Reality TV > Big Brother Racism Goes Too Far
May 24, 2007
Written by Anthony Burch
USA Today reports that Channel 4 in London neglected to censor some racist remarks during a broadcast of Big Brother, aimed at Bollywood star and contestant Shilpa Shetty.
The insults included dirty limericks (who still does that?), name-calling (Shetty was called Shilpa Poppadom, a reference to a type of Indian flatbread), and general knocks about Shetty's cooking ability (though one has to wonder how cooking insults can be racist).
After it aired, the typical things happened: people in India burned effigies in protest of the show -- because evidently that's what you do when you get angry in the Eastern world -- and Channel 4 apologized profusely.
