"Racist" Big Brother is good for Britain

It's difficult for most white people in Britain to understand and recognise the low level, everyday racism that goes on in our society.

After all, if you're white, living in a predominantly white country and in a predominantly white area, you're unlikely to feel that your skin colour means you don't belong.

As a white person in the UK, I never understood it until I was in my mid-twenties when I found myself in a mixed-race relationship. Then I started to notice the disapproving looks, the sneers, the whispered comments.

It's unpleasant and it's racist.

And, anyone who's experienced this will recognise it in the Celebrity Big Brother Household.

When Danielle Lloyd said that Shilpa Shetty should "fuck off home", there can be no doubt that the underlying message was that Shetty - and her Indian customs - don't belong.

Fortunately for Lloyd, she'll have a lot of spare time to think about this after she gets out the house as her career as a minor-celebrity WAG is now dead in the water.

Similarly, the odious Goody and O'Meara have killed off their media careers - whatever those were.

However, the loss of those three from the z-list celebrity ranks is only a small part of the benefit of this year's Celebrity Big Brother.

As I said before, most of us have not suffered this type of racism. In fact, many people haven't even understood that this is racism or realised the impact it has on those who suffer it.

Being able to watch Shilpa Shetty suffer gives white British people the opportunity to empathise and understand this problem.

And, to use that understanding to reflect upon their own behaviour and actions so they can remove this type of racism from their own behaviour.

Britain has undoubtedly done a good job in fighting the more aggressive forms of racism from our society. And the progress we've made in the last 30 years is something we should be proud of.

However, we've become complacent about "passive racism". Hopefully, Shilpa Shetty's experiences will allow us to understand that we still need to work on our attitudes towards other cultures.