? or is putin gonna be the next housemate on cbb??

sorry scott i dont agree... it is either an offensive term or it isnt.

 

if someone calls me a name it matters not who said it, age/sex/colour its offensive, pure and simple.

sorry scott i dont agree... it is either an offensive term or it isnt.

 

if someone calls me a name it matters not who said it, age/sex/colour its offensive, pure and simple.

 

I totally agree. But then again I regard my self as a common sense working class social democrat not a Left-wing Politically Correct person.

 

Besides, a large number of people share mine & Rob's view on this subject.

 

Yesterday, Lenny Henry spoke out against what Big Brother & Channel 4 did as it smacked of tokenism and feels that it could harm rather than improve race relations.

 

Also a number of non-caucasian former housemates (Narinder BB2; Jon BB4; Victor BB5 & Makosi BB6 - she claimed a housemate used the three letter W word towards her as well as the N word; have been in the papers over the weekend, complaining that racist comments have been made before whilst in the house, but they were edited out of the programme.

 

But the best post is:

 

Racist? Emily's only mistake was to act black

by ALISON HAMMOND (This Morning Showbiz reporter & Loose Women presenter & former BB3 contestant)

http://www.itv.com/uploads/images/1158244288354_0.6755320242199764.jpg

Last updated at 12:57pm on 9th June 2007

 

You can call Emily Parr many things. Posh, arrogant, clever, kind, sexy (in an icy, Sharon Stone kind of way), polite, drama queen, diplomatic, thoughtful - an OK Yah Sloane desperate to get some street cred by ingratiating herself with indie culture.

 

Yes, she is all of the above. But even her worst enemy would struggle to call Emily Parr a racist.

 

Yet today the shell-shocked 19-year-old is back at home in Bristol with a capital 'R' effectively branded on her porcelain forehead after Channel 4 turfed her out of the Big Brother house for directing an offensive term at a fellow housemate.

 

Poor Emily. She is the loser in a much more complex game than anything played out on a Channel 4 reality show. It's a game in which the card of racism is now enough to trump any other.

 

In this confusing, multicultural game, you can be a black male rapper talking about women in the most disgusting, gynaecologically-specific terms on the radio. You can even use the offensive n-word, the one Emily used just once, over and over again and no one will dare to breathe a word of criticism.

 

But if you are white, like Emily Parr, and you make the mistake of thinking you enjoy equal status in this game, then boy, are you in trouble.

 

For those who may have missed the 'offence' itself, allow me to recap. It was getting late and Emily was in the garden of the Big Brother house with her black housemate, Charley Uchea.

 

The girls were smoking, laughing and generally bonding as they practised a rap routine. If you were asked for a snapshot of racial harmony in Britain, you could do a lot worse than point to those two beautiful young women from diverse backgrounds helping each other to hit the same note.

 

Emily, it should be said, was one of the few people in the house who had any time for Charley.

 

An unemployed lapdancer, Charley has two speeds: Angry and Nuclear. If you were being tactful, you might say Charley is poorly socialised.

 

She scares the other housemates in the way that volcanic bully, Jade Goody, scared them in the now notorious Celebrity Big Brother.

 

Still, Emily stuck by Charley. She even put her body between Charley and Chanelle, when it looked as if the Afro-Caribbean girl might actually boil over and strike the petite northerner.

 

It was just a few hours later, when the black girl and the white girl were singing outside, that an over-excited Emily exclaimed to her new mate: "You pushing it out, you n*****!"

 

At best, it was a playful joke. At worst, it was a nice middle-class gel's cringemaking attempt to hang with the cool chick in an edgy, urban world.

 

Well-bred white girls slipping off their loafers to take a walk on the wild side is scarcely news. When Samantha Cameron was an art student at Bristol polytechnic, the Tory leader's wife and baronet's daughter was taught to play pool by the rap star Tricky.

 

But if white girls slumming it has a history, so does the explosive n-word that Emily used so publicly and so naively. Coming out of a white mouth, that word still has the power to hurt.

 

Emily's mistake was to think she could act black. And Channel 4 pounced. You could practically hear the producers' cheer. Bingo! They had got their sacrificial lamb.

 

It was no use Emily protesting that, only seconds earlier, Charley herself had used the n-word. Nor that, among black friends at home, Emily is often called 'wigger' - an affectionate reference to her genuine love of black culture.

 

Desperate to exonerate itself after the shaming shambles of Shilpagate, here was Channel 4's chance to prove it was a responsible broadcaster after all.

 

A bleary Emily was summoned to the Diary Room and told she had done something so terrible she was to be spirited away at dead of night in a yellow nightie and no undies.

 

As far as Big Brother's girly housemates are concerned, not being granted full access to your make-up bag before eviction is in breach of their human rights, but these too were cruelly ignored.

 

Guilty of under-reacting to the dumb viciousness of Jade Goody and her coven, Channel 4 now over-reacted. "But I'm a kind person," protested Emily, "I didn't mean it like that."

 

And she really didn't. But she had said the word, and in these politically-correct times that was enough.

 

Emily should have been sent to the communal bathroom to wash her mouth out with soap and water, not hung out to dry.

 

Where does this leave racism? I don't mean Emily's embarrassing attempt at black patois. I mean the nasty, ignorant, unmistakable racism we sometimes witness in the real world.

 

The Commission for Racial Equality doesn't seem to notice the difference. "The n-word is offensive," said spokesman Nick Johnson, responding to Emily's eviction. "This will show everyone that racism must never be tolerated in any way shape or form."

 

Oh really? On the contrary, I'm afraid that Channel 4's cynical and grossly unfair use of Emily as a scapegoat might have exactly the opposite effect. It undermines the very thing it purports to protect. I overheard a black friend and an Asian woman talking about Big Brother yesterday.

 

"It's gone too far," they said. "She was taken out of context. What can you say these days?" What indeed.

 

When Emily Parr entered the house she said it was time to get some intelligent women on television.

 

How sad and how deluded to think that intelligence was any match for the moronic sensationalism that Big Brother so glories in.

 

After expelling her, Channel 4 got the headlines it wanted. It acted ruthlessly to get its good name back and to preserve its cash cow at a time when many were calling for Big Brother to be axed.

 

And what of Emily Parr's name? That is now mentioned on the website Facebook next to "dirty racist". Two words she simply does not deserve.

 

In an irony that will not be lost on BB viewers or students of race relations, the broadminded, articulate, peacemaking Emily has been kicked out of the house to general vilification, leaving the aggressive, rude, potentially violent but blessedly black Charley in the role of victim.

 

If we honestly cannot tell the difference between a word and the intention behind that word then what right has this multicultural society of ours to call itself fair and tolerant?

 

If anyone is the victim of discrimination here, it's Emily Parr.

I totally agree. But then again I regard my self as a common sense working class social democrat not a Left-wing Politically Correct person.

 

Besides, a large number of people share mine & Rob's view on this subject.

 

Yesterday, Lenny Henry spoke out against what Big Brother & Channel 4 did as it smacked of tokenism and feels that it could harm rather than improve race relations.

 

Also a number of non-caucasian former housemates (Narinder BB2; Jon BB4; Victor BB5 & Makosi BB6 - she claimed a housemate used the three letter W word towards her as well as the N word; have been in the papers over the weekend, complaining that racist comments have been made before whilst in the house, but they were edited out of the programme.

 

But the best post is:

 

Racist? Emily's only mistake was to act black

by ALISON HAMMOND (This Morning Showbiz reporter & Loose Women presenter & former BB3 contestant)

http://www.itv.com/uploads/images/1158244288354_0.6755320242199764.jpg

Last updated at 12:57pm on 9th June 2007

 

You can call Emily Parr many things. Posh, arrogant, clever, kind, sexy (in an icy, Sharon Stone kind of way), polite, drama queen, diplomatic, thoughtful - an OK Yah Sloane desperate to get some street cred by ingratiating herself with indie culture.

 

Yes, she is all of the above. But even her worst enemy would struggle to call Emily Parr a racist.

 

Yet today the shell-shocked 19-year-old is back at home in Bristol with a capital 'R' effectively branded on her porcelain forehead after Channel 4 turfed her out of the Big Brother house for directing an offensive term at a fellow housemate.

 

Poor Emily. She is the loser in a much more complex game than anything played out on a Channel 4 reality show. It's a game in which the card of racism is now enough to trump any other.

 

In this confusing, multicultural game, you can be a black male rapper talking about women in the most disgusting, gynaecologically-specific terms on the radio. You can even use the offensive n-word, the one Emily used just once, over and over again and no one will dare to breathe a word of criticism.

 

But if you are white, like Emily Parr, and you make the mistake of thinking you enjoy equal status in this game, then boy, are you in trouble.

 

For those who may have missed the 'offence' itself, allow me to recap. It was getting late and Emily was in the garden of the Big Brother house with her black housemate, Charley Uchea.

 

The girls were smoking, laughing and generally bonding as they practised a rap routine. If you were asked for a snapshot of racial harmony in Britain, you could do a lot worse than point to those two beautiful young women from diverse backgrounds helping each other to hit the same note.

 

Emily, it should be said, was one of the few people in the house who had any time for Charley.

 

An unemployed lapdancer, Charley has two speeds: Angry and Nuclear. If you were being tactful, you might say Charley is poorly socialised.

 

She scares the other housemates in the way that volcanic bully, Jade Goody, scared them in the now notorious Celebrity Big Brother.

 

Still, Emily stuck by Charley. She even put her body between Charley and Chanelle, when it looked as if the Afro-Caribbean girl might actually boil over and strike the petite northerner.

 

It was just a few hours later, when the black girl and the white girl were singing outside, that an over-excited Emily exclaimed to her new mate: "You pushing it out, you n*****!"

 

At best, it was a playful joke. At worst, it was a nice middle-class gel's cringemaking attempt to hang with the cool chick in an edgy, urban world.

 

Well-bred white girls slipping off their loafers to take a walk on the wild side is scarcely news. When Samantha Cameron was an art student at Bristol polytechnic, the Tory leader's wife and baronet's daughter was taught to play pool by the rap star Tricky.

 

But if white girls slumming it has a history, so does the explosive n-word that Emily used so publicly and so naively. Coming out of a white mouth, that word still has the power to hurt.

 

Emily's mistake was to think she could act black. And Channel 4 pounced. You could practically hear the producers' cheer. Bingo! They had got their sacrificial lamb.

 

It was no use Emily protesting that, only seconds earlier, Charley herself had used the n-word. Nor that, among black friends at home, Emily is often called 'wigger' - an affectionate reference to her genuine love of black culture.

 

Desperate to exonerate itself after the shaming shambles of Shilpagate, here was Channel 4's chance to prove it was a responsible broadcaster after all.

 

A bleary Emily was summoned to the Diary Room and told she had done something so terrible she was to be spirited away at dead of night in a yellow nightie and no undies.

 

As far as Big Brother's girly housemates are concerned, not being granted full access to your make-up bag before eviction is in breach of their human rights, but these too were cruelly ignored.

 

Guilty of under-reacting to the dumb viciousness of Jade Goody and her coven, Channel 4 now over-reacted. "But I'm a kind person," protested Emily, "I didn't mean it like that."

 

And she really didn't. But she had said the word, and in these politically-correct times that was enough.

 

Emily should have been sent to the communal bathroom to wash her mouth out with soap and water, not hung out to dry.

 

Where does this leave racism? I don't mean Emily's embarrassing attempt at black patois. I mean the nasty, ignorant, unmistakable racism we sometimes witness in the real world.

 

The Commission for Racial Equality doesn't seem to notice the difference. "The n-word is offensive," said spokesman Nick Johnson, responding to Emily's eviction. "This will show everyone that racism must never be tolerated in any way shape or form."

 

Oh really? On the contrary, I'm afraid that Channel 4's cynical and grossly unfair use of Emily as a scapegoat might have exactly the opposite effect. It undermines the very thing it purports to protect. I overheard a black friend and an Asian woman talking about Big Brother yesterday.

 

"It's gone too far," they said. "She was taken out of context. What can you say these days?" What indeed.

 

When Emily Parr entered the house she said it was time to get some intelligent women on television.

 

How sad and how deluded to think that intelligence was any match for the moronic sensationalism that Big Brother so glories in.

 

After expelling her, Channel 4 got the headlines it wanted. It acted ruthlessly to get its good name back and to preserve its cash cow at a time when many were calling for Big Brother to be axed.

 

And what of Emily Parr's name? That is now mentioned on the website Facebook next to "dirty racist". Two words she simply does not deserve.

 

In an irony that will not be lost on BB viewers or students of race relations, the broadminded, articulate, peacemaking Emily has been kicked out of the house to general vilification, leaving the aggressive, rude, potentially violent but blessedly black Charley in the role of victim.

 

If we honestly cannot tell the difference between a word and the intention behind that word then what right has this multicultural society of ours to call itself fair and tolerant?

 

If anyone is the victim of discrimination here, it's Emily Parr.

 

 

absolutely... spot on.

 

id also add.. if she was racist then surely she wouldnt be hanging around with the black girls! i think she was tring to be another aishleyn (or however it was spelt) but failed, due to the troubles last cbb.

I totally agree. But then again I regard my self as a common sense working class social democrat not a Left-wing Politically Correct person.

 

Besides, a large number of people share mine & Rob's view on this subject.

 

Yesterday, Lenny Henry spoke out against what Big Brother & Channel 4 did as it smacked of tokenism and feels that it could harm rather than improve race relations.

 

Also a number of non-caucasian former housemates (Narinder BB2; Jon BB4; Victor BB5 & Makosi BB6 - she claimed a housemate used the three letter W word towards her as well as the N word; have been in the papers over the weekend, complaining that racist comments have been made before whilst in the house, but they were edited out of the programme.

 

But the best post is:

 

Racist? Emily's only mistake was to act black

by ALISON HAMMOND (This Morning Showbiz reporter & Loose Women presenter & former BB3 contestant)

http://www.itv.com/uploads/images/1158244288354_0.6755320242199764.jpg

Last updated at 12:57pm on 9th June 2007

 

You can call Emily Parr many things. Posh, arrogant, clever, kind, sexy (in an icy, Sharon Stone kind of way), polite, drama queen, diplomatic, thoughtful - an OK Yah Sloane desperate to get some street cred by ingratiating herself with indie culture.

 

Yes, she is all of the above. But even her worst enemy would struggle to call Emily Parr a racist.

 

Yet today the shell-shocked 19-year-old is back at home in Bristol with a capital 'R' effectively branded on her porcelain forehead after Channel 4 turfed her out of the Big Brother house for directing an offensive term at a fellow housemate.

 

Poor Emily. She is the loser in a much more complex game than anything played out on a Channel 4 reality show. It's a game in which the card of racism is now enough to trump any other.

 

In this confusing, multicultural game, you can be a black male rapper talking about women in the most disgusting, gynaecologically-specific terms on the radio. You can even use the offensive n-word, the one Emily used just once, over and over again and no one will dare to breathe a word of criticism.

 

But if you are white, like Emily Parr, and you make the mistake of thinking you enjoy equal status in this game, then boy, are you in trouble.

 

For those who may have missed the 'offence' itself, allow me to recap. It was getting late and Emily was in the garden of the Big Brother house with her black housemate, Charley Uchea.

 

The girls were smoking, laughing and generally bonding as they practised a rap routine. If you were asked for a snapshot of racial harmony in Britain, you could do a lot worse than point to those two beautiful young women from diverse backgrounds helping each other to hit the same note.

 

Emily, it should be said, was one of the few people in the house who had any time for Charley.

 

An unemployed lapdancer, Charley has two speeds: Angry and Nuclear. If you were being tactful, you might say Charley is poorly socialised.

 

She scares the other housemates in the way that volcanic bully, Jade Goody, scared them in the now notorious Celebrity Big Brother.

 

Still, Emily stuck by Charley. She even put her body between Charley and Chanelle, when it looked as if the Afro-Caribbean girl might actually boil over and strike the petite northerner.

 

It was just a few hours later, when the black girl and the white girl were singing outside, that an over-excited Emily exclaimed to her new mate: "You pushing it out, you n*****!"

 

At best, it was a playful joke. At worst, it was a nice middle-class gel's cringemaking attempt to hang with the cool chick in an edgy, urban world.

 

Well-bred white girls slipping off their loafers to take a walk on the wild side is scarcely news. When Samantha Cameron was an art student at Bristol polytechnic, the Tory leader's wife and baronet's daughter was taught to play pool by the rap star Tricky.

 

But if white girls slumming it has a history, so does the explosive n-word that Emily used so publicly and so naively. Coming out of a white mouth, that word still has the power to hurt.

 

Emily's mistake was to think she could act black. And Channel 4 pounced. You could practically hear the producers' cheer. Bingo! They had got their sacrificial lamb.

 

It was no use Emily protesting that, only seconds earlier, Charley herself had used the n-word. Nor that, among black friends at home, Emily is often called 'wigger' - an affectionate reference to her genuine love of black culture.

 

Desperate to exonerate itself after the shaming shambles of Shilpagate, here was Channel 4's chance to prove it was a responsible broadcaster after all.

 

A bleary Emily was summoned to the Diary Room and told she had done something so terrible she was to be spirited away at dead of night in a yellow nightie and no undies.

 

As far as Big Brother's girly housemates are concerned, not being granted full access to your make-up bag before eviction is in breach of their human rights, but these too were cruelly ignored.

 

Guilty of under-reacting to the dumb viciousness of Jade Goody and her coven, Channel 4 now over-reacted. "But I'm a kind person," protested Emily, "I didn't mean it like that."

 

And she really didn't. But she had said the word, and in these politically-correct times that was enough.

 

Emily should have been sent to the communal bathroom to wash her mouth out with soap and water, not hung out to dry.

 

Where does this leave racism? I don't mean Emily's embarrassing attempt at black patois. I mean the nasty, ignorant, unmistakable racism we sometimes witness in the real world.

 

The Commission for Racial Equality doesn't seem to notice the difference. "The n-word is offensive," said spokesman Nick Johnson, responding to Emily's eviction. "This will show everyone that racism must never be tolerated in any way shape or form."

 

Oh really? On the contrary, I'm afraid that Channel 4's cynical and grossly unfair use of Emily as a scapegoat might have exactly the opposite effect. It undermines the very thing it purports to protect. I overheard a black friend and an Asian woman talking about Big Brother yesterday.

 

"It's gone too far," they said. "She was taken out of context. What can you say these days?" What indeed.

 

When Emily Parr entered the house she said it was time to get some intelligent women on television.

 

How sad and how deluded to think that intelligence was any match for the moronic sensationalism that Big Brother so glories in.

 

After expelling her, Channel 4 got the headlines it wanted. It acted ruthlessly to get its good name back and to preserve its cash cow at a time when many were calling for Big Brother to be axed.

 

And what of Emily Parr's name? That is now mentioned on the website Facebook next to "dirty racist". Two words she simply does not deserve.

 

In an irony that will not be lost on BB viewers or students of race relations, the broadminded, articulate, peacemaking Emily has been kicked out of the house to general vilification, leaving the aggressive, rude, potentially violent but blessedly black Charley in the role of victim.

 

If we honestly cannot tell the difference between a word and the intention behind that word then what right has this multicultural society of ours to call itself fair and tolerant?

 

If anyone is the victim of discrimination here, it's Emily Parr.

 

I agree, she tried to "act black", stupid mistake to make.... Like I've said before, white people pretending they can be black is probably the most cringeworthy, pathetic thing imaginable... Because they NEVER get it right, because they are ignorant, look to Sacha Cohen's brilliant creation Ali G - a spot on approximation of silly suburban white sods trying to "act black".... They make idiotic faux pas' like this one.. White people taking a genuine interest in Black Culture however, is a different matter.... Like I said in a previous thread, the likes of Joe Strummer, Terry Hall, the artists on Two Tone records and others all had an actual understanding of black culture, reggae, ska and did a bit of groundwork... Never heard the N-word slip out of Strummer or Hall's mouth in some pathetic attempt at "bonding" did ya.....? Or even other tokenistic "70s Blaxploitation flick" terms..... BECAUSE THESE GUYS KNEW BETTER.... The likes of Tim Westwood and Eminem represent a wholly ignorant cultural de-evolving of white interest in black culture where inspirational artists like Bob Marley, Ice-T and Chuck D have been replaced by ignorant scum like 50 Cent, Buju Banton and Snoop Dogg (whose criminally awful excuses for "rap" records I would, in my heart, dearly love to see struck off every single radio station playlist in the country, but my head is anti-censorship...), and their white or multi-ethnic counterparts like Joe Strummer, PiL, Anthrax, The Specials and Rage Against The Machine have been replaced by sexist, homophobic morons like Eminem... And now we have the result of this de-evolution in the shape of Emily Parr...... No, I don't suppose it is fair to just blame her, the media and record companies should really shoulder the brunt of the responsibility, and yes, Endemol are very clearly and cynically using her as an example, BUT, she actually did the crime...

 

And just for the record, I'm Left Wing, yeah, but not particularly PC.... I deffo see myself more as having "anarchist" tendencies.... I just know what is and isn't right.... And white folks calling black/asian folks n*****rs is WRONG in whatever context.....

 

I agree, she tried to "act black", stupid mistake to make.... Like I've said before, white people pretending they can be black is probably the most cringeworthy, pathetic thing imaginable... Because they NEVER get it right, because they are ignorant, look to Sacha Cohen's brilliant creation Ali G - a spot on approximation of silly suburban white sods trying to "act black"....

 

and Ali G also was a cool concept as you didnt know if he was also one of these Asian dudes who think they are 2pac. much better than his orig character's name of MC Jocelyn Cheadle-Hume

 

 

The likes of Tim Westwood and Eminem represent a wholly ignorant cultural de-evolving of white interest in black culture where inspirational artists like Bob Marley, Ice-T and Chuck D have been replaced by ignorant scum like 50 Cent, Buju Banton and Snoop Dogg (whose criminally awful excuses for "rap" records I would, in my heart, dearly love to see struck off every single radio station playlist in the country, but my head is anti-censorship...),

 

Maybe if they had listened to him live on tmf last night they might have realized that far from being a cool rap dude he is a shoveler of evil jazz funk bollocks!!!!

 

not very cool in fact :lol:

.... And white folks calling black/asian folks n*****rs is WRONG in whatever context.....

 

no scott... ANYONE calling another person a 'n' is wrong! its either offensive or it isnt.

no scott... ANYONE calling another person a 'n' is wrong! its either offensive or it isnt.

 

I take it you didn't actually watch the clip then, Chris Rock is very careful to draw a differentiation and is using the word in the same way we'd say "Chav" or "Ned"... It's not only very funny, but it makes a serious point in how many people in the African American community feel about people who use the term "n****" to describe themselves... Chris Rock is saying that "niggas" are ignorant, lazy, prone to criminality and tend to go around sireing lots of kids and expect society to pay for them... Sound familiar...? Sounds like a Chav to me....

I take it you didn't actually watch the clip then, Chris Rock is very careful to draw a differentiation and is using the word in the same way we'd say "Chav" or "Ned"... It's not only very funny, but it makes a serious point in how many people in the African American community feel about people who use the term "n****" to describe themselves... Chris Rock is saying that "niggas" are ignorant, lazy, prone to criminality and tend to go around sireing lots of kids and expect society to pay for them... Sound familiar...? Sounds like a Chav to me....

 

:lol:

 

well one thing can be said about the N-word, whether its the negative 'Niggers' or the so-called positive 'Niggaz' there is no transatlantic differences like the F-word (for example the phrase '$h!t the smoking ban has come into force, just nipping out for a fag" which might be seen differently on the set of Grey's :lol: ).

 

think the critic who sugested the N-word ubiqity is due to the packaging of 'edgy' gangsta rap to white chav and chavettes might have some point there dude.

I was thinking about the 'N' word the other night. It's not a word I would ever dream of using these days but I remember in my childhood in the late 60s/early 70s using it a lot. As did all my friends, my parents, my teachers. There was even a rhyme 'Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe, catch a ****** by the toe.....'. It didn't mean anything to me other than a 'coloured person'. Guess we were all very naiive (and insular) in those days. Between rhymes, golliwogs on Jam jars and black dolls with caucasian features the PC police of today would have needed smelling salts!

 

It's amazing how perceptions and sensibilities change over the decades. Words which at one time no-one batted an eyelid at are now totally taboo.

 

 

You're right but think of it in the broader time period. Those words were ok and probably unoffensive in the 1960's but the civil rights movement was still in the beginning stages and racism was far more prevalent. The racial equality movement is much further along today and one of the reasons is that people have come to terms with the history of the N word and society thus no longer deems it acceptable because of that.

well one thing can be said about the N-word, whether its the negative 'Niggers' or the so-called positive 'Niggaz' there is no transatlantic differences like the F-word (for example the phrase '$h!t the smoking ban has come into force, just nipping out for a fag" which might be seen differently on the set of Grey's :lol: ).

 

Right, I can't comment on the N word but I can sort of speak from personal experience with "f*****." I admit, it has become almost an affectionate word among many gay communities. It's as though the word is used so offensively for so long against us that we defiantly take it back as our own. Now there are many gays and lesbians who find this reprehensible and think the word is awful no matter who says it.

 

Think of, say, the film Bring it On. A straight female character asks a gay male character "Do you speak fag?" and he responds enthusiastically "fluently!" Yet she says it with affection. If she'd said "Are you a fag?" it would have changed the situation entirely. Almost as though the word is acceptable idiomatically and if said by someone tolerant, but used in other ways it isn't.

 

Anyway all this goes to prove that these words really aren't black/white. Maybe they should be but intolerance and racism and homophobia are all very complicated and involve a lot of subtleties. Perhaps this is why.

PS: Not to bring up another film (wrong forum!) but this is also why I so hated (and people on this board know it :D) "Crash." People generally don't go around saying "N*****!" to each other. To present racism this way is deeply incorrect. Racism is so deep, so complicated. Some people say thinks that aren't racist but appear to be to some, or think they aren't racist but are. If the problem were people running around calling each other slurs, if everyone who used the N word was 100% racist, then it would be easy to eradicate and to punish. But that's simply not true.

Edited June 11, 200718 yr by Consie