Celeb BB

[Insurgent]

I would like to know fellow ABers opinion on Faria Alam's comments yesterday about coloured or ethnic minorities not winning BB or reality shows due to racism. I know she was quite quick to retract her comments when discussing the issue with Davina and putting it down to being upset over her nomination. But is there any truth to what she said?, it seemed like a very uncomfortable subject in the house.

[gary baldy]

Ive always thought that anyway.
Any ethnic minority with a bigger than normal personality is almost certain to be voted out early on.
I dont think this is particularly racist - i think it has more to do with empathy and identitifying with the housemates. Also the demographic of the people who do the majority of the voting (teenage girls?) is relevant.
I think she is right - i dont see a black or asian person winning BB in the forseeable future.

[sammd]

I may have this wrong but didn't Faria refer to not being able to win because of it (through the public vote-to-win votes) and Tracy took it the wrong way and told everyone they had been nominated because of it...?

[dcannon]

I think you have to take into account that the UK does have some nasty people in it, who are racist. In my own opinion though it wouldnt bother me what colour or race, Gay or straight. Just look at 2004 Big brother when Nadia won. Foreign and transexual, which proves that the majority and UK are not bias in any way.

[WoWo]

Personally I think it's a load of rubbish, I don't doubt that people might vote for or against a particular person because of their own frame of reference and given that I for example was brought up in a white house hold in a pretty much white area my attitudes would be white.

Then take into account that ethinic minorities still make up a small percentage of the population it's not surprising they don't get the same amount of votes.

[WoWo]

Good point dcannon, both Nadia and Brain winning (IMHO) would prove that discrimination has little to do with it.

I think if there were any truth in the claim then all the coloured people would be voted off in order first. This clearly doesn't happen.

If Faria Alam is claiming thats why she wouldn't have won it maybe she should consider in might have something to do with being a tabloid tell all non celebrity with no talent.

[Dom Tuk]

This issue was raised by an academic in the UK about 2-3 years ago and was widely publicised. He had conducted a study to show that on all the vote based reality programmes (BB, PopIdol, etc) those who get nominated against anglo saxon particip[ants usually end up being evicted. It was quite a large study. The academic was on the news and widely covered. Does anyone not remember him and get a link?

[dcannon]

Exactly my point Wo Wo. Most of us in Britain are wise enough to make our own opinions on people whether they be gay, transexual, black, white, indian etc etc. In fact I am a white female but I am wanting Tracy to win at the moment.

[gary baldy]

I think there is a distinction between voting for homosexuals and voting for ethnic minorities.
Gay people are seen as unthreatening (the ones we see on telly anyway) yet i suspect there is still a cultural mistrust of many people from an ethnic background - especially ones who display any 'character' . I'm thinking of Narinda and Science as apposed to Darren (was that his name - the chicken guy?)

[CarolG]

I do actually agree with what she said, I cannot think of one reality show in the UK which has been won by a black/asian contestant when decided by viewers votes.

Its not to say that Dennis, Traci of Faria could not have won CBB because of their colour as they are not perhaps the most interesting characters but when you look at other reality TV shows, black/asian contestants have been voted out when they are clearly the most (in my opinion!) talented/deserving winners.

[El D]

Such as?

[hannahjo]

I was quite shocked and angered by her comments as I would never vote against a person because of their colour/sexuality/religion etc and sincerely hope that other people wouldn�t either (although I�m sure there are a few people out there who are racist enough to vote against them I would like to think that in this day in age they are a very small minority).

One point that hasn�t been raised yet is the fact that the majority of the contestants on these programs are white (the reasons for this being a whole other debate � do more apply or are the producers selective?) so in that sense there is a higher probability of a white person winning purely on the basis that there are more of them to begin with.

[gary baldy]

In response to the last post - i think that in the last BB half the contestants were from ethnic minorities.
Also as i said in my first post i dont think there is any sinister racsist plot here - just a case of who those doing the voting identify with most.

[CarolG]

I agree with Gary, I do not think that people will not want someone to win because they are from an ethnic minority but I think that subconsciously people vote for someone who they can identify with.

With my earlier comment I meant people such as Lemar from Fame Academy and Brenda & Andy from X Factor who I thought were the stronger contestants. And, from previous BB�s I found Victor, Science and Derek to be far more entertaining that the series winners.

I thought it was interesting on CBB last night when this discussion was taking place, George, trying to reassure Traci that he was not racist said that he made allowances for Dennis that he would not make for a white man which I didn�t really understand � he was saying that there was no difference and they were all the same but yet he would treat one person differently (not in a bad way) because of their skin colour. Also, they showed Rula calling someone (George I think) and �cheating arab� and once she realised how what she said was a racist term she apologised. I think its all subconscious and as Gary stated not a �racist plot�.

[~sillycow~]

i didn't think it was a racist plot either but when my bf entered the lounge last night and asked what was being discussed, i told him what Faria said, he said she was absolutely right! He said he can sympathise with her as he is black and feels a lot of discrimination now. Same as my daughter, she is mixed race (12 years old) and she is having trouble at secondary school with a "few" people making comments on the colour of her skin. I'm not niave but i thought it racism wasn't as rife (sp) anymore??

[derekblue]

i think the days when black and asian people were a minority in this country are long gone.I think a while ago it was declared that Leeds is mainly Asian.So i dont think the minority argument stands up any more.An old excuse.

[CarolG]

Simply not true derekblue, 9% of the total population of England is non-white with 2% in both Scotland and Wales and less than 1% in Northern Ireland

[Insurgent]

I've been discussing the issue with family and friends, as well work colleagues and there seems to a split opinion on the subject, which isn't along the ethnic or colour minorities line.

Some people saying if your are a ethnic minority, you better be gay to give yourself a chance of winning, as the british public have always had a soft spot for gay entertainers examples given included Kenny Everitt, Dale Winton, Barrymore (of course). Kemal and Nadia being examples as well.

Some people have said she was simply playing the race card to get less vote. Other people taken the conspiracy to a new level by saying Faria and Dennis "conveniently" received to much negative air time yesterday, which would have swayed the vote.

Is there an example of an ethnic minority winning a reality TV who wasn't gay or a transexual (Nadia)?

With institutional racism rife in british society e.g. health, prison, police service does this not then have a knock on effect when it comes to voting, whether conciously or unconsciously?

Or as one colleague put it "we are not a more tolerant society we've just learnt to hide what we really feel/think better and are concious not to make it obvious due to PCness".

[joko]

I think sometimes people are quick to claim racism when things don't go their way.

If a brazilian transexual, who moaned a lot, an a over-the-top camp bloke, can win then so can a black person.

People voting on these shows are often motivated by anger about something the housemates have done or said.

The thing that gets people most fired up to even bother to vote is when someone has personality flaws like arrogance, misogynism, cruelty, racism, sexism etc etc

if they are nice and funny etc they are often left alone and 'fly under the radar' - regardless of their colour

I myself never vote on BB - except once - when i voted for victor -once- just because i could not stand him, and he had made my blood boil

i also voted once for craig in series one but that was because i know him personally - so that doesn't really count, a such.

[jenstar]

I remember Arlene Philips making this point during the second series of Strictly Come Dancing, saying that Denise Lewis would find it difficult to win because a black person had never won a TV series with public voting. It's hard to say whether it did have an effect - I think ultimately Jill Halfpenny did deserve to win that series, but Denise ran her a close second. Then a similar thing happened again with Colin Jackson in the most recent series. Racism? Who knows? Very difficult to tell. Perhaps if he'd been white the result would have been just the same.

[lankeela]

What about Will Young winning Pop Idol or whatever it was. He is gay. I suppose you could say he won because the runner up stuttered! Wasn't that girl Alex also gay?