[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Gayle

I disagree Willow, I think it's right that it's been discussed a lot. On the one hand it is a TV programme and purely entertainment but on the other it has over recent years opened up a lot of debates.

There are a lot of issues surrounding racism and its definition - yes, there clearly is still a lot of racism in the uk (I would not deny that at all, I work with it on a regular basis) but also there are a lot of over zealous do-gooders shouting racism in all manner of situations when it possibly isn't there i.e. it's a good excuse in other words - we don't get on so let's call it racism. So we do need to define what real racism is and then address it!

It doesn't matter what prompts the discussion as long as we have it.

I was referring to the fact that Danielle seemed bemused that a row in the BB house could have led to debates in the House of Commons when there are more serious things going on like people being killed in Iraq.

I read the response by Shilpa's parents which I thought made a lot more sense than anything else which has been said on the subject. They seem to have it in proportion and have a far more adult attitude than anyone else.

Of course there are far too many situations where people claim they have been subject to racism when all they have been subject to is a disagreement on some matter from someone of a different race. That isn't racism but we (as a country) seem to be losing the definition of what racism actually is.

For people to acknowledge that there are different races and differences between the races and that some physical traits (blue eyes for instance) are very rare in some races is not racism, it's merely observation of fact - like the time a friend of my daughter when she was at primary school said that white skin was better than brown. It may have seemed a racist comment on the surface and something to worry about - but when I asked her why she replied that when she drew on her own brown legs she couldn't see what she'd drawn as well as she could when she drew on my daughter's pale legs!

When people accuse others falsely of racism perhaps their own racist attitude needs to be questioned.