The Shilpa Shetty race row: literature summary


Author: Doctor Terence Rajivan Edward (or 0161__Rajivan, if that helps)
Draft version: version 11 (27 June Cardo added, 26 June, Riggs and Due added; 25 June Thomas added; 24 June Palasinski et al added, 22 June George and Mendick added, Fazal edit; 21 June 2026, Fazal added, v5 Franks added, v 4 Mitra added) More will be added later. See here for latest version: https://website2.net/shilpa_shetty.txt
Note: the Shilpa Shetty Celebrity Big Brother race relations scandal is probably the most famous UK race relations scandal, unless one counts the Salman Rushdie Fatwah as a case, which would dwarf it in importance. Some summaries may feature quotations from the authors without quotation marks (my apologies).


Shehina Fazal. Early on, registers that racist comments were directed at Shilpa Shetty on the show: "Shilpa Poppadom" (by Jade Goody), "a dog" and "fuck off home" (Danielle Lloyd); and she was mocked for her accent and cooking. Carphone Warehouse withdrew its sponsorship of the series in response to the show one night, saying that it was at odds with the brand's values. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown was on tour in India and denied Britain was racist and told Guardian newspaper that we are moving on from the stage of being famous for being famous. Channel 4 began broadcasting in 1982 and was pioneering in providing multicultural programming. There was a change after 1990, following the Broadcasting Act and take over by Channel 4 Television Corporation. "From catering for the 'minority interests', which included arts and cultural programmes, the channel geared itself towards competing with other channels through  imported programmes, like Friends, ER, Frasier and more recently Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives from the US." In 1998, it committed itself to 3 hours multicultural programming per week, with some at peak time, but 73% of this was after midnight. A table comparing television channels and viewings, from 1997 to 2006 sort-of, shows that its strategies have been successful, says Fazal. [The table shows consistently around 10% of viewing share, with a faint decline from 10.6% to 9.8%.] A 2002 study by Hill concluded that reality TV, has been successful across cultures, especially with "the sixteen- to thirty-four-year-old,  educated, upwardly mobile viewer." And the company that produced the Big Brother show, Endemol is multinational and prides itself on delivering ratings. Peter Bazgalette, Endemol chairman, suggested the controversy was business-as-usual: the show comes with controversy. Andy Duncan, Channel 4's Chief Executive, said to The Observer "Channel 4 has done more than any other broadcaster to help push forward issues around race and multi-culturalism... Our ambition is to portray a wide range of views and help build a more tolerant society...  where people have  a better understanding of others with different views to their own." Fazal [not entirely transparently] criticizes this as part of the 1990s and beyond strategy of desperately seeking the audience: a move from innovation to tried and tested formats that generate publicity by controversy. Ofcom received almost 45000 complaints. Its adjudication said Channel 4 had "made serious editorial misjudgements, compounded by a lack of compliance process, making it in breach of the Broadcasting Code." Channel 4 was forced to broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings on 3 occasions. Andrew Taussig said this was "a light touch regulation which is a sensible mix of desistance and intervention." Fazal presents some responses to Big Brother as a show. Couldy (2002) says that Celebrity Big Brother was perceived to be not so successful, because the normal Big Brother show is about ordinary people and celebrities are not, making the show's aim unclear. Ash Sharma (2007) says the world was not ready for the row between Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody. Germain Greer, a former Celebrity Big Brother contestant, said that the row has more to do with class than race. [Assuming it is not scripted, default position is surely racism is a big part of this, but if you show Goody and company are poor and can only have enough money if they say these things, because of a racist funder….] Fazal says that the media quickly took an anti-racist stand and also framed the dispute in terms of class, but she thinks racism continues to play a key role in politics of Britain. Fazal then presents some commentators' views on multiculturalism. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (2000) distinguished 3 kinds:  minimalist where there is minimum intervention and proposes the  wait and see approach; celebratory multiculturalism is where the focus in on style and corporate' multiculturalisms that just scratch the surface on the understanding of  diversity in society; tribal where the essentialism prevails where differences are not inclusive." Fazal's view is that "people from other parts of the world were allowed to stay in the country  and continue their cultural, religious and linguistic practices provided that they did not impinge upon mainstream society." Segregation is the consequence. She also says, "Comments and behaviour of Goody, O'Meara  and Lloyd directed towards Shetty reflect the experiences of everyday lives of many Asians living in UK." [From my experience after age 18 - 1998: if you enter into various spaces, you will be "kicked" back out, but not necessarily by means of such open racism.] A 2004 survey conducted by You Gov for the Commission for Racial Equality found that 54% of white respondents had only white friends. Fazal summarizes Malik and the Indian reception of events. There is a large divide between urban Indians, who feel the row more strongly, and rural ones. Refers to an obscenity scandal there because Shetty was kissed by Richard Gere. Fazal then turns back to UK. Concludes by rejecting entirely class-focused analysis.
Reference. Fazal, Shehina. 2007 (December). Channel 4 and Celebrity Big Brother 2007: Multiculturalist or Segregationist? Information, Society and Justice 1 (1): 33-42. Available at:
https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/39/1/Channel%204.pdf


Suzanne Franks, a former BBC current affairs producer, tells us that Ofcom received the largest number of complaints about a single programme, concerning the racism on Celebrity Big Brother, where "Bollywood princess Shilpa Shetty was the victim of the charmless Jade Goody and her associates": 19000 registered their concern to Ofcom and a further 3000 directly to Channel 4. But this reaction was not as strong as in India where effigies of Big Brother producers were burned. "In Patna, the capital of the state of Bihar, there were angry street demonstrations against the programme, even though Channel 4 is not broadcast in India and it was therefore unlikely that many of the protestors had seen the offending incidents." Franks asks, "How was it that thousands of miles away, where the programme was not even in the schedules, the reaction to it was more vehement than in the UK?" She does not start with the obvious answer that Shilpa Shetty's Indian compatriots - her fellow countrymen - are even more concerned about the bullying she received than British citizens are. [An answer never mentioned. That's sure to irritate or anger various types of reader, but has anyone burnt Franks' effigy?] Instead Franks says, "profound sensitivity to their portrayals in the British media is part of a long-standing Indian tradition.  The habit was formed long before the availability of instant communication and shared global exchanges. BBC written archives include a wide range of confidential documents that reveal how much India and Indians have always cared about their media image abroad and particularly in the UK. They have been quick to react and protest..." Franks details some peculiar complaints, going by her account. "In 1981 Newsnight ran several short 'news' films and linked them together in the studio to make a longer item. The Indians complained furiously that this had 'broken the concordat' because it amounted to more than news. Once again nothing escaped their attention, even though no one in India could actually watch the programme." In 1984, Tony Isaacs wanted to make a documentary in India about the birth of nationhood and to his irritation had to submit a thesis. (He describes the sought-after thesis as pompous and pseudo-intellectual!) After 10000 pounds had been spent on development, the Indians refused permission. He made a film in Argentina and Chile instead, commenting that he was able to film in a country with which Britain was at war more easily than friendly India. Also Dr Jagjit Chauhan, a former Finance Minister and Deputy Speaker in the Punjab State Parliament and Sikh community leader, who lives in London criticized Prime Minister Indira Ghandi. This led to large, often violent, demonstrations outside the BBC office in Delhi and at the British High Commission: 22 demonstrations, each involving 1000s, the June 27 one involving 6000. Mark Tully's home was attacked several times. [Tully was a BBC chief in New Delhi.] Franks tells us "There were strong suspicions within the BBC that the demonstrations were not spontaneous but deliberately orchestrated by the Congress Party; rent-a-crowds were brought in by truck and television cameras just happened to be on hand to film the result." Franks repeatedly emphasizes that people protesting could not have observed the footage, unlike in the age of the Internet. [Is the post-crash-economic society, so active in UK, a rent-a-crowd too?] Franks gives an interesting analysis of how the Internet is affecting journalism. There used to be a double-standard between domestic and foreign correspondence, because foreigners were unlikely to ever read what journalists said about them. Even libel lawyers were less worried about foreign content. [Libel lawyers: what are they?!] The double-standard is vanishing. Journalists, Franks reports Gowing saying, can now even be in danger because of how they report the activities of guerrilla warfare leaders. But this recent effect is less so for BBC Worldservice radio, which has always been listened to carefully by many overseas, ensuring care over content.
Reference. Franks, Suzanne. 2007. India's angst - it's access all areas. British Journalism Review 18 (2): 59-64.


Elizabeth Finnis. In Anthropology News September 2007, Elizabeth Finnis writes of how Shilpa Shetty, subject to racism on Celebrity Big Brother, won the show with 63% of the public vote.  Some said that their faith in the open-mindedness of British citizens had been restored. Some claimed incidents on the show forced Britain to confront its racism. Finnis found herself contemplating a question by someone who wrote a letter to the Indian newspaper The Hindu: "What might happen if the same politicians who contributed to the public outcry vis-à-vis Shetty's treatment took up the cause of internal inequalities? What if the demands that Shetty's dignity be preserved had been extended to demands that the dignity of marginalized Indian citizens also be preserved?" Finnis reports that a political party widely perceived as Hindu Nationalist, which disregards the interests of Muslim citizens, was courting Shetty as a candidate: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [Note: I don't have the whole article.]


Su Holmes. Holmes provides some details of the scandal. It involved Jade Goody (a dental nurse turned celebrity), her mother, Danielle Lloyd (a model), and Jo O'Meara (an ex-pop star).  Jade's mother refused to say Shetty's first name properly ('Shupa, Sherpa, or whatever your name is'). Asked the star if she lived in a shack. "In other instances, and drawing on racial codings of physical appearance and food, Danielle made fun of Shilpa for bleaching her facial hair and asked her if she 'wanted to be white' [regarding this at least, who wouldn't?], whilst Jo made a comment about Indian people being skinny because 'they do not cook food properly'. After a heated row over Shilpa's (apparently 'incorrect') cooking of a chicken dinner, Danielle insisted that she didn't 'want Shilpa touching ... [her] food', whilst rounding off her assertion with the suggestion that the star should 'fuck off home'." Goody refers to her as Shilpa Pappadom and Shilpa Fuckawala. Holmes presents quite a lot of detail on Jade Goody. Goody was a dental nurse and rose to fame through reality TV. We are told, "Jade became emblematic of what Biressi and Nunn coin the 'socially mobile media-ocracy'  (2005, p. 146): a group of celebrities who 'make it big', but who have little connection with traditional structures of influence, such as inheritance, education and training." She is famous not just for being famous, but for being made famous: manufactured fame. She is also famous for her ignorance, including that there is a part of England called East Angular - Holmes is a researcher at the University of East Anglia. Goody, asked whether she strategically deploys ignorance, declares: don't know what that means. Holmes raises the question of whether with reality TV and the stars it gives rise to, there is little public-private divide, writing of a new paradigm even.  Holmes concedes Goody has something, which Goody herself describes as charisma. There is an ancillary show called Celebrity Big Brother's Big Brain, which analyses goings-on. Big Brother psychologist Lynda Papadopolous describes how the format 'made [Jade]..., like Frankenstein, and then it chewed her up and spat her out' (quoted in You Can't Fire Me... I'm Famous, BBC1 31 July, 2007). The show relies on a taxonomy similar to Chris Rojek's taxonomy of fame: 'Achieved' fame (based on merit and 'talent'), 'Ascribed' fame (born into) and ' Attributed' fame (someone simply made visible by the media).  Jade says that she is the most famous person there - what have the others done? Jermaine Jackson is only here because of his brother and Shrimpa might as well be from the moon. We are told: Jermaine Jackson asserted in a conversation with Shilpa that Jade, Jackiey and co. were behaving badly because they were still essentially 'poor white trash'. After the show, Jade falls from hero to zero: dropped by anti-bullying charity, burned by Indians. The article goes on to discuss Jade Goody's peculiar language: "I'm not racial", etc. They mock Shetty's English. The article criticizes People newspaper for comparing the money Jade made with the money Indian workers make, saying this erases colonial past. Goody's weight is discussed. Fat, then she is described as a pig earlier as Miss Piggy. Thin, then is it by liposuction? 40 - more on the self, Jade is unable to separate public self from inner self. Registers Goody's "If I can make it, anyone can" quality and how her ugly side proved a problem. Conclusion: Reality TV is movement away from great talent to the ordinary. But does it represent subversion of hierarchy? NOTE: YouTube is described as a DIY TV site. Names referred to: Ellis, Baumann Rachel Dubrofsky, Richard Dyer, Biressi, Nunn, Beverley Skeggs, Joshua Gamson, Tom Mole, Daniel Boorstin, Giddens, Riddell, Chris Rojek. [Question: Jade Goody regards various others as not meriting fame. What about Shilpa Shetty?]
Reference. Holmes, Su. 2009. 'Jade's Back, and This Time she's Famous': Narratives of Celebrity in the Celebrity Big Brother 'Race Row'. Entertainment and Sports Law 7(1). Available at:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/eslj/issues/volume7/number1/holmes/


Sean Redmond. Argues that food was a central part of the conflicts Shilpa Shetty was involved, when in Big Brother. Introductory material says of Jade, Jo, and Danielle: two of them are merely there to be eye candy for Western viewers. Also: contrasts Shilpa Shetty's glamour and education with these three. [Sounds like a caricature of a response than an academic article here.] Section titled: we are what we don't eat. Quotes Mary Douglas (food consumption is also about avoiding pollution) and Jean-Paul Sartre: taste is destructive assimilation. In Western society, food is often gendered. Fish and eggs are considered feminine, red meat masculine. Some Victorian women avoided red meat, associating it with excessive sexual activity. Appeals to Claude Levi-Strauss (accent removed, computer won't show it). We think in terms of nature and culture. South Asians, by eating with their hands, appear to Westerners closer to nature and uncultivated. A Sarah Ahmed is referenced and a Jones, who says that the fat black woman is evidence of overcoming poverty. Susan Willis says race has been aestheticized, as a style one can consume [enjoy], rather than biological difference. Section titled: Television Food. Divides up food programmes into different types. Health food programmes - about shaping the perfect body. Celebration and ritual food programmes - celebrate communal eating, often public (Jamie Oliver). Home food television - is set in the domestic sphere and targets the nuclear family, with efficient cooking. Food and travel programmes - the chef goes on a metaphorical journey, sometimes literal too. Kylie Kwong's return to China and Antonio Carluccio's southern Italian feast. The exotic gives the Westerner intense experience but also symbolic power over the Other! Food competition programmes - amateurs or professionals compete. [Either all amateurs or all professionals, I presume, unlike Manchester comedy, which is blurry.] Refers to food trials in reality TV shows too: I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - can you eat this food that disgusts many in order to survive? Section titled: Shilpa's Filthy Hands. Celebrity Big Brother's daiy routine features two key activities: cooking and dining. House stars gossip, joke, argue, and form alliances. Celebrities who do not work hard enough at some task set are resented. Shilpa Shetty is here presented as upper class, privately educated, and a film star, not a celebrity. [Normally we think a film star is a celebrity. She doesn't seem an ideal representation of myself with these qualities!] Redmond interestingly asserts that Shilpa Shetty became food. She is described by Jade Goody as "Shilpa Poppadom", "Shilpa Fuckawallah", "Shilpa Daroopa", and "Shilpa Papadum". She is described as dog by Danielle Lloyd. Jade Goody finds her fake and a liar, in an 80 minute row. We are told that it is a white privilege to temporarily take on another colour, whereas the Other who does this meets with tragedy. Goody declares that Shilpa is a princess must become common in the house. And that she is so far stuck up her own arse that she can smell her own shit and it smells of shit, not roses. Jo O'Meara declares that the thinness of Indian women is because of undercooked food. Refers to Nandana Bose's view that the nation's anxieties about racism, xenophobia, and ethnic identity were displaced onto Jade Goody. Jackie Stacey is referred to as well: the lack of spirituality in the West affects the perception of the East.
Reference. Redmond, Sean. 2009. Shilpa's Filthy Hands. Entertainment and Sports Law 7(1). Available at:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/eslj/issues/volume7/number1/redmond/redmond.pdf


Lieve Gies. The UK government introduced the Human Rights Act in 1998. The main goal was to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. But it was not just courts and legal remedies the government was concerned with; beyond that a change in UK culture: a human rights culture that would permeate public life. ("Bring rights home," we are later told.) Incompatibilities between human rights and minority cultures have been subject to much attention; less attention to conflicts between human rights and dominant culture. The mainstream British media are not entirely in favour. Human rights discourse is depicted as used by a self-serving liberal elite, ignoring the interests of a silent majority. The Shilpa Shetty scandal is contextualized as happening in the dying days of Tony Blair's reign as prime minister. Describes it as a show in which Jade Goody was accused of racially taunting Shetty. Politicians seized on it to promote a racially tolerant society; the voting to remove racist participants is described by Gies as self-congratulatory. [Why? Prefer a pro-racist vote?] We should approach this with caution, as there was unadulterated outpouring of class prejudice. *HRA and Mainstream* A few years ago The Disability Rights Commission found 70% could not name any of their human rights. [Right not to be detained in hospital for this long!] Human rights were caricatured in the press after a car thief was given Kentucky Fried Chicken (a fast food company) meal, during a rooftop siege. [What a large difference from my own experiences.] Human rights specialist Franscesca Klug says the tabloids made up stories and depicted human rights as specifically for FTPS: foreigners, terrorists, and pedophiles. [All three boxes must be ticked?] Recent survey said 43% believe human rights are being taken advantage of by asylum seekers. But it is not the principle of human rights that is being attacked by the press, rather taking unfair advantage of them. The list given includes lawyers trying to inflate their wages! Press draw attention to how the law failed to redress deserving victims, e.g. Joyce and Sibyl Burden, octogenarian sisters who challenged UK inheritance laws in Strasbourg court. They wrote letters to successive Prime Ministers from Harold Wilson to Tony Blair and had to self-fund their case. The essence of right-leaning press thinking is that rights are to be earned or deserved, rather than simply had in virtue of being human. [This interpretation conflicts with Gies's earlier claim that the press's problem is with taking unfair advantage of the principle.] In legal-academic circles too, there is doubt over whether human rights are or ought to be universal. Dembour argues that it makes no sense to say that human rights exist independently of social recognition [Jeremy Bentham?] and, referring to the French declaration of 1789, Douzinas argues that human rights have always been more narrow and exclusive than universalist rhetoric implies. *Human rights, Ethics, and Reality Television* The Human Rights Act was introduced a few months after the reality show Big Brother began. Humiliation and compromises of dignity are a big part of reality TV shows: pressurizing them into eating insects [discomfort for many, more than humiliation or indignity?], plying them with alcohol to produce transgressive behaviour, enticing them to have free cosmetic surgery [neither], questioning their persona hygiene. The public can vote contestants living in a house out and so have some moral responsibility over how contestants behave. Refers to a French ban on dwarf-throwing competitions! Hill says ethics is at the heart of reality TV. Gies says reality TV allows for jargon-free discussion of ethics. Endemol, the Dutch company behind Big Brother, also produced a Dutch show in which contestant in need compete for kidneys, causing outrage. Reality TV arose in the same cultural moment as New Labour politicians mixed with (rubbed shoulders with) artists, performers, sports figures. Its stars get media scrutiny which previously only public office holders did. [Really?] It is a cliche that one can become a reality TV star with no discernable talents. Jade Goody has lasted well-beyond Andy Warhol's predicted 15 minutes. But how democratic is it? Hardly any enjoy enduring fame. *Race and Rights in CBB* Stars give their own story of what really happened afterwards. Coverage and regurgitations gave people who did not watch the show a basis for expressing opinions. The footage on Youtube made the material available to global audiences. No doubt Shilpa Shetty was bullied by Jade Goody and the other two females in her gang - not named. Called 'Shilpa Poppadom' and 'Shilpa Fuckawallah', criticized for food hygiene standards and poor command of English. How is this different from the humiliation that usually occurs in reality TV? [Good question, I suppose. Not really answered.] There is an implication that gender abuse is more acceptable than racism, because Goody's boyfriend apparently did not call Shetty a Paki, rather he used the C-word instead. [Often when the word "Paki" is used, there an implication of having less value merely because of one's race - that's my starting point, anyway. Use of the C-word to describe person, slang for vagina literally, does not usually imply this, I think. For example, a speaker may describe one male as this and another using a slur for the penis, conveying different character vices thereby, without ranking one set worse.] When Goody was voted out, politicians presented this as a victory for multicultural Britain. [Seen some defeats then!] Trevor Phillips, chair of the recently established Commission for Equality and Human Rights, told The Guardian he was thrilled by her eviction. Goody's qualities make it easy for the middle class to "dismiss her racism as that of a crude, ill-educated, white working-class woman". Of course, they do it in a genteel way. [Who, more precisely, is being referred to? Probably not genteel in my experience.] Shetty tried to be an ambassador for India, becoming the perfect victim. She is the nontheatening postcolonial subject princess! Goody became a public enemy. Media commentators "outbid" each other to express indignation, but Goody has rights too. She was social waste that multicultural Britain wanted to cleanse itself of. [Like you perhaps...]
Reference. Gies, Lieve. 2009. Celebrity Big Brother, Human Rights and Popular Culture. Entertainment and Sports Law 7(1). Available at:
https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/article/780/galley/4049/view/


Dania Thomas. "Consumption is unequivocally a central factor in the production of celebrity and CBBlike any other reality show was in a format that successfully made celebrities mass-consumed products." [Don't various reality shows start with people who are not yet celebrities?] "In his piece for the Financial Times at the time, Gautam Malkani (Malkani, 2007)... notes that broadcasting codes in the UK "stipulate that the airing of offensive material must be justified by 'context'..." Thus he argues "that regulators and the viewing public ...face a key question: does the context justify the discomfort? For viewers who tune into Big Brother for light entertainment, the –evident answer is no." But he goes on to stress that CBB was "reality television living up to its true potential: representing realities that might otherwise go unnoticed." Malkani stresses consumer discomfort as a key regulatory concern not racial harm." The paper asks why was the ensuing debate focused on viewer discomfort rather than racial harm. [Wasn't a lot of the debate about racial harm?] Notes that the victim herself, Shetty, disavows/denies racism. Does this justify taking it as bullying but not racism: the line taken by Channel 4, the producers, the sponsors "to justify their refusal to withdraw the programme". [I thought Carphone Warehouse withdrew. Article later registers this, saying Virgin Mobile replaced them.] Poses several questions relating to what role we should place on Shetty's withdrawal, for at least 5 paragraphs! We are told "The transcripts of the "offensive" conversations are banal almost boring, in any event not anything that Shetty could not deal with on her own. (Greer, 2007)." [I am surprised by such open racism on television, e.g. "F** off home" and "Shilpa Poppadom", and puzzle over why the utterers are not concerned about appearing this way. This article feels a parody so far!] In the week following the broadcast, 300000 complained to Ofcom; article refers to complaints about jibes concerning being Indian and using skin-whitening cream. Article observes the racism rows were good for business, leading to increased viewing figures. Shetty is quoted as denying it was racism in the fully-fledged sense of the word. She was, we are told, feted by ministers and even Prime Minister Tony Blair, and awarded Britain's Global Diversity award. Ofcom received 45000 complaints (Guardian quoted as saying 44500) but this regulator ruled that what happened was bullying, not racism. Ofcom singled out three occasions in which Channel 4 failed to meet its broadcasting duties: "One was where Jade Goody referred to Shetty as "Shilpa Poppadum", the second was Lloyd telling Shetty in foul language that she should go home. The third centred on an argument over Shetty cooking a chicken – Lloyd and O"Meara were both seen making offensive comments about Indian cooking." In addition to having to broadcast the regulator's findings, Channel 4 also lost sponsorship revenue for when it had to air these. Thomas notes the regulator does not seem to have taken into account the discomfort of viewers, as Malkani flags they should, because the viewers complained of racism but the regulator denies this. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, is quoted: "What I had hoped was that the Channel Board would at least acknowledge that what we witnessed was racial bullying." A puzzling situation is flagged: the broadcaster is valued for generating debate about racism, but also it is denied there was racism. Article repeatedly emphasizes the influence of a market-oriented framework of evaluation, which takes into account choices of consumers and money being made. After quoting Luke Johnson, chairman of Channel 4, and Lord Puttnam, we are told: "the extent of the Channel"s responsibility is entirely defined by its ability to increase viewing figures." [Does this mean "The more viewing figures increase, the less responsible"? - of course people might watch from concern about what is becoming of the country.] Article seems to associate disavowal of racism with a commonsense approach [but why?]. A main message: "The issue of race was thus strategically introduced to increase viewing figures and then disavowed to justify continued recourse to public funding." We are presented with one legal opinion (Nicolle 2007): " the Channel and the producers Endemol could be vicariously liable for breaching the provisions of the Race Relations Act, 1986". What we find is a form of "consumption politics": in which consumption patterns defines the nature of their politics. We are introduced to the term "Racism Lite". [It's blatant and heavy handed, if not all acting. Well, not compared to kicking and punching Polish workers, referred to later!] Material about essentialism: "central to the functioning of both race legislation and immigration policy, the cases referred to in Riddell"s piece require an assumption to be made that identity is a fixed, incontestable, unchanging circumstance." Quotes Anwar on "measures designed to stem mainly the tide of black and Asian immigration to Britain as a prerequisite to the maintenance of social order." Essentialism is contrasted with a conception of racial identity as strategically asserted. Conclusion says, "there were considerable and pressing political and economic reasons for disavowing racism in the CBB House, for instance. the loss of business from the Indian film industry, the damage to the British tradition of 'toleration and fairness' the loss of public funding for the Channel and the additional exposure to legal claims under race legislation. Further, like any other victim of racism, Shetty would have to pursue her legal remedies on her own. These overriding reasons motivate the strategic disavowal of racism by Shetty..." 
Reference. Thomas, Dania. 2009 Race and the refusal to name racism: consumption, identity and choice in the Celebrity Big Brother House. Entertainment and Sports Law 7(1). Available at: https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/article/783/galley/4055/view/


Damien W Riggs and Clemence Due. "From very early on in the almost four-week long series, it was apparent that considerable animosity existed from one group of housemates toward one individual within the house. consisted of five British celebrities: previous Big Brother contestant Jade Goody, her partner Jack Tweedy, her mother Jackie, and two other young British women: Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd. The individual towards whom much negativity was directed was 
Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty." [So it was genuine?] When the perpetrators left, they were informed the situation was of diplomatic significance, by host Davina McCall. "What was at stake, then, was not simply the identities of the individual celebrities, but rather the identity of Britain as a tolerant society." We are introduced to a distinction between modern racism and traditional racism, which is violent. A philosophical issue: "racism is typically located at the level of the individual (who can thus be accused of racism), but it is far less often located at the level of the nation or collective (which is seldom accused of racism)." Focus on the exit interviews, after being voted out by the public, interviews which are described as exceptional, with McCall concerned about holding individuals to account.  Extracts are given in which McCall says "If this were a normal eviction interview…" representing them as aberrations. "This explicit construction of the interviews by McCall as 'not normal' (i.e. because they will be primarily discussing racism and bullying in the house) positions racism as being outside the range of normal behaviours typically seen in Big Brother. Such a construction of racism as 'abnormal behaviour' for the show is reflective of the ubiquitous construction of racism as abnormal in society more broadly." Authors analyse Jade Goody eviction interview and say, "McCall accepts Goody's denial of racism and justifications of her actions and instead reframes the debate in terms of bullying." And "even when racism is 'right before us' (i.e. in the montages shown to the interviewees), it is still almost impossible for McCall to label the actions of the housemates as racism." In an interview extract, McCall refers to the "sort of racism issue", using by the authors as evidence not being able to call it what it is. [It seems blatantly racist.] "It is also worth noting in this extract that McCall avoids personally accusing Goody of racism by instead locating the accusations as coming from 'the press and abroad and India' and, later, 'anybody that's watching'. This attribution of racism to third  parties is in accordance with previous research on media interview techniques, which has found that journalists routinely attempt to 'place some degree of distance between themselves and their more overtly opinionated remarks' (Clayman and Heritage, 2002: 152)." [Is there a desire for a standard according to which racism requires violence, not mere name calling, like "Shilpa Poppadom"?] Quotes McCall: "Goody must be 'one of the only people … around the planet that has got no idea of the impact Celebrity Big Brother has had …' " Concludes that McCall is complicit in racism.
Reference. Damien W Riggs and Clemence Due. 2010. The management of accusations of racism in Celebrity Big Brother. Discourse & Society 21(3) 257–271.



Rosalyn George and Heather Mendick. They say, "Reality TV is both a pervasive and important cultural form, and as such it is vital that researchers and teachers engage with it." [Suggest importance or pervasiveness alone is not enough.] They quote Andrejevic: "there isn't any one definition that would both capture  all the existing genres and exclude other forms of programming such as the nightly news or daytime game shows."Interestingly they note: "Even the use of real people and of unscripted television are both routinely violated by Reality TV and routinely adopted by other programmes." They draw attention to hybrid shows, such as " Crimes That Shook the World, the sporting competition Grudge Match, and the cookery/travel show Jamie Does…" Despite being the most viewed genre, Reality TV is counted as trivial low culture. "Pile (2001) surveyed viewers and found that they placed documentaries at the top as their favourite genre to watch and Reality TV at the bottom." It is associated with working class women. "The association of Reality TV with the unsophisticated viewer, discussed above, is justified partly by the argument that it dupes its audiences through editing so that the authenticity of what is being screened is dubious." But, with Big Brother, there is live streaming. (But even live streaming is edited: shot revere shot for dialogue and montages for tasks.) Observes: "Big Brother emphasises and celebrates those who are known simply for being known," rather than skill in sport, acting, music, etc. " There are widespread concerns that young people increasingly prefer achievement through fame rather than hard work or talent - "Our society is in danger of being Barbie Dolled," said culture minister Barbara Follett. Article says, "Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty were differently positioned within these classed and gendered discourses of an opposition between talented and talentless celebrities." "Jade was a Big Brother created celebrity with a growing reputation for being a shrewd business woman. Shilpa was a successful Indian film star, lauded for her many Bollywood roles." [See Mitra below for a qualified view of Shetty.]  "They had a number of high profile rows in the house that were nearly always over food, whether it was the compilation of the shopping list, or the daily processes of who cooks and eats what, when and how… When Shilpa asked if they had used any stock cubes they said that they had used three for their cooking the previous day." [Seems somewhat misleading to say calling her "Shilpa Poppadom" is about food, even if true. Also Danielle's "F*** Off Home," reported by authors.]  Says "the media coverage was marked by an obsessive focus on the question: Is it racism, or just bullying, or just misunderstandings?" [What do they suggest they focus on? Psychiatrists: legitimate obsession.] "In particular, racism is  constructed as something that (some of) the White working-class does but not the White middle-class. In contrast, research into 'White flight' demonstrates how middle￾class White parents remove their children from urban schools (Ball,Maguire and Macrae, 2000)." The mainstream media coverage obscures class and gender issues, such as Shilpa depicted as a beautiful lady in contrast to "three slags," [promiscuous women] and the overlooking of Goody's boyfriend Jack Tweed's limerick. Article goes on to describe how Jade Goody is depicted as talentless and through animal imagery, as a pig. [Does she have a talent for bullying? E.g. coming up with a mocking name others will use?] "After Celebrity Big Brother Jade visited India and then went onto Bigg Boss (Big Brother India) hosted by Shilpa Shetty. It was on this show that she received the news that she had cervical cancer." Journalist and broadcaster Michael Parkinson says the media first recommended we all hate Jady Goody as "a slapper [promiscuous woman] with a face like a pig". He attributes her rise to the workings of the media, denying Goody's own agency in achieving this. 
Reference. Heather Mendick and Rosalyn P. George. 2010. Language, Power and Reality TV: the dynamics of race, class and gender in the UK Big Brother Jade-Shilpa row. Online Educational Research Journal, [Article]: Goldsmiths Research Online. Available at: ttp://eprints.gold.ac.uk/4109/


Marak Palasinski, Damien Riggs & Anna Zebialowicz. They refer to these incidents: "Specific incidents of bullying towards Shetty (who was later crowned the winner of the show) included [Danielle] Lloyd calling her a 'dog' and questioning her English, [Jo] O'Meara telling Shetty that she should 'go home', [Jade] Goody refer￾ring to her by the 'racist neologisms' (Zacharias and Arthurs, 2007, p. 451) of 'Shilpa Poppadom', 'Shilpa Fuckwallah' and 'Shilpa Daroopa', and Budden referring to Shetty as 'the Indian' (allegedly because she could not pronounce her name)." Indian ministers questioned Chancellor Gordon Brown about racism in UK. "Goody was most vilified by UK media after her eviction from the house, yet her subsequent diagnosis with, and ultimate death from, cancer, led to her being given what was in effect a public pardon. While we do not treat her death with mockery here, we note that this pardon flew very much in the face of the seriousness of her bullying towards Shetty". Celebrity Big Brother returned after a 1 year hiatus, with racism attributed to individuals rather than the culture or nation and reduced in significance by reference to lack of intention: those accused declared no intention to be racist. Authors brief list articles or types of article in the literature on the incident so far: entire issues of Dark Matter and Entertainment and Sports Law Journal, other articles, mostly focused on Goody, including denials  (Wright, 2008; Riggs and Due, 2010), constructions of celebrity and racism (Rahman 2008), and wider social implications (Riggs 2009). Other articles refer to Goody-Shetty as exemplar, "including articles on the problems with reality television (Sparks 2007), the effects of global communication (Chakravartty and Zhao, 2008), accounts of prejudice (Buchanan 2007), and xenophobia (de Souza, 2007), examinations of racism and the law (Phillips and Bowling, 2007),  and analyses of celebrity culture on television (Bennett and Holmes, 2010)." Authors register Turner's criticism that celebrity research to date has focused primarily upon the discursive effects of celebrity and the role that celebrity plays in reaffirming intelligible identities to the viewing audience" but continue the focus, with their article specifically about Shetty's responses. No claim that we can know her inward thoughts. An interview between Shetty and Kay Burley was transcribed according to Jefferson's conventions. Extract 1: they quote Burley asking Shetty what expectations she had and her reply: she didn't have any, she didn't go as a Bollywood star, rather a responsible Indian. She speaks of a huge responsibility to shoulder, which the authors read like so: "she suggests none the less that their actions did impact upon her and potentially impaired her ability to be responsible for representing the values of her country." [I would not find this suggestion. Autism?] Extract 2 [amusing dialogue with Burley]: Shetty says she and Jermaine Jackson were amused; it was weird; not burping and flatulating at certain points, or not gloating about it, was seemingly regarded as uncool.  Authors say, "Shetty appears as a reasonable and measured person, which inoculates against the potential charge of any unfair exaggeration on her part." [Is it characteristic of certain adult racists that they create situations that you feel belong to long ago in school, before high school even?]  Extract 3: Shetty starts with the position that Jade is not racist, rather juvenile; Burley says that when Shetty left the house, she said that Jade did not mean to be racist, leaving room for the possibility Jade still was;  Shetty says that she would not hold a grudge against someone who did not contrive to be racist and Jade did not. Authors register Shetty's sigh as an indicator of a sensitive character unable to maintain expressive control. They appreciate distinction between contriving to be racist and being racist without meaning to be. [The standards for open and intentional racism seem to be being slackened considerably: Goody;s calling her Shilpa Poppadom and Fuckwallah does not seem a subtle and unintended variety.] Extract 4: Burley asks whether Jade Goody's advice was racist: 'you need a day in the slums. Go in your community and go to all those people who look up to you and be real, will you"; Shetty chuckles, says Jade never thought before she spoke, and says that at the time she thought racist, but has since retracted that view, which she says angered a lot of Asians, especially in India, because they believe Big Brother told her to.  Authors says: "The chuckle not only trivialises Burley's question, but also Goody's controversial remark, with the seriousness of the latter impugned and endowed with the meaning of an unplanned bad-taste joke stemming from ignorance rather than spite. This response accrues to Shetty an image of respectability, which in turn both denies to Goody an air of responsibility and also implicitly constructs her as culturally inferior, which is a point noted in previous analyses of this series" [Um, is the chuckle because she would be treated almost like a goddess, like in the Sindya Bhanoo story - no indication of this being a trivial question, but perhaps amusement at Goody's confident expectations of what the Indian slum reactions will be? Various people of different classes in UK might have this confidence.] Extract 5: Shetty says that the word "racism" does not exist in her dictionary and should not exist in the world; Burley says that it does; Shetty says that is the best thing to come out of the show; Burley asks for clarification. The authors analyse this.
References. Marek Palasinski, Damien Riggs & Anna Zebialowicz (2011) 'You don't do it in public': racism, respectability and responsibility in Celebrity Big Brother. Celebrity Studies 2 (2): 164-177
Sindya Bhanoo. 2022. Amma in Seeking Fortune Elsewhere. Catapult Books. [A film star turned politician appeals to fishermen, rickshaw drivers, bricklayers; her devotees include women, children, many men; one artist used five litres of his own blood to sculpt her head!]


Valentina Cardo. "In 2002, Peter Bazalgette (the then chair of Endemol UK, the company that brought Big Brother to the United Kingdom) was invited by the  British Conservative Party to join a newly created 'Commission for Democracy'..." The reason was that more people vote concerning who should be evicted from the Big Brother show than in elections.  First UK show was in 2000, first Netherlands shows 1999. "...for a period of up to 3 months. The housemates are filmed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and forbidden all contact with the outside world…" Much later, we are told: housemates must always wear microphones.  Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara, and Danielle Lloyd - model) "-- 'the girls', as they were referred to in the house – made a number of comments about the Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty. These appeared to be both class-based and racially motivated." " Without wanting  to downplay the seriousness of the incident, the clash developed around seemingly mundane concerns, mainly food-related (Redmond, 2009): 'the girls' remarked that 'all Indians are thin' because they eat undercooked and contaminated food, which makes them 'sick all the time'; they argued with Shilpa over the appropriate use of Oxo chicken stock-cubes and advised 'Shilpa Poppadom' to 'fuck off home'." ["Put the worst stuff first or not" is the question of this academic literature?]  The concerns of politicians Keith Vaz, Labour MP, and Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary, recorded. Lord [David Terence] Puttnam,  Deputy Chairman of Channel 4, declares he is not even proud of Big Brother, let alone the row within it. Bazalgette states there were 50000 complaints to the television regulator. [In other articles said to be 45000.] In a spin-off show, Celebrity Big Brother Little Brother, experts commentated. Cardo says, "By providing a human digest of the unfolding events, CBB07 'experts' revealed the 'authenticity' and 'accountability' of the housemates." [Can you be an expert on this show and say, "If you analyze carefully, they are all conniving to produce a spectacle"? Also I am disposed to imagine this: some contestants go through a course beforehand, regarding possible types of housemate and situation and suitable reactions.]  The Big Brother Diary Room is described and analysed. Quotations from contestant Ian Watkins, of the British pop group Steps. He summarizes events and says he is going to stay neutral, but the summary is not neutral! It describes the conflict as schoolground behaviour and almost bullying. Cardo wants to treat Big Brother by analogy with politics, and speaking to people through the diary room is a kind-of campaigning. The voters form a community, responsive to facts, expert opinion, and engaging in moral evaluation. [Who votes on these matters, because would I be moved to make phone calls, even if I took an interest in events?]
Valentina Cardo. 2011. 'Voting is easy, just press the red button': Communicating politics in the age of Big Brother. In Kees Brants and Katrin Voltmer, Political communication in postmodern democracy.  Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kees-Brants/publication/261639766_Political_Communication_in_Postmodern_Democracy_Challenging_the_Primacy_of_Politics/links/54b7b7500cf2e68eb28042ac/Political-Communication-in-Postmodern-Democracy-Challenging-the-Primacy-of-Politics.pdf


Sreya Mitra. The show's producer Endemol tried to cast the racist abuse Shilpa Shetty suffered on Big Brother as bickering and girly rivalry. Keith Vaz denounced the show; Tony Blair reassured people that this was a fair country; the leading English language Indian newspaper led with the headline "Bigot Brother." Goody's white trash behaviour symbolized what was ailing the nation and is contrasted with Shetty's civility, dignity, and poise, even Gandhian demeanor. [I find this contrast misleading, from memory: Shetty seems a "loud" personality.] Mitra takes Shetty winning the fifth season partly as evidence of the popularity of Hindi cinema with British diasporic Indians. Shetty turned from Bollywood cinematic entity to transcultural star. Sanjay Suri says that before Celebrity Big Brother, Shetty "yo-yoed between stardom and starletdom." Unlike Kajol and Karisma Kapoor, Shetty was never regarded as a critically acclaimed actress or a serious contender in the Bollywood hierarchy. She seemed destined for matrimony and retirement from the screen. Celebrity Big Brother was much needed impetus for a waning star, but her decision to participate raised concerns in India because of its unIndian values:  nudity, promiscuous behaviour, and obscene language. [2025: I find Indian comedians on Instagram talk about sex as much as British ones do and seem liberal on the matter.] She secured a contrast which said she would not kiss for a task or jump into a jacuzzi in a bikini. She went as a responsible Indian citizen. She tried to show respect for elders by referring to film director Ken Russell as Ken Uncle. [Amusing!] Shetty said that Jade Goody's behaviour was motivated not by contrived racism, but lack of education and insecurity and jealousy. Mitra describes Shetty as playing the ideal Indian woman. The English tabloid The Sun described Goody as a vile, pig-ignorant bully. Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian implies that it is Shetty who has the supposedly British virtues of civility, articulacy, reserve, and stiff upper lip, rather than local celebrities.  Usha Zacharias and Jane Arthurs describe how the former empire looks for its real image in the postcolonial subject. The Sun described the vote which evicted Jady Goody as the most important vote since the British general election. Journalist Priyamvada Gopal says Shetty understands that her task is to show that India is about beauty and entrepreneurial success, not slums and poverty. The Indian Ministry of Tourism urged Goody to visit. Mitra describes Indian cinema as having transformed from depicting being Indian as something that happens within the boundaries of the nation - with the West as potentially corrupting - to depicting diasporic Indians as carrying India in their heart: Dilwale Dulhania  Le Jayenge (The Braveheart Will Take the Bride, dir. Aditya Chopra, 1995), Kuch Kuch Hota  Hai (Something is Happening, dir. Karan Johar, 1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happiness Sometimes Sorrow, dir. Karan Johar, 2001). Patricia Uberoi quoted. The contemporary Bollywood star does not necessarily derive most of their income from film roles. Shilpa Shetty's film career was not reinvigorated by her starring role on Celebrity Big Brother, but she became a style icon and corporate diva. Her time on the show gave her an identity which made her ideal for magazine covers and she appeared in Indian editions of Vogue, Marie Claire, and Harper's Bazaar. She is reimagined as much at home in Paris fashion week as in a Mumbai film studio, and described by Harper's Bazaar as equally comfortable in Dior gowns and a sari. She is regarded as the quintessential businesswoman since her career is no longer dependent on Bollywood films. She produced a yoga fitness DVD, because it is an Indian export yet all the yoga fitness videos are done by Westerners. She has spa ventures.  Shilpa Shetty was the wrong side of 30, says Mitra, so her successful reinvention was a reassuring departure from the insecurities of Bollywood film stardom. Her success has led to criticism of Bollywood's conventions and formulas and that it failed to realize her potential. Shetty says she is not offered the more challenging roles she desires. But she is also quoted as saying that in the last 4-5 years there has been a welcome change for the heroine, compared to previous showpiece roles.[The people who cause the change don't often benefit from it?] Shah Rukh Kahn is quoted as saying, "My business works because I'm working as an actor. The day I stop working as an actor, all my business will flop." Scholars Neepa Majumdar (2001, 2009), Rosie Thomas (1991) and Behroze Gandhy say that the male star is defined by professional accomplishments, whereas personal life matters more for females. Shetty is depicted as the New Indian Woman who effortlessly juggles career and family. Shetty was asked about when she plans to get married. On Twitter, she later defines herself as actor, entrepreneur, and wife, after 2009 wedding to Raj Kundra.
Reference. Mitra, Sreya. 2012. Screening the Nation: Producing the Bollywood Star in Contemporary India. PhD thesis for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Available at: https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/K77BHI37GKROR8N/R/file-6e052.pdf


Paul A Wilson. Opens with  "Abundant evidence shows that emotions do not translate well across languages." "The fundamental feature of collectivism is the closer interpersonal relationships that are present within groups, which result in these groups being more cohesive. Individuals within these groups have a greater obligation to fulfil their responsibilities towards other group members." "In individualistic cultures one perceives oneself as an individual, autonomous entity and there is less emphasis placed on one's relationships with others." "In high context cultures very little information is explicitly conveyed in the coded, verbal part of the message. In contrast, most of the meaning of the message is present in the physical context or internalised in the individual." " India has traditionally been identified as a high context culture (Nishimura, Nevgi & Tella, 2008), Britain is regarded as a low context culture." Discusses shame. "In this respect, a significant feature is her Hindu faith, particularly as Croucher et al. (2011) observes that Female Indian Hindus are more likely to prefer avoiding, compromising, integrating, and obliging conflict styles than female Indian Muslims." Scientific-like analysis of conflict scenes. "Shilpa expresses surprise that they had used most of the chicken stock cubes in a previous meal as they had been only supposed to use one of the stock cubes for the meal. In an argument that ensues Jade Goody seems to take offence at the apparent accusation of wasting the chicken stock and retaliates with the accusation that on a previous recent occasion Shilpa cooked chicken that was left uneaten and therefore wasted because it was not cooked properly." Jade says: "get over it, three cubes, OK Shilpa it was three cubes, but the other day there was a whole chicken that went to waste because it was pink." "Says Jade feels hurt, having distinguished between how individual and collectivist cultures react. The hurt that she demonstrates points to an autonomous individual whose core self has been criticised."
Reference. Wilson, Paul A. Conflict scenario emotion events in reality television: a cross-cultural perspective. Available at:
https://www.press.uni.lodz.pl/index.php/wul/en/catalog/download/351/1588/748?inline=1
[This is in a journal, but no date or journal name is given. UNiversity of Lodz, accent removed.]


Terence Rajivan Edward (me). Were the media stars involved in the Shilpa Shetty scandal acting? Many observers are likely to suspect so. "Surely these experienced characters knew that they would look racist on television, and why did Shetty not quit the show upon being faced with abuse?" I am open to the possibility that they were not acting, because of my theory of how liberal norms spread, amongst some groups anyway. Take the norm not to beat your children. Someone says, "Every age is less violent than the last and to be truly civilized we must stop beating our children." Someone else says, "You will end up with spoilt children." Some others think but don't tell everyone, "We can do this and avoid spoilt children. There will be other things that prevent their becoming spoilt, for example other children will shun the child who is becoming spoilt. The child will not like that and change their behaviour. We will not literally use the rod or some physical substitute, but there will be a metaphorical stick." The norm spreads when a have-your-cake-and-eat-it system is worked out. Now consider how the equality of opportunity norm spreads. Someone says, "We must be fair and choose the most talented for the job." Someone else says, "People will be unhappy. They need to work with people they have warm feeling towards." Again a have-your-cake-and-eat-it approach develops. Some people think, "We will endorse the new norm, because we have figured out how to appear as if we are following it while actually only being amongst friends at work." Most people in the UK think one has to suppress various emotions at work: the doctor who dislikes a patient must suppress that, the shopcounter worker, etc. But the people who succeed with the have-your-cake-and-eat-it approach suppress very little. Given this (speculative) theory, it is plausible that Jade Goody and the others who had negative reactions towards Shilpa Shetty simply did not suppress, despite being on television, because "That would be to go back to the social class we came from." "That's what my parents used to do - I am certainly not doing that." (Although my approach is speculative, it might reduce your confidence that they were simply acting. Where is the disgusting frame-by-frame analysis?)
Reference. Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2026. On the Shilpa Shetty Big Brother Scandal: were they all acting? Available at:
https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWOTS-4.pdf