Friday, June 08, 2007

Emily's out, but it's not black and white

Boy, the knives are out for Emily Parr, the loose-lipped BB blonde who blurted out a word Mark Twain couldn’t have completed a novel without.

The Sun have managed to drag up a former student pal who gleefully recalled how she used to make racist remarks at college and the Mirror doorstepped an uncle long enough to confirm he was “sickened, disgraced, shocked and appalled” before even got to the second par.

I admit I was one of the first to condemn the baying mob that victimised Shilpa Shetty earlier this year but had that furore been avoided would we really have had to endure the ritual public execution of a 19-year-old dragged out of bed, bleary-eyed and still in a nightdress?

OK, it was great television. And she didn’t do herself any favours by admitting she uses the word “at home”, something bound to get family and friends running for cover.

But, come on, whatever she has or hasn’t done in the past, what she did yesterday was no more than an attempt at rappin’ with her mates?

And wasn’t the real architect of her demise, fellow housemates Charley (a better Little Britain character than anything Matt Lucas could devise) and the scheming Shabnam, who stoked a spat into a full-blown incident.

As a result, the eviction vote was cancelled and Shabnam was spared the indignity of being voted out.

With not one but two Jews in the house (health worker Carole Vincent may not have come out like former model Zach Lichman, but she is) I can’t wait for the first anti-semite to reveal themselves.

Then we'll have a real reality show.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said Richard. Emily didn't offend Charley and nothing was shown that would breach the Broadcast Code, so it's clear Channel 4 removed her for the sake of their own PR, rather than to take a stand against racism.

Richard Burton said...

What's more. I didn't even hear it, it was so quick. The girls that did reacted correctly at first; hopefully to wake her up a bit. But what followed was an orchestrated "awareness" campaign by both girls to keep the issue alive and force Channel Four's hand.

You could say it spun out of control.

Anonymous said...

BB was right to kick her out. it was only when she was told that she was getting evicted that she admitted to herself and out loud that her language was offensive. it was only then that she apologised and said sorry.

it was obvious that the Charley and Nikki thought her comments were offensive and inappropriate. For example, we hear their reactions: "I can't believe you said that" and "I'm shocked".

Until she was told she was getting evicted, Emily tried to ignore the issue saying things like "don't talk about it" and "leave it" or spent her time being defensive.

she didn't stop to think until she had to leave. and she gave herself 10 out of 10 for intelligence!

hopefully she and others have learned from this to be more considerate, thoughtful and careful in their use of language. anything else is just rude.

Anonymous said...

It looks like your anti-Semite still hasn't revealed them self. No surprise there really.

What would your view be if Emily had made a quip comment about Jews? Still OK or would you feel compelled to trumpet it as an example of the 'rise of Antisemitism in Europe'?

Islamaphobia is considered to be perfectly acceptable in the British press and would be far more likely to occur in the BB house if there were any Muslims allowed in there. Then it would be a real reality show.