Big Brother: ‘Does Chris ignore me over race?’
Big Brother’s Deana Uppal has suggested that fellow contestant Chris James ignored her in the house because she is Indian, reports the Daily Star.
Chris, 21, was evicted from the show, but 23-year-old model Deana had become increasingly frustrated by the bouncer’s silence and confessed to the other housemates that she fears it was because of her ethnicity.
“Chris hasn’t spoken to me at all and he’s spoken to everybody else,” she whispered to Luke Anderson and Lydia Louisa earlier in the week.
“I’ve not done anything for him to not like me. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s because… you know? You know what I mean?”
Louisa was then seen to nod in agreement with the Miss India UK winner, who has spoken about receiving racial abuse in the past.
“I grew up in an area where it was all English people,” Deana explained prior to entering the house. “Me and my mum were the only Indians.
This is not the first time that Big Brother has been at the centre of race-related controversy.
Contestant Emily Parr was removed from the house in 2007 after she uttered a racial slur. Also in 2007, celebrities including Jade Goody found themselves at the heart of a racism row following discussions about fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty.
Big Brother now warns housemates about using offensive language and has also banned them from mimicking foreign accents.
