Johann Hari: Jade Goody showed the brutal reality of Britain
In her short life, this big-hearted and big-mouthed woman reflected our own bigotry and stupidity
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YUI MOK/PA
Jade leaves the Big Brother house at Elstree studios in 2002
Jade Goody: A life in pictures
There will be no rewrite of "Candle in the Wind" for Jade Goody's funeral, but in her own glottal, gobby way, she jabbed a knitting needle into the subconscious of Britain just as surely as Diana Spencer did, and revealed something dark and darkening about us. Why was a big-hearted, big-mouthed young woman who came fourth on a reality show back in 2002 seized on with such glee and turned into one of the most famous people in the country? Because we needed her, to salve our own soiled consciences.
In her short life, Jade showed how as Britain has spiralled into one of the most unequal and immobile societies on earth, we have begun to openly jeer and sneer at the people trapped at the bottom. We gleefully seized on her as "proof" that the people rotting on abandoned estates were not there because of the grim accident of birth, but because they were stupid and ugly and bigoted. And all we proved – with unwitting irony – was our own stupidity and ugliness and bigotry.
Here was a 20-year-old girl with a noisy laugh, a quick wit, and almost no knowledge. She thought "East Angular" was a separate country, and wondered what currency they use in Liverpool. So the press jeered that she was "a moron", "the High Priestess of the Slagocracy", and "proof of Britain's underclass".
That summer, a string of images of white, working-class women presenting them as bestial imbeciles dominated our screens. Vicky Pollard – a single mum so thick she swaps her baby for a Westlife CD, played by a multimillionaire private schoolboy – was becoming a national icon. A chaotic single mum established Wife Swap as one of our favourite shows. Words of straightforward snobbish abuse – "chav" and "pikey" – were becoming acceptable again.
Go to any extremely unequal society, say, South Africa, or South America, and you will find a furiously suppressed sense of guilt. It's hard not to ask, at the back of your mind, "Why am I here in this mansion, while they are in the slums?" This guilt is resolved one way: by convincing yourself that the poor are sub-human, and don't have feelings like you and me. Oh, the people in the barrios and townships? They're animals! They stink! They're stupid! Jade and Vicky and the labelling of the poor as "chavs" filled that role for us. They know nothing! They are repulsive!
Nobody wanted to stop and ask: why doesn't Jade know much? Here's why. Her mother was a seriously disabled drug addict, so Jade didn't go to school much because she stayed at home to look after her. From the age of five, she was in charge of doing the cooking and ironing and cleaning. Jade explained: "As early as I could remember, I'd spent my whole life trying to protect my mum, frantically hiding the stolen chequebooks she used to have lying around the house when the police barged in on one of their raids; desperately denying to the teachers at school that she'd hit me for fear of being sent to social services."
Her father treated her even worse. He stashed a gun under her cot, and her first memory was of him shooting heroin in her bedroom, his eyes rolling back and his body juddering. Eventually, after periods in and out of prison, he was found dead from an overdose in the toilet of a Kentucky Fried Chicken. "He died without a single vein left in his body," Jade said. "In the end, he'd injected every single part of it and all his veins had collapsed, even the ones in his penis."
Despite this, Jade always worked, in shops, for minimum wage, and stayed away from drugs (apart from weed). She applied for Big Brother because her mum was sinking into crack addiction, and she couldn't think of any other way to avoid witnessing it. To the end, she was terrified of matches, and couldn't bear to have tinfoil in her house, because they reminded her of crack.
And so she appeared in British public life, and we jeered and howled and held her up as a poster-girl for "the underclass". Jade soon proved her latent smartness by turning her fourth place on Big Brother into a fortune, launching her own brand of perfume, a beauty salon, and a series of sensitive, rather beautiful autobiographies, all appealing to young women who had never seen people just like themselves on television before. The perception of her slowly changed. As people learned about her life story – and saw her chaotic, broken mother being interviewed – many realised that their gleeful poring over her mispronunciations had been vile. The sense of superiority was, for a moment, scrambled.
Then came Celebrity Big Brother, and oh, how we rejoiced. Jade was placed in the house with Shilpa Shetty, a sweet, unworldly Bollywood star who had been raised with servants and never had to do anything practical for herself. She activated all of Jade's feelings of being sneered at and patronised all her life. Jade said: "Ultimately, we were fighting because we were from different classes ... I didn't want anyone to think they're better than me, just because they have more money or have had a more educated upbringing. And, to me, she was a posh, up-herself princess."
One day, Shilpa tried to flush an entire cooked chicken down the toilet. Jade, enraged and perplexed, started to scream at her. "Who the fuck are you? You aren't some Princess in Neverland!" she yelled. She said Shilpa clearly had no idea how ordinary Indians lived, and howled: "You need a day in the slums!" This was seized on as racist, equivalent to telling her to go back where she came from. But it wasn't. Other housemates did say despicable, racist things about Shilpa: the beauty queen Danielle Lloyd said "I think she should fuck off home ... She can't even speak English properly." But Jade didn't; her own father was mixed-race, for one.
But here was a way we could rehabilitate our Jaded view of the white working class, and feel self-righteous about it too. If we can't feel superior to the poor because they are stupid, then we can feel superior to them because they are racist. One newspaper ran the typical headline "Class vs Trash" over a picture of Shilpa and Jade, and a columnist huffed that Jade's problem was "hating her social superiors". Once more, we could hate the poor and feel good about it too.
And even when she was dying, we continued to jeer. Nobody said John Diamond was "exploiting" his cancer by writing about it in The Times, but Jade's decision to talk about it on TV so she could leave a pot of cash for her kids was apparently evidence of her "vulgarity". One newspaper huffs that now we will be subjected to "a chav state funeral".
Even as she rots, we still want to see Jade Goody as a "chav" imbecile, subconsciously reassuring us that our own higher place in the class pyramid is earned by our intellect and sensitivity and anti-racism, rather than by the fluke of birth.
Believe that if you want, but you should know it's not Jade you are condemning, but yourself.
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Comments
basildoneye.co.uk
"Hari has reported from many parts of the world, including Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Venezuela, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, the United States, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Peru and Syria."
Don't you feel a tad foolish...? :-)
J
x
Sensitive and sensible, well written.
That saod, she achieved a great deal in her very short time. She might have been rudely uneducated but she deserves respect for her smarts. When opportunities crossed her path she grabbed them with both hands and made the most of 'em. That courageous side of her is a great role model for anyone, no matter what their background! I second the RIP above, Jane, you were an inspiration to anyone who wishes to struggle to make their life better!
As for your stupid comments about sueing the NHS, you might be interested to know that "The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust was the first dedicated cancer hospital in the world. Today it remains a world leader, dedicated to excellence in cancer patient care, cancer research, cancer treatment and education for healthcare professionals with an interest in cancer...". Unless you know about a cure for cancer that is currently unknown to humankind of course, then perhaps to can call and give them a heads up about it. Everyone I know has lost someone in their family to cancer, including myself, and I certainly don't hold the NHS responsible for losing them.
It's sad that Jade has joined the long list of people lost to cancer, but she was hardly a national hero. She was someone doing the best she could for herself and her family, which is what we all try to do isn't it?
She's the product of the sick money and celebrity obsessed culture we have created for ourselves in this country.
She was funded and created by the celebrity industry who's avid followers (of which we are all members to one degree or another) tracked her every move for want of a life of their own, and yet still had the cheek to slag her off for being less than perfect in the public eye.
Now she's dead - and you still won't let it go.
This an amusing sentiment, especially from the prides-himself-on-being-enlightened Mr Hari.
Whatever, as somebody who is neither bigoted nor stupid, I hereby exempt myself from the notion that the life and death of Jade Goody in anyway reflected upon one's character.
Nice try, Mr Hari, keep selling newspapers.
As you read this the sand continues to flow to the bottom and what none of us know is if there is a black bit of grit hidden in the remaining sand which can gets trapped in the neck of the eggtimer stopping the flow of sand..............symbolising death.
I bet you now feel a lot better. "Gordon darling, the garbage man is at the front door,.......tell him we don't want any Sarah darling "
Monday is the best day of the week.......it is the furthest day from the next one.
I remember a piece you wrote several years back, explaining that the term "chav" was unfair, because, "you try raising a family on GBP120 a week" - or some such. And I thought then that it was balderdash.
By vindicating Jade, you are apologising for all of us and justifying her ways, well, "not in my name"
No more can we expect our values to come from the old school of values, now as long as the media say it is ok, anything goes. Very sad indeed!
I am no fan of big brother, and consider it grotesque, and the mere sight of it on television makes me squirm, and reach for the off button.
all the same, having read Johanns excellent article it brings home to me the awfulness of the home life that was the driving force behind jades appearances therein.
whilst I am desperately uncomfortable at her attempt to gross as much out of her death by cancer, I understand what has driven her.
one further point. Johann spoils his article by saying' as she rots'.
no one rots. no one. once the physical body which is a mere vehicle f the spirit, is vacated, it rots. but jade is free of it now, and no doubt in some part of the afterlife, where suffering is unheard of. she s very much alive now, though living in a different expression of reality. this thought alone should fill us with joy, not some dread of death which s hopelessly mistaken. no one should ever fear death unless they are a Fritzl or a Harold Shipman!!
whilst I have little time for religion, I do fully accept all this.
Sadly, her life is a reflection of the society that has grown up over the last 30 years. For many since the early 1980s, the reality became no work, but life revolving round the benefit system. Some, like Jade's parents, filled their time and their despair with drugs and petty crime to fund their habit.
We live in a thoroughly depressing, winner takes all society. If you have money, then you are feted. If you are poor you're ignored or jeered at as a failure. As the string of top bankers and business people have shown recently, once you get to a certain level, you appear to be above the law.
Jade died with dignity and her death from cancer has made others aware of tests that are available to spot the disease before it is too late. Give the young woman credit where credit is due. And let her rest in peace.
We British seem to have come full circle in 100 years from the Victorian workhouse ideals through the enlightened and caring society and now back to the culture of greed and veiws of the poor as being the lazy potentially criminal class.
I feel ashamed to be British more and more these days.