Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 January 2007 11:16:41
**Warning - still ill so watching daytime tv and going off on a rant**
Big Brother's Little Brother is the programme which seeks to analyse goings on in the Big Brother House and is normally as mundane as the rest of the whole Big Brother thing. However, in the mist of the whole racism row which is emerging over the current Celebrity show in the UK it managed to ask the most sensible and overlooked question. Dermot asked "Is what's going on racism or cultural ignorance and if it is cultural ignorance is that racism?"
I would argue that with the whole Big Brother thing there are members of the house who are culturally ignorant and so being unintentionally racist, but there is also atleast one member who is being overtly racist and trying to hide behind the persona of ignorance she has cultivated so well since the first time she was in the house. The production company and Channel Four should both be ashamed of themselves for the way they have exploited this in order to raise viewing figures.
Staggering down from the moral high horse for a moment, it's also an interesting one because the concept of cultural ignorance is one of the biggest issues, I believe, effecting our country at the moment - not just to do with ethnicity, but also to do with religion and class.
I don't know how greater understanding is achieved, although I'm guessing media have a massive role to play because it is their 30 second soundbite which is increasing global ignorance and stereotyping. For example perhaps if was a little more cultural understanding people would understand that Christianity and Islam are both vibrant faiths which are expressed in a range of ways and not just for old people or fundies and that "hoodies" are worn by a variety of people and actually young people going out in a hoodies is very sensible when they refuse to wear coats - it keeps them warm & so I could go on, but I won't.