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RACE ROW: Big Brother contestant Gina Rio

IS THE big ‘race’ row in the latest edition of Big Brother just a ‘racy row’ about a lady who prefers blondes?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, that classic movie starring Marilyn Monroe may as well have been called Gentlemen Prefer White Girls.

Because at the end of the day, ‘blondes’ is code for ‘white’ isn’t it? Unless you are that confused sista with the cheap peroxide wig who was walking your daughter to school in Finchley the other morning, sistas know deep down that they are excluded from the gentleman’s club in question where the members prefer the blue eyes and pale skin of a blonde.

It’s no big deal, surely? It’s just a question of ‘preference’ as the title suggests. It doesn’t mean that a gentleman would turn down an offer of some serious business with a sista were the offer on the table with no strings attached and no money having to exchange hands. They would prefer if it was a white lady, but gentlemen are gentlemen are gentlemen and, like any other man, prefer Pedigree Chum.

So why has this preference blown up in the faces of that fading television franchise? Well, some posh girl in the latest series was telling a black girl that she didn’t fancy black men. She would date any other type of guy but not a black guy.

The black girl took offence and the white girl subsequently got a warning by Big Brother because what she said may be found offensive by some of the housemates. Oh PUR-LEEZE!

Who would find it offensive? The same people who would find it offensive that some black gentlemen prefer blondes. Yes, believe it or not, there are black guys who prefer white. No doubt there are black women who prefer blondes too. Ain’t nothing wrong with that is there? Are they being racist? Are they confused about their identity? Is it some kind of self-hate declaration? Or is it simply that they fancy some of that blonde fur? You tell me.

And it’s no use sistas thinking that all they’ve got to do is put on a blonde wig (like that lady in Finchley I was telling you about). Because no amount of blondness will get black gentlemen who prefer blondes even noticing you. Like I said, it’s not about the hair, it’s about the skin.

Which brings me nicely round to Buju. Remember when the now-incarcerated Banton released that boom single Browning? The lyrics went: “Mi love me car, me love mi bike, mi love mi money and ting, but most of all mi love mi browning...”

Well, you can imagine what the reaction was amongst black men who for years had resisted flaunting their preference for brownings in public. Suddenly, by Buju’s crowning of the browning with his tune, black men everywhere - and a few white men - were saying loud, that they were browning lovers and proud...

Black women though were of another opinion and didn’t mince words in telling Buju what an ignorant and wotless intra-racial prejudiced singer he was. Under pressure, Buju rushed out a follow-up to Browning called Love Me Black Woman. Well, that didn’t exactly convince anyone, least of all the black men who preferred blondes and their sidekicks who preferred brownings.

All this of course is history, but was it ever racist?

What this Big Brother row has shown is that we need more black people in top positions in the backrooms of television studios - producers, directors, editors and such like, who can take the decisions that white people are too afraid to take, and quite frankly are unable to take because so many white people in positions of power no longer know what is racist and what is not racist and they are confusing our legitimate concerns about the institutional discrimination that holds us back with foolishness about who fancies who.