Tim Worstall

Martin Jacques on Jane Goody

And my God, isn’t that an image to bring tears to the eyes. Essentially, it’s all white people’s fault, add in a bit of class action and there you are, we’ve explained the world.

Ron Atkinson described Marcel Desailly as a "fucking lazy, thick
nigger" on air and then had the temerity to claim that he was not a
racist. Jade Goody called Shilpa Shetty "Shilpa Fuckawallah" and
"Shilpa Poppadom", and then similarly claimed that she is not a racist.
Andy Duncan, Channel 4’s chief executive, in a performance which should
see him sacked forthwith, claimed on Thursday that "we cannot with
certainty say that the comments directed at Shilpa have been racially
motivated". Ron Atkinson, Jade Goody and Andy Duncan are in denial –
like, it must be said, millions of other whites.
…
This is not in the least surprising. For the best part of two
centuries, we British ruled the waves, controlled two-fifths of the
planet, and believed it was our responsibility to bring civilisation to
those who allegedly lacked it. There is now a belief that all that is
long gone, dead and buried, history forgotten in a tsunami of amnesia
about our past. But these attitudes live on in new forms, constantly
reproduced in each and every white citizen of this country.
…
What makes Britain – and whites – special in this regard is that we
have been top of the global pile for so long, inflicted our brand of
racism on so many, and have no idea what it is like to be discriminated
against for our colour.
…
and that her status as a former winner of Big Brother is her only claim
to be where she is, makes it easy for the middle class to dismiss her
racism as that of a crude, ill-educated, white working-class young
woman,
…

All incredibly persuasive, don’t you think? White chav displays racism and it’s the Empire’s fault? Or capitalism, or insufficient class consciousness, or something.

As I’m not really quite up with all this CBB stuff, I’ll have to take this snippet of information on trust. Jade Goody is herself of mixed race.

Doesn’t that rather undermine the argument?

In

13 responses

  1. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Tim,
    A couple of points.
    In fairness to Jacques (a privilege granted through gritted teeth), I seem to recall reading an article of his concerning the appalling racial abuse his late wife, an ethnic South Asian, experienced when they were living in Southeast Asia – I think it was Hong Kong.
    He is not naive concerning non-whites’ capacity for racial bigotry.
    Otherwise,of course, it’s a load of tosh. That a mixed race semi-literate former dental nurse from Bermondsey might be a racial bigot is neither here nor there. Having had the odd bit of sectarian abuse hurled my way from time to time, such behaviour is boorish and unpleasant but the sky has not fallen as a result.
    That the Chancellor of the Exchequer is beating his breast and pronouncimg collective mea culpas on our behalf is a bloody absurdity. They’re burning effigies of Peter Bazalgette in India. As a cultural rule of thumb, nations where effigies are burned by mobs of unemployed men tend to be shitholes. Ergo, India’s a shithole.
    Why is nobody saying that the very idea that India is a democracy is a joke when the caste system oppresses millions?
    Why has the Indian High Commissioner not had his backside hauled over the coals concerning the lynching of that bloke earlier this year?
    Why has Gordonji, a supposed muscular Christian, not been kicking ass over the martyrdom of Indian Christians by extremist Hindu nationalists?
    Why has nobody made the point that no bugger goes into the Celebrity Big Brother house, Shilpa Shetty included, unless for the publicity?
    Why has nobody made the point that the ‘bullies’ might just be suffering from ‘Simone Clarke syndrome’ – laager mentality caused by over exposure to foreigners in their own space?

    Reply
  2. codepope Avatar
    codepope

    So folks of mixed race can’t be racist… Amazing! Who knew…
    Actually it’s not Jade who had been racist; she’s just thick and ends up using racist language. The real nasty bit of work are Danielle Lloyd and Jo. The former actually got email from her agent with instructions for the show which included “Don’t Be Racist” according to the papers…

    Reply
  3. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    Racist or not, the really worry thing IMO is that anyone watches this rubbish on TV. If viewing audiences dwindle, advertisers will soon stop wanting to sponsor the stuff. I regard this news from last November as most encouraging:
    “Google’s UK advertising revenues will outstrip those of Channel 4 this year, according to Andy Duncan, the broadcaster’s chief executive.
    “Underscoring the momentum of internet advertising, Mr Duncan said: ‘It looks like Google will extract £900 million in advertising revenue in the UK, overtaking Channel 4, which is by some distance the second largest ad funded TV company in the UK.’
    “Channel 4’s annual advertising income is expected to come in at around £800 million.”
    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9071-2432141,00.html

    Reply
  4. Infoholic Avatar
    Infoholic

    “her status as a former winner of Big Brother”
    Errr, IIRC, she came fourth…

    Reply
  5. JuliaM Avatar
    JuliaM

    “White chav displays racism..”
    Or just “Chav displays the qualities that makes her a chav”.
    Or are we to assume there are no black/brown/yellow equivalents to poorly-educated, crude, badly-behaved people..?
    “Racist or not, the really worry thing IMO is that anyone watches this rubbish on TV.”
    Now that I can agree with..!

    Reply
  6. emmanuel goldstein Avatar
    emmanuel goldstein

    Modern racism – the belief that mankind is divided into discrete groups, each of which has a racial essence that determines the moral and intellectual capacities of its memebrs – is a European idea, and a recent one at that. Modern racism served as an explicit and implicit rationale for Empire (read some Rhodes). When Jacques makes those two claims, he’s on good ground.
    He’s not on good ground in claiming a line of causation from old race ideas to Jade Goody’s boorishness. And the fact that the vast majority of those who complained about the CBB goings-on were white sort of lowers the plausibility of the claim that racism is still widespread in the UK.

    Reply
  7. CB Avatar
    CB

    Re: The headline. Who’s *Jane* Goody?

    Reply
  8. MarkS Avatar
    MarkS

    “Re: The headline. Who’s *Jane* Goody?”
    Don’t worry… it’s just Tim’s way of trying to make the rest of us think that he doesn’t know who Jade Goody is. Nice one, Tim 🙂

    Reply
  9. Philip Chaston Avatar
    Philip Chaston

    It’s false consciousness> Marxists always had to account for the Tory working class, so they just pretended that the inevitability hadn’t quite worked out because they were brainwashed to prevent them consciously realising their class status.
    On this basis, Jade does not realise that she is working class, but the inklings force her to insult Shilpa, who is also suffering from false consciousness, because she is an oppressed third world victim, forced to spread her incorrect ideas to her country and unaware that she should become Arundhati Roy.

    Reply
  10. Andrew Zalotocky Avatar
    Andrew Zalotocky

    Mixed race? I’d always assumed that she was of mixed species.

    Reply
  11. koppakabana Avatar
    koppakabana

    Jade, who as you pointed out, is mixed-race, identifies herself with the mainstream, white British population. While there is nothing wrong with this (it’s simply a reflection of her own upbringing), there may be something wrong with the way she conveys her disgust regarding Ms. Shetty’s lifestyle habits.
    Ms. Shetty is different from many of immigrants to Britain in that she is “Westernised,” largely because India itself is “Westernised” thanks to the influence of the British. Ms. Shetty does not fall under the current criticisms of minority groups who refuse to assimilate in Britain; she speaks English well, she eats curry like many Brits, and she even wears Western clothing. Yet insensitive comments were still made to her. According to Jade and her cohorts, even Ms. Shetty’s Western habits were used to single her out as different or as not belonging. Ms. Shetty — however irritating the average viewer may find her to be — was placed in a predicament where she would be criticized for adopting “Indian” habits or “Western” habits, when in reality those lifestyle choices are one and the same.
    Also, prejudice is not solely a class-based phenomena. Class is simply a general indicator, as are fundamental religious camps, race, gender, and nationality. Consider the BNP leaders who were recently acquitted of making Islamophobic comments, or Senator George Allen who called an Indian-American man a “macaca.” These are mid- to upper-mid class white, working men in the Western world who are in positions of extreme power, and they are perpetrating hate in their own ways.
    What I do not understand is why conservatives tolerate abuse in an economic sense. Abuse — whether emotional, physical, or sexual — wrecks the individual psyche and body, making individuals less capable of working, and thus generating revenue for a country. So even if you could care less about a person’s emotional well-being, consider the economic impact they are having on your country.

    Reply
  12. KH Avatar
    KH

    Re: Martin | Jan 20, 2007 9:09:35 AM
    “They’re burning effigies of Peter Bazalgette in India. As a cultural rule of thumb, nations where effigies are burned by mobs of unemployed men tend to be shitholes. Ergo, India’s a shithole.”
    –>> ever been to India mate? nice comment to make of a whole country based on the actions of a few idiots with nothing better to do. i have been in UK, Ireland and US of A long enough to know that all countries have nearly equal capacity to produce a few unemployed (read un-employable) idiots.
    ————————————————-
    “Why is nobody saying that the very idea that India is a democracy is a joke when the caste system oppresses millions?”
    –>> Caste system oppresses millions!! wow!! again – repeat – ever been to India? Suggest you live in that country i call home for a month – travel a bit and then make a comment of this nature. Caste system – yes; oppression – yes; we _had_ it – thing of the past, no worse than the white man’s treatment of the coloured folks in the last 300 years. ofcourse – that has changed drastically over the last 50 years or so; and having lived in Europe and USA I would say that racism, for the most part is a thing of the past in this part of the world. similarly, in India, things have changed drastically over the last 50 years.
    ————————————————-
    “Why has Gordonji, a supposed muscular Christian, not been kicking ass over the martyrdom of Indian Christians by extremist Hindu nationalists?”
    –>> what do you know of these “martyr”s and of the “extremist Hindu nationalists”? yes, these christian missioneries did not deserve a lynching; but then, they continuously outraged the locals with forced relegious conversions. would it be fair to assume that you whole heartedly support forced relegious conversions – with a combination of lure of money, threats and what not!
    ————————————————-
    “Why has nobody made the point that no bugger goes into the Celebrity Big Brother house, Shilpa Shetty included, unless for the publicity?”
    –>> Now, here is one sane point in the whole comment. you know her career in the movies is on a nosedive to the abyss when you see her turning up at such a lousy show – of the idiots, by the idiots, for the idiots
    ————————————————-
    Finally, I am unsure what to make of your culture after seeing you say those nasty things about a country and a bunch of people that you have never seen; never met possibly.
    And, am amused how this piece of non-sense called ‘big brother’ is causing so many people to react. dont we all see that this is what the producers of the series desire? one way for them to increase viewership is to have a big controversy going about their show.
    – KH

    Reply
  13. dude Avatar
    dude

    I hear what you are trying to say but not all white people are like that. You yourselve may be called a racist for comments like that. I’m not saying that its right but there are two sides to the argument.

    Reply

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