There has been much discussion as to whether Jade and Danielle's behaviour towards Shilpa has been racist; well, yes, it was, but racism was not the primary motivation in my view; the comments just happened to be racist because Shilpa is from a different ethnic group.
I agree with many other posters that a large part of this is playground ragging and bullying but at the root of it is the old, and favourite English obsession � class. English people (in fact other parts of Britain also exhibit the same characteristics) are very tribal and are not slow to behave poorly towards others not of their "tribe". You see classic examples of this with football supporters, and at its worst where football team support has sectarian connotations.
The reasons for J and D's poor behaviour is basically tribal (e.g. she talks funny, eats different food, wears different clothes, etc.) In other words�"not one of us, let's get her". This attitude is at the root of much of what we call racism in this country and the best�indeed the only�antidote is education. Not compulsory "diversity training" but education about different cultures (even within one's own country), different food, different music and so on.
J and D must have encountered girls of different races or traditions at school (which cannot have been too long ago) but I suspect that if they did, they did not mix.