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BB girl kicked out for racism
By Anna Davis and Bo Wilson, London Lite 08.06.07
Outburst: Emily called Charley a n*gger
Upset: Charley bursts into tears after being told Emily has been kicked out the house
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Big Brother contestant Emily Parr has been kicked off the show for using a racially offensive word towards another housemate.
The 19-year-old called Charley Uchae a "n*****" as they danced together in the living room of the house last night.
And she was woken up in the early hours of today and removed from the show for breaking the rules over her comments. It is the second time the programme has been embroiled in a race row after the Shilpa Shetty controversy on Celebrity Big Brother in January, which sparked outrage across the world.
Pictures: Emily is kicked out of the house
The latest outburst came when Emily was dancing with Charley and Nicky Maxwell, when she pushed her hips forward and said: "Are you pushing it out you n*****?" A shocked Charley and Nicky immediately told her the word was unacceptable, and Emily insisted it had been a joke.
Nicky said: "Em, I can't believe you said that", and Charley added: "You are in big trouble."
Emily urged them not to "make a big thing out of it" but the girls continued to discuss the issue with Emily, insisting she is "friendly with plenty of black people".
Channel 4 bosses decided to remove her from the house, and woke Emily up at 3.28am by calling her to the Diary Room to break the news. She was not allowed to contact other housemates and was escorted from the house. The rest of the housemates were told about her eviction at 9.30am today.
Housemate Lesley Brain, 60, read a statement aloud saying: "Emily has been removed from the house."
Charley broke down crying and said: "You wouldn't ever hear something like that coming out of my mouth."
Emily, a drama student from Bristol, is a Tory voter and admits to being right wing. She lists benefits cheats as among her pet hates and predicted that the public will want to "be her friend".
She lives with her parents - chemical worker Roger and mum Mandy - at their £350,000 large detached modern house in the city along with her twin sisters Jessica and Alice. Angela Jain, who heads the Big Brother commissioning team at Channel 4, said: "I think people watching the show tonight will agree that Emily spoke carelessly rather than maliciously. She understands why her involvement in Big Brother has had to come an end."
But Channel 4 faced further controversy as it was revealed the footage will be broadcast tonight with the N-word featured for the first time and then bleeped for its subsequent use.
The eviction planned for tomorrow night - which Emily was up for - has been cancelled.
Earlier this year, the celebrity version of the programme sparked outrage across the world when Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd made disparaging remarks about fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty. Comments directed at Shetty included "Shilpa Poppadum" and Lloyd saying she should "f*ck off home."
It became an international row, with effigies of Goody being burned in India and sparked a police investigation.
Ofcom ordered Channel 4 to make a series of on-air apologies for its failure to act, including an announcement before the new series began last week.
Reader views (18)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Good to read that trash TV isn't confined to the United States.
Cheers!
- Tony, Smalltown, USA
Isn't it about time heads started to roll at Channel 4?
How much longer will they continue to broadcast this lowest-common denominator drivel?
Never mind this young woman being evicted...the highly paid executives responsible for manipulating these people should be sharing her taxi home!
Channel 4 was once an innovative, quality, channel that catered for minority tastes. That seems a long, long, time ago!
- Steve R, London, UK
What an absolute idiot. How many times have we heard her say 'I was only joking' already? Good riddance.
- Geri, Dublin
The fact that BB is still choosing to air this footage tonight explains it all.
- Jim, Chingford
Big Brother has become a liability to all those involved, from contestants to sponsors. The show should be put to an end, permanently. Please end the vacuous and annoying spectacle.
- Ben, London
Perhaps if the media totally ignored this rubbish it might go the same way as the albatross! Channel 4 must love the column inches they are generating, as at the end of the day it is all publicity.
- Michael, London
Emily Parr should not be allowed to say stuff like that to anyone, I'm glad she has been booted out.As for Charley lets hope the public get her out and soon.
- Claire, West Mids
aving not seen the clip yet, it's very difficult to comment. However, I'm guessing that the comment was made in an attempt to be 'street' or 'gangsta'. For those not familiar with the term, this relates to the attitude parodied by Ali G - 'is it because I is black'?
When younger I had plenty of black (and, indeed, friends from the Indian sub-continent) who referred to each other as 'n****' and who would openly mock me (in jest) in relation to my taste in music and clothes - 'you aint no nigger, white boy'. The ironic thing was that, in 80% of the cases, if we assume that 'n****' is used as a derogatory term for someone of African heritage, then neither were they.
It's very unfair to tar Emily with this brush if, as I suspect, she was using this term in a non-racist manner. It's a little absurb for the Commission for Racial Equality to excuse her of racism if using a word that, within certain circles, is used as a badge of honour (as described above).
An over-reaction from Big Brother, I think. What next - evicting the first house-mate to call Lesley 'old'....
- Steve, London
I agree with James. Although the word in itself is racist, it seems she didn't intend to use it in this way and immediately regretted it. Whereas in celebrity BB they didn't even seem to realise that their behaviour was racist - which is far worse. Definitely a scapegoat. It would be interesting to see in this situation what would have happened if Charley had called Emily or Nicky a n****. Although of course racism should not be tolerated, sometimes political correctness goes a bit too far. C4 obviously felt a responsibility because they should have acted sooner when Shilpa was being bullied.
- Gemma, London
"We can see from this incident that there is no stereotype of a racist, they come from all walks of life, education and social background."
Hmm, I think the CRE missed out the label "ethnic" to that list of attributes. They just continue to propagate the lie that only white people can be racist!!
- Phil, London
O boy .... here we go again. Goodness me, as a black person I am sick of hearing our own shout out the word to each other and in rap lyrics, however, that is not to say that Emily is a racist. She is irritating, she is argumentative, she is very annoying, but racist?..... She thought she was being "hip". Just like the Shilpa thing got out of hand... that was bullying not racism. Anyway I am sure BB will enjoy the higher rating it will get from this. Charley said "n.. word", does that mean that she gets booted out.... God I hope so!
- Miss Em, London W1
Call me cynical but just watch BB's viewing figures rocket, who exactly watches this dross?
- Trevor Roll, London
I agree with James. The girl is very immature, probably thought she was being cool or ironic. But kicking her out is a good lesson for her.
- Cl, London
Any chance she was planted there by the producers? It's all rather convenient isn't it? That transcript came out alarmingly quickly for instance, the celebrity one took weeks.
Also, judging by that transcript that other girl used the same word so why is she not getting the boot as well?
What a pointless waste of television.
- Dave, Dalston, London
Emily, if you let BB's in-house agents represent you, they might put you back in! All overblown, it's pretty obvious that the producers are doing everything in their power to make Tracy win - just as with Pete, Shilpa and Chantelle. Nothing wrong with the idea of this show, the producers are just pathetic.
- Dan, Surrey
For goodness sake please Channel 4 abandon future plans to screen this garbage. For the next 3 months those of us who have any kind of intelligence will lose one of our TV channels to this unmatchable drivel.
- Steph, Ilford
i can't believe england! unconscious racism is still racism and i believe many people out there are just pure racists.
- Edmund Wee, coventry
I bet Channel 4 can't believe their luck. Suddenly they look all righteous. emily is just a scapegoat. Sure she shouldn't have said it but if they were dancing around to some r&b or hip hop tune shouting 'yo yo' a lot then perhaps it could at least be understood since a large number of lyrics from black artists are peppered with the word. Not an apropriate world to use but i don't think it means she is racist.
- James, London
