I don't feel particularly sorry for Emily. Fair enough, it's obvious that, in the context, she didn't mean to be racist towards Charley. However, reguardless of the politics of the matter, whether black people using it is ok or not, whether it's ok for people to say it, or who it's ok to be offensive to and who it's not, doesn't change the fact that she shouldn't have said it.
The word she used was EXTREMELY offensive to black people, including people watching the show. And the fact that she said it to Charley, a black woman, who, had she not had a sense of humour and known it was a joke, could have been seriously offended too, just makes it MORE stupid. She's supposed to be an intelligent girl, and after the whole fiasco with Shilpa Shetty in Celebrity BB last year, she should have known you can't make flippant remarks that could be taken to be racist. In short, SHE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.
I personally would never use that word. You CANNOT call somebody a n*****, and I dont think its funny as a joke either. As for whether I have a problem with black people using it, well, thats another debate for another day.
I do think channel 4 is probably really, really pleased that this happened. They had a chance to prove that they will not tolerate racism in the way they allowed it to go on last year.
Plus I think Emily was not a nice person. She put up a facade for the first 2 days or so of being sweet and kind, but the thing about BB is, you just CANNOT keep that up 24/7. Eventually people end up being themselves.
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