Stoatie - he stands by them because what they had planned was this. 'Make CBB the most talked-about programme in the country and you get a raise!' They lost a sponsor but gained a million viewers. What's the balance on that do you reckon?
Also, I just want to come back to a point thats been raised a few times by people at Channel 4 and others and has been dismissed quite readily (from what I've seen and can remember), which is the idea that the racism row has been, if not 'good' then at least useful in terms of getting people to talk about racism. I think this is mostly true, but I wish it could be taken further.
Seeing Jade denying she's 'a racist' till she's blue in the face is kinda missing the point, isn't it? She's not involved in the debate at all, she's paddling in denial, and I've noticed this from a lot of people that I speak to in meatspace about this. I don't think people realise their views and almost subconscious prejudices that lie just beneath the surface really do affect they ways they treat people. They don't need to be a card-carrying abuse-hurling bigot, but I've come across and hell of a lot of views recently that scream unexamined racism at me. I think the debate, especially the televised debate that people seem to take most of their cues from really needs to address the issue of subconscious prejudice and just how to begin dealing with it when you notice it, both in others and in yourself. I think if Barbelith has taught me anything it'll be that, and it has come in very handy recently when talking with people and trying to debate their rather dodgy views with them.
(as I write this my colleagues have just started talking about 'Asian Awareness' in highly derisive terms, despite having spent the last week stressing how non-racist and inclusionary they are. What can you say to that??)
So yeah, my point is that I think this controversy probably is a good thing, but I wish the televised debate would go a little deeper, perhaps telling people things about themselves they might necessarily want to hear. |
