Big Brother the alleged racist

There is much furore in England at the moment about whether a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother is the victim of racism. This story is eclipsing the humdrum non-news of how many people are dying in Iraq. It's doing wonders for the viewing figures of the rather poor TV show. I just submitted a response to the BBC news "have your say" page. There is virtually no chance it will be published as they seem to eschew any sort of comment from people who can spell so I thought I'd rather egotistically publish it here:

I gave up watching BB because I found the contestants irksome, including Shilpa. She lay it on thick about her wealth and that's uncharming. The catty and dim young women in there would have seized on anything that makes another person different to them. We shouldn't go into a paroxysm of self-doubt about if we're a nation of racists. They would mock her Manchester accent, if she had one. If she were to be immune from this sort of unpleasantness because she's Indian, that would be racist.

That was as many characters as can be submitted. Shilpa's OK but she's mightily good at turning on the water works and generally I think she's a bit of a fake. Everybody seems to have forgotten that BB's a game. In her position, easily the best tactic to get votes would be to feign being hurt by the racist digs from the others. These seem to me to be minor school yard stuff which is inexcusably bitchy and gratuitous but anybody of normal resilience takes this kind of stuff from other people every day.

I'm not excusing the bitchiness of the vacuous other girls in there, but it's normal. There are a vast number of bigger issues going on. This is just reality, so we shouldn't be surprised to see it on a reality TV show.