6/07/2007

Tory supporting Big Brother contestant Emily Parr removed from Big Brother house for racism

Emily Parr, the arts student who moaned about "benefit cheats" and made strong mention of the fact that she is a Conservative voter, has been ejected from the Big Brother house for racism.

Endemol are to be congratulated for taking such swift action against her in this case. One wonders though if their reaction would have been quite so swift if the racism had not occurred in the Celebrity version of the show earlier this year. The other thought that occurs is that is Emily Parr being treated differently from the celebrities because she is not a celebrity ?

Still, the right decision has been taken. Let's hope this is the last we see of Miss Parr. As someone who has avoided the whole Big Brother experience so far, I certainly don't want to see her appearing on other shows now.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

do you really think this story warrents the word "Tory" in the title? Hardly a political story!

Nich Starling said...

It helps justify it's inclusion in a political blog,

Anonymous said...

How is this decision right? This fad of "Political Correctness" is a joke. All this decision has done is cause more and more people to feel that if a word could be interpreted as been racially abusive in one context, then it should be taken as been racially abusive in any context in which it is used, which was clearly not the situation with Emily Parr. There are plenty of other words, such as the use of vulgar language, or name calling, which when used in a vicious or vindictive manner could be just as harmful or even more harmful for that matter than one which is used on the grounds of someones race. Yet these are allowed and accepted in the Big Brother House and the General Public for that matter, they are used every day, and people seem to have no problem with the use of these words, and also seem to have no difficulty in seperating which were used in casual friendly slagging tones and which were not. So why should a word be treated differently just becasue it is racial when these words, which I have said can be equally as harmful, are allowed to be used and the user go unpunished? By doing this the only message that is been sent to people is that they are acceptable to call people, and I believe you could see this with Charley today, she knew the term wasnt meant in an offence way and yet she seemed unable to decided whether she should taken offence from it or not. If this situation had arisen between to members of the black community would the same action have been taken? It seems stupid to think that it would and yet is that not prejudiced, and racist even, if no action were to be taken? I think people need to get over this whole "political correctness" that is becoming ever more taboo in todays society, and people should learn to differentiate between words in general that are meant in a spiteful manner and when they are made in a joking manner.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame you feel you have to justify the story in this manner. Your blog makes a good read without the need to make the unwarranted addition.

Nich Starling said...

I have to say that a number of other bloggers, notably Tory bloggers, were making a big deal of the "top Tory Totty" in the BB house, indeed, many had commented on how good it was to see a young Tory on the show, so in that context, I see nothing wrong with picking her "tory" credentials out. If it was important for other bloggers to pick this out when being positive, the same is true when being negative.

Anonymous said...

Ahh I see - but in my naive little world, I don't read other tory bloggers except for that lovely Mr Little!

Paul Walter said...

You've said "Tory supporting", which she is. Can't see a problem.

Simon said...

I think Endemol's action is correct, and don't understand comments about "lessons not learned".

The comment may not be evidence of a deeply racist attitude, it may just be that Emily isn't very bright and knows no better. Still, as a punishment, being chucked off a reality TV show is hardly up there with being thrown into prison by the thought police, so can't by any stretch of the imagination be described as "political correctness gone mad".

She's made a mistake and has suffered the consequences and hopefully will learn from them.

Anonymous said...

Tory voter, sees it as acceptable to call a black woman nigger, nuff said!

Anonymous said...

well said. narrow minded tories!

Anonymous said...

Why was Emily kicked out of the house ? Because the word used could offend the viewing public. Problem 1 - Why show it in the first place? Charley wasn't offended and it was obvious that it was a joke! Problem 2 - Charley also said nigger... so because she's black it's not offensive?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone who is defending Emily as being only joking read this story?

http://www.people.co.uk/news/news/tm_method=full%26objectid=19274118%26siteid=93463-name_page.html

Simon said...

I still believe, "joking" or not the punishment of being thrown off the programme is proportionate.

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