I’m very impatient this morning with the clueless and elitist response from mainstream media to Channel 4’s latest race row. Big Brother has provided C4 with two opportunities to tackle racism in Britain in the last six months and both turned out to be more effective interventions than any number of indignant newspaper editorials or dopey Government campaigns.
If white kids in Britain really are going around calling each other ‘nigger’ (and that’s what silly Emily seems to be telling us) then that’s valuable information – information that ought to be in the public domain. If reaching those white kids and helping them to understand what it means to call another human being ‘nigger’ is a legitimate goal then I’ll trust Channel 4 to do it before The Daily Mail or the Today Programme (Embattled Andy Duncan handled silly old Humphrys beautifully on Today this morning – he must have been on a course).
There is a clash of cultures that might be worth exploring. The black girls Emily was with were genuinely shocked, even though they denied being offended. And to be fair, Emily was trying to bond rather than offend.
That she thought ‘you nigger’ was the way to do it, shows how socially inept she is. She said she’d heard rappers use it and so thought it was ok.
The thing is that when a black person uses it, it’s clearly ironic as they’re very unlikely to think themselves sub-human. Rappers use it in a way that reminds people that their culture is partly defined by the racism they’ve suffered. A white person, simply can’t use it in that way.