Racist and Inflammatory Comments Against Blacks In the British Media:
Why It Continues To Prevail
October 2011
by Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
‘Most of the men in Nigeria don’t do anything; their wives do all the work, that’s why they have so many. They have four wives – one to do the farming, one to look after the children, one to look after the man and one to do the housework. It is just a fact”.
Baroness Flather (BBC Radio 5 – 26 September 2011)
“The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together, this language which is wholly false, which is this Jamaican patois that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country….. Listen to David Lammy an archetypal successful black man. If you turn the screen off, so you were listening to him on radio, you would think he was white”.
David Starkey (BBC Newsnight – 12 August 2011)
“In each wave, black women are significantly less physically attractive than women of other races….black women are objectively less physically attractive than other women… Africans have more mutations in their genomes than other races. And the mutation loads significantly decrease physical attractiveness”.
-Satoshi Kanazawa (Psychology Today – 15 May 2011)
“I think this is racism being presented as entertainment, and I think it is disgusting. My personal view is that this has caused enormous offence not only abroad but to the Indian community here”.
UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell (18 January 2007)
Introduction
United Kingdom is a multicultural society where people from all parts of the world reside, while London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world playing host to Arabs, Asians, Africans and other people from the four corners of the globe. As a multicultural location, it is not unusual for one to observe instances of racism. In the United Kingdom, it is usually the minority segment of society such as Africans, Asians, Travellers, Jews or at times Eastern Europeans who often experience the worse forms of racism.
In this paper, I will narrow my discussion on racism, to a specific segment of the British society i.e. the black people resident in the United Kingdom. I will focus on the possible factors that contribute towards the prevalence of racist and inflammatory comments against blacks in the British media. I will attempt to answer the following questions: Why do these attacks keep occurring? Are there economic factors that allow these attacks to prevail? Is there any template case to follow to mitigate against such sustained attacks?
Four Case Studies
To get a better appreciation of the factors contributing to the prevalence of this racist attack against blacks in some sections of the British media, I will be drawing lessons, actions and attitudes from three recent cases that occurred in 2011:
- The Baroness Flather race row in respect of her comment about Nigerian men relayed on BBC Radio 5 on 26 September 2011.
- The David Starkey race row in respect of his comment on ‘whites becoming blacks’ relayed on the BBC Newsnight programme on 12 August 2011
- The Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa race row in respect of his research on black women published in ‘Psychology Today’ on 15 May 2011
These three cases are all high profile events that occurred within a timeframe of nineteen weeks in 2011. The key characters were British residents/citizens, who made racially offensive comments against the black community in various outlets including radio, television and a magazine. From each of these case studies, I will discuss the principal players, the racially offensive comments made, the reaction and impact of the racially inflammatory comments.
The fourth case study used in this paper occurred in 2007. It is the race row that occurred when India’s Shilpa Shetty was racially abused by three of her fellow Big Brother housemates at the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother contest, which was shown on Channel Four TV.
The fallout from these cases could help the reader gain an understanding on the role- politicians, the media, the community and economic factors play in either reinforcing or preventing the prevalence of these racially offensive comments. Appendix 1 contains a comparative analysis between the David Starkey race row and the Shilpa Shetty race row .
Case 1: Baroness Flather’s comment about Nigerian men
On 26 September 2011, Baroness Flather, the Conservative life peer, took part in a polygamy discussion on a BBC Radio 5 breakfast show. During the discussion, a Nigerian caller phoned in and stated that his father had four wives and that they all lived together without arguments. Baroness Flather responded saying “most of the men in Nigeria don’t do anything; their wives do all the work, that’s why they have so many”. Her comment was not widely reported in the press. BBC Radio 5 released a statement saying the peer’s views were “entirely her own”.
Case 2: David Starkey’s ‘whites have become black’ comment
Between 6 August 2011 and 10 August 2011, there were a number of riots across several cities in England including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Gillingham and Nottingham. The people involved in the riots cut across all races. On 12 August 2011, David Starkey, the British historian took part in a BBC 2 Newsnight television debate programme on the riots. When asked about his views on the riot, he began by citing Enoch Powell’s infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, which Enoch made in 1968. In explaining the role that white people played in the riot, he remarked “….the whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together”. Many viewed his comments as racist and it generated a lot of complaints. BBC and the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the media regulator received several complaints from the public. David Starkey refused to apologise and BBC defended the way the debate was conducted. Ofcom eventually decided not to investigate the complaints about David Starkey’s comments.
In October 2011, David Starkey took part in a fringe Tory event at the 2011 Conservative Party Conference. Guardian’s deputy editor Katherine Viner who attended the event indicated on twitter “David Starkey has repeated his race-based analysis of the riots, with ref to Enoch Powell. Scandalous and incendiary”
Case 3: Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa’s research on black women
On 15 May 2011, Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, the London School of Economics (LSE) lecturer published a controversial article in the USA’s – Psychology Today journal titled: “Why Black Women Are Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women”. In his article, Satoshi argued that relative to ladies from other races, black women are less attractive. This study generated outrage around the world, especially in Britain where the author works. There were calls from activists and human rights organisations for Satoshi to be sacked. LSE carried out an inquiry into his research and found out that his argument was flawed. He was barred from teaching compulsory courses in the school and from publishing in non-peer-reviewed journals for a year. Satoshi also wrote a letter of apology to the LSE Director, Professor Judith Rees, in which he expressed regret over his action and admitted the flaw in his methodology. There was not much coverage in the press over his remorse, apology and admittance of the flaws in his research.
Case 4: Celebrity Big Brother- Shilpa Shetty race row
In January 2007, Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood superstar took part in the Celebrity Big Brother 2007 series. During the contest the late Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara subjected Shilpa to racial abuse, bullying and insults. Millions of viewers around the country watched Shilpa being called “a liar and a fake”; they heard Jade tell Shilpa “You need a day in the slums. Go in your community and go to all those people who look up to you and be real”; they saw Jade say “I don’t know what her surname is. What is it? Shilpa Cookamada, Shilpa whatever Rockamada, Shilpa Poppadom”. Jo O’Meara also said “ Indians were thin because they undercooked chicken”.
The reaction to the racist attack melted on Shilpa was swift and effective. Thousands of calls were made to Ofcom; there were protests in India. Complaints were made to the police and Jade was invited for questioning by the police. A British MP of Indian descent took the matter up in the House of Parliament. Due to the reaction of the Indian community, (both in India and Britain) the issue was given serious attention. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, then the Prime Minister and Chancellor respectively both commented on the racist attack. The Archbishop of York, the UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, and the Indian Minister for External Affairs all denounced the attacks. Carphone Warehouse withdrew its sponsorship of the Big Brother programme, while The Perfume Shop dropped Jade Goody’s perfume range from its 150 UK outlets after the Big Brother controversy.
Why the racially offensive comments continue to prevail
From the above-mentioned cases, one can see that despite the fact that all events involved racist and inflammatory comments against ethnic minorities, only the Shilpa case elicited a strong reaction from the media, community, politicians, police, advertisers and regulator. In the three other cases, the only effective reaction was an apology and a one-year suspension from publishing articles. Since the Shilpa Shetty race row in 2007, there has not been any major incident in the British media in which anyone has made any racist and inflammatory comment against Indians; however blacks still continue to be subject to racist comments in some section of the British media.
Why do racially offensive comments against blacks continue to prevail in the British media? Why did the Shilpa Shetty case grab the attention of the politicians, police, advertisers etc? Why is this not the case when bigotry statements are made against blacks in the British media? Are there lessons that the black community can learn from the Indian community? The answers to these questions will be addressed in the next couple of pages.
There are eight possible reasons why racist and inflammatory comments against blacks continue to prevail in the British Media: They include:
- Apathy of the black community towards race issues
- The role of the black political class
- Lack of political will by British politicians to address racism
- Black spending power
- The state of Africa
- Apathy of the black middle class towards race issues
- Media and black influence
- General attitude towards race issues in Britain
Apathy of the black community towards race issues
Most members of the black British community are indifferent when it comes to racial issues, especially when the black community is portrayed in a negative light. There are only a few organisations and individuals that champion the rights of blacks and tackle racism in the UK. When members of the black community put on their screens, read their newspapers or turn on their radio and observe members of their race insulted by bigots, they often have the expectation that other people will complain. Very often, it has been members of other races that have taken up the cause of addressing these racial injustices.
After David Starkey made his comments on television, BBC received nearly 900 complaints from viewers, while Ofcom received just over 100 complaints. In comparison, during the Shilpa Shetty case, Ofcom received around 45,000 complaints. Due to the deluge of complaints during the Shilpa case, Ofcom’s website experienced technical problems. It should therefore not be surprising that Ofcom ruled that Celebrity Big Brother breached its code of conduct over the Shilpa race row. In contrast, the same Ofcom decided not to investigate the complaints about David Starkey’s comments. Perhaps when the black community learns to become more vocal on racial injustice, then the media will begin to become more sensitive to the blacks dignity.
The role of the black political class
Despite the prevalence of a number of black politicians in the UK, they are sometimes silent on the issue of race. Unlike their American counterparts who are very vocal on racial injustice, the black British political class is less vocal. Admittedly, they have been vocal in some high profile cases like the Stephen Lawrence case, but generally they opt to be silent most of the time. In all the three cases cited above, the black political class was silent. When David Starkey made his remark, there was hardly any response from the black political class. Even though David Starkey remarked that “..listen to David Lammy an archetypal successful black man. If you turn the screen off, so you were listening to him on radio, you would think he was white”- David Lammy failed to challenge him, rather, he wrote on twitter “Yes, I have now seen what he said. His views are irrelevant – he’s a tudor historian talking about contemporary urban unrest”. As a prominent black politician, David Lammy should have exhibited strong leadership and asked Starkey to retract his statement.
Another area where the black political class is failing to show leadership is with regards to the on going attacks on innocent blacks residing in Libya by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) army. Despite the cries of Africans, human rights agencies and concerned citizens in the UK on the plight of these people, the black MP’s are yet to discuss the issue in the House of Parliament (even though they have all been notified of the potential genocide and the UK government provides support to the NTC).
In contrast, during the Shilpa Shetty race row, Labour’s Asian MP, Keith Vaz played a key role in escalating the issue to the highest level. He tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling for immediate action on the race issue. He also asked the Managing Director of Channel Four to apologise to Shilpa and also called for his resignation. Keith Vaz openly challenged Tony Blair in the House of Parliament, asking him whether broadcasters should take care not to transmit such racist material. He also introduced Shilpa Shetty to Tony Blair. The black political class can learn from Keith Vaz’s actions during the Shilpa incident.
Lack of political will by British politicians
This point is similar to the above point, however it is not only black politicians that show apathy to race issues, but also most of the British political class in general. Politicians are often reluctant to speak up on race issues. During the David Starkey race row, only Ed Milliband, the Labour leader spoke out saying “it is disgusting absolutely outrageous that someone in the 21st century could be making that sort of comment”. Despite Milliband’s call on all politicians from all political parties to condemn what he called racist comments, his call went unheeded.
None of the politicians from the major political parties have responded to Baroness Flather’s racists comment about Nigerian men. Even though she is a life peer of the Conservative Party, the party hierarchy has not called her to order. So far, only one politician, Femi Solola, an independent London Mayoral candidate has condemned Baroness Flather’s comments. The whole British political class has also been silent on the issue of the ongoing killing of black people in Libya.
If British politicians are apathetic towards race issues, how come they strongly opposed the racist insults melted on Shilpa Shetty? The reason for the stern response from the political class was due to economic reasons.
India is one of the emerging global economic powers and is a major UK trading partner and export destination for British exports. At the time of the Shilpa race row, Gordon Brown was in India on an official trip. With the Indian politicians complaining about the treatment melted on Shilpa, coupled with the protest taking place in India, the British Government would have been aware that trade deals worth £3 trillion were under threat.
As a consequence, the reaction from the politicians was swift with: Gordon Brown saying “I understand that in the U.K. there have already been 10,000 complaints from viewers about these remarks, which people see, rightly, as offensive”; Tony Blair saying “We should oppose racism in all its forms”; Tessa Jowell saying “I think this is racism being presented as entertainment, and I think it is disgusting. My personal view is that this has caused enormous offence not only abroad but to the Indian community here” and David Cameron (then opposition leader) saying “All racism is “distasteful” and has to be opposed”.
Black spending power
According to a study commissioned by Multi-Cultural Communications and Weber Shandwick in 2007, it was estimated that by 2010, UK’s black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities spending power would reach £300bn. Another report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) on ethnic diversity in the UK, disclosed the combined disposable income of ethnic minorities at an estimated £32bn. Details on the spending power of the black British community, as a stand alone segment of society is not readily available. Although the sums earlier mentioned appear large, when one bears in mind that ethnic minorities in the UK comprise of blacks, Indians, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and other ethnic groups such as Travellers and Eastern Europeans; the spending power of blacks will be much lower than the amounts highlighted earlier. In comparison, the spending power of African Americans is significantly higher. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, black buying power in America is expected to climb to $1.1 trillion by 2014. Hence advertisers in the States tend to pay attention to the African American spending power.
Spending power is very important to companies who are always seeking means to tap into the spending power of potential consumers. Companies advertise in the media in order to gain access to the consumers. If the spending power of a particular segment of society is very strong, it is likely that companies will devote more funds to its advertising and marketing budget in order to access the segment. A sizeable amount of this budget will be channeled through the media. As a consequence, advertisers will pay close attention when the activities of the media negatively impact its core or potential customers. Furthermore, the media will be cautious in how it portrays groups with strong spending power, for fear of losing business from advertisers.
In the United Kingdom, the black community does not have strong purchasing power and this is due to several reasons such as low population size relative to the total population and economic factors. Relative to other ethnic groups in the UK, blacks are relatively poorer. The proportion of people who live in low-income households is 50 per cent for black Africans, which is lower than all other ethnic groups with the exception of the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Furthermore, a survey conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research revealed that almost half of black people aged between 16 and 24 are unemployed, compared with 20 per cent of white people of the same age. According to the Office of National Statistics, between April and June 2010, 17.1 per cent and 23.3 per cent of black Caribbean’s and black Africans respectively lived in a household where nobody had a job.
This lack of economic and spending power often results in the reluctance by advertisers and the media to ensure that the black segment of society is treated fairly by the media. So when blacks are degraded, insulted and ridiculed in the media, the advertisers often turn a blind eye and do not put pressure on the media to address the racial injustice.
None of the advertisers put any pressure on the media houses to address the inflammatory racial comments melted on the black community by David Starkey and Baroness Flather. On the contrary, during the Shilpa Shetty race row, the advertisers put pressure on Channel Four to address the racial injustice. The Chief Executive Officer of Carphone Warehouse, the sponsor of the Big Brother programme said, “Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house. We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse”. Eventually, Carphone Warehouse withdrew its yearly £3million sponsorship of the series and there were threats from other advertisers to pull out. Furthermore, The Perfume Shop, the UK Perfumery chain, withdrew Jade Goody’s perfume range from all of its 150 UK stores.
The State of Africa
Malcolm X, the civil rights activist once argued that as long as Africa is viewed in a bad light, it will be difficult for blacks around the world to gain the respect of others.
Black people from all over the world are either directly or indirectly linked to Africa. Africa is also home to the largest concentration of black people in the world. Unfortunately, Africa faces a number of challenges ranging from poverty, disease, poor leadership, war and famine. Most of the challenges that Africa faces is heavily reported and emphasized in the media, while the good points about Africa are under reported. The portrayal of Africa has led many individuals and institutions to have a low regard for the continent, its people and its culture. This disregard for Africa has also extended to blacks in other parts of the world, who are also viewed negatively.
There is also apathy on the part of a number of African leaders to ensure the well being of its citizens particularly those based outside of the continent. When Africans are ridiculed in other countries, majority of African government officials turn a blind eye. This is in contrast to other governments. For instance, during the Shilpa Shetty race row, key government officials in India protested. The Indian Minister for External Affairs, Anand Sharma remarked ‘‘it has caused indignation, it is most unfortunate, and any kind of racism – or racist slur – is unacceptable in any civilised society”. He also said that the Indian Government was preparing a report on the show; the Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi asked Shilpa to visit the Indian high commission in London when she came out of the Big Brother house. He also said “If there has been some racism shown against her in the show, it is not only an attack on women but also on the skin and the country”.
On the economic front, African countries are not economic powers, so they don’t have the economic and political clout in international diplomacy. Furthermore, with the exception of South Africa, there is no predominately black populated nation that is in the list of UK’s top trading partners as can be seen overleaf:
UK Top 25 Trading Partners as at July 2011
|
Rank |
Country of Destination |
Year to date 2011 -£m |
Year to date 2010- £m |
% Change 2011/ 2010 |
| 1 | United States |
21,931 |
20,981 |
4.5 |
| 2 | Germany |
18,656 |
16,223 |
15.0 |
| 3 | France |
13,601 |
11,672 |
16.5 |
| 4 | Netherlands |
13,374 |
12,559 |
6.5 |
| 5 | Irish Republic |
9,798 |
9,123 |
7.4 |
| 6 | Belgium |
8,932 |
7,410 |
20.5 |
| 7 | Italy |
5,983 |
5,187 |
15.3 |
| 8 | Spain |
5,648 |
5,812 |
-2.8 |
| 9 | China |
4,790 |
3,970 |
20.6 |
| 10 | Sweden |
3,602 |
3,022 |
19.2 |
| 11 | India |
3,095 |
2,214 |
39.8 |
| 12 | Switzerland |
3,062 |
2,912 |
5.2 |
| 13 | Canada |
2,789 |
2,383 |
17.1 |
| 14 | Hong Kong |
2,765 |
2,299 |
20.2 |
| 15 | UAE |
2,659 |
2,120 |
25.4 |
| 16 | Poland |
2,656 |
1,994 |
33.2 |
| 17 | Japan |
2,534 |
2,402 |
5.5 |
| 18 | Russia |
2,521 |
1,614 |
56.2 |
| 19 | Australia |
2,462 |
1,735 |
41.9 |
| 20 | Turkey |
2,172 |
1,658 |
31.0 |
| 21 | Singapore |
2,000 |
1,873 |
6.8 |
| 22 | South Africa |
1,897 |
1,450 |
30.9 |
| 23 | Norway |
1,892 |
1,708 |
10.8 |
| 24 | Denmark |
1,855 |
1,535 |
20.9 |
| 25 | Saudi Arabia |
1,751 |
1,709 |
2.5 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customs, Overseas Trade Statistics
With no economic stake to lose, it is obvious why there has been no pressure from UK government officials on the media to address racist and inflammatory comments directed at the black community.
Apathy of the black middle class towards race issues
In September 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois, the African American civil rights activist and sociologist published his influential essay titled ‘The Talented Tenth’. In his essay, Du Bois argued that social change for the blacks in the then segregated America could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called “the Talented Tenth“. He suggested that the educated and influential among the blacks should lift up the remaining blacks. He wrote, “The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground”.
In the United Kingdom, the so-called black middle class could be described as a modern day equivalent of the ‘Talented Tenth’. Though they are influential, talented and in some instances extremely wealthy, the question one needs to ask is: Is the black British middle class rising up to pull its downtrodden brothers and sisters up to their vantage ground? In modern day Britain, the bulk of the people subject to racism are the poor, the weak, the uneducated, the vulnerable and those without a voice. The downtrodden black people of Britain are often not influential enough to speak out and fight conscious and unconscious racism. In contrast, the black middle class has in some ways, been able to overcome the obstacles of racial injustice and is often fully integrated into British society.
Unfortunately, as the so-called black middle class climb up the social and economic ladder, they often forget about their brethrens at the bottom rung of the ladder. Rather than use their wealth, influence and intellect to fight racial injustice and speak up when blacks are racially insulted in the media, they prefer to use their fortune solely for their own benefits. They often look down on their less fortunate brothers and sisters who they regard as inferior people who have failed to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. When issues of race come up, the so-called black middle class are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, friends or being tagged as “using the race card”. They often believe that “ If I can make it here, why can’t my lazy brothers and sisters make it here, rather than blaming their misfortune on racism”.
One imagines, what could happen if the Talented Tenth, decided to put pressure on their MPs to call on the government to put pressure on BBC to condemn the remark made by David Starkey? What could happen if the Talented Tenth wrote an Open Letter to the Conservative Leadership condemning Baroness Flather’s racist chant about Nigerian men? What could happen if the Talented Tenth agreed to march to No. 10 Downing Street to urge Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle the prevalence of racist and inflammatory comments against blacks in the British media?
Media and black influence
There are not many black owned media outlets to voice out the concerns of the black community. Furthermore, in the mainstream media, the black community is under represented. There are very few senior personnel in many of the British media houses, although there are a few black newscasters such as Gillian Joseph and Trevor McDonald. When one looks at the Board of these mainstream media houses, there is hardly any representative from the black community. Besides The Voice, there are very few black oriented newspapers. Also The Voice is not a mainstream newspaper, so the majority of the British population does not read the views expressed in these newspapers. Because of the lack of influence in the mainstream British media, there is no black voice within the media to put pressure on the media houses to refrain from allowing racially inflammatory comments to be aired.
General attitude towards race issues in Britain
The last factor accounting for the prevalence of racially inflammatory commentaries in the British media is the societies general attitude towards race issues. Unlike the USA where racism is continuously debated and discussed, in the UK, the R- word is sort of a taboo. People feel uncomfortable when the R word is mentioned. Even among the blacks in the UK, the R word is sometimes avoided. When one raises the issue of racism, the often-quoted phrase used to silence the individual is “ you are bringing up the race card”. This fear of raising the R question has resulted in many race related issues being swept under the carpet.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have refrained from addressing the causes of racism, as a lot has already been written on this topic. The discussion on the factors contributing to the prevalence of racist and inflammatory comments against blacks in the British media, coupled with the analysis of the four case studies should help activists, policy makers, the media, the government and the black community develop strategies to address these bigoted attacks.
Tackling the projection of racist comments in the media will go a long way in reducing racism. This is because, if a high profile individual can go on TV or any other form of media and make racially offensive comments, without suffering the consequences of such statements, then this could motivate conscious and especially unconscious racists to become more vocal in expressing their racist views. After all, for every racially inflammatory comment made in the open in the British media, there is likely to be hundreds and if possible thousands of other unnoticed comments in classrooms, offices, bars and stadiums.
However, if the prevalent racist and inflammatory comments against the black community in the British media is to be a thing of the past, the black community has to take the first step.
Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
The views stated in this article are personal to the writer and does not represent the views or opinions of any company or organisation with which the author is or was associated.
© Ahmed Sule 2011
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Appendix 1- Comparative Analysis of BBC’s David Starkey Race Row with Channel Four’s Shilpa Shetty Race Row |
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| Summary | David Starkey’s Race Row | Shilpa Shetty Race Row |
| Date | 12 August 2011 | 17 January 2007 |
| Comment | “The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion….” | “Indians were thin because they undercooked their food….” |
| Number/types of complaints | 900 complaints to BBC; 103 to Ofcom | 45,000 complaints to Ofcom, complaints made to the Indian Embassy, police, Channel Four |
| UK political response | Ed Milliband – Labour leader | Tony Blair- (Prime Minister); Gordon Brown (Chancellor); Tessa Jowell (Culture Secretary); Keith Vaz (Labour MP); David Cameron (Conservative leader) |
| Front page newspaper headline | None | The Independent: RACISM; Daily Mirror- Beauty v Bigot; The Sun- National Disgrace; Daily Mail- The Big Issue? |
| Ofcom’s response | No investigation of complaints | Ruled that Celebrity Big Brother breached its code of conduct over the race row. |
| Advertisers response | None | Carphone Warehouse withdrew £3m sponsorship; contacted Channel Four; The Perfume Shop withdrew Jade Goody’s range of perfume from all its 150 UK outlets. |
| Response from ethnic minority politicians | David Lammy writes a tweet stating that Starkey’s comments are irrelevant | Keith Vaz asks Channel Four’s CEO to apologise, calls for the dismissal of Channel Four’s CEO; Challenges Prime Minister in the House of Commons; introduces Shilpa to Prime Minister; tables a motion in the House of Commons calling for urgent action. |
| Response from media house | BBC refuse to apologise | Channel Four conducts a review; appoints a welfare officer; introduces a new intervention policy; appoints first viewers editor; Chairman expresses regret; Board meeting held. |
