Jade Goody, the British woman who reportedly “racially abused” fellow Big Brother contestant Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress, has apparently traveled to India and committed to donate her earnings from the show to “charities for poor Indian children”. She has also “apologised to Indians who had been hurt by her behaviour.”

I’ll admit to being only on the very periphery of news about the Big Brother event in question. As far as I understand, Goody’s remarks drew a gigantic number of comments from upset viewers, and there is also of course talk about various possible publicity stunts. I did a bit of google sleuthing to educate myself but will let readers do the same to avoid posting links here and getting bogged down in a discussion about the details of the case.

This situation raises a few questions in my mind. First of all…can this kind of action (donating and apologizing), even if we give the do-er the benefit of the doubt and assume honorable, non-publicity-stunt motives, “undo” a past misstep?

Is it the right thing to do anyhow, or is the fact that it will be seen as nothing more than a publicity stunt reason enough not to do it? The simple answer would be “yes, at least the charities get the money in that case.”

The second issue is on the topic of racism, and is not directly connected to this situation, but to one that international volunteers as travelers in other cultures may face. Many people – myself included – speak very highly of respecting the local culture: it’s not right or wrong just because it is different from ours. But what if the local culture has elements of racism or prejudice or sexism or other discrimination in it? What can you, as a foreigner and essentially an outsider, do? What should you do? Is everything culturally relevant, or are there some things or views that are always just plain wrong?

What do you think?

To read about my experience with this as a traveler and English language teacher abroad, check out my TEFL Logue post How Should EFL Teachers Deal With Stereotypes?