The BBC's diversity chief has claimed Idris Elba's TV detective Luther 'isn't black enough to be real' because 'he doesn't have any black friends and doesn't eat any Caribbean food'.
Yes, she's black herself. It's only surprising she didn't give an interview clutching a lump of watermelon to make her point, I suppose...
Miranda Wayland said the hit crime drama, which won plaudits for having a strong, black lead character, was only superficially diverse and that corporation bosses are now looking to portray minority groups in a more convincing and rounded way.
Like...what? I mean, as has been pointed out by so very many people, this is almost a worse kind of racism and stereotyping than the old fashioned kind.
...Ms Wayland told the MIPTV conference this week that to achieve true representation, TV chiefs must ensure black characters have an environment and culture built around them that is completely reflective of their background.
Well, I guess 'Crimewatch' is at least safe!
Elba's parents are from Sierra Leone and Ghana which, as every BBC Diversity officer is aware, is just a stone's throw from Jamaica (a bit of sarcasm there, love). I have no idea about how many gumbo restaurants there are in Africa, but doubt that Elba would have been introduced to them as a child. This is just another "Whitey is trying to destroy our roots" whinge. If her roots are that important, why doesn't she get on the first plane (after 17th May) and go back to them? Oh, right. There would then be no opportunity for diversity, and a licence funded salary.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
There used to be a time when you could just watch TV shows for entertainment. Now it seems that you have to read your demented political views into everything and get all angsty if it fails to conform. Back in the eighties I used to practice Karate. In very white east Yorkshire there were only two black guys that I got to know well. Neither of them ate Caribbean food as far as I'm aware. In fact, apart from having darker coloured skin, they were exactly like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteNot more Chinese or Indians (both hemispheres) or Mongolians or Inuit or South American natives or Poles or Tibetans or......
ReplyDeleteJust PoC from West Indies. Any particular island?
Pantone chart attached.
Ordinary decent black people are just the same as everyone else but we have a very unpleasant minority of non white people in UK today who want to use race as a means to get whatever they want. Some of these self identifying individuals don't even know what they want but it certainty isn't equality as most people already have that here.
ReplyDelete"This is just another "Whitey is trying to destroy our roots" whinge. If her roots are that important, why doesn't she get on the first plane (after 17th May) and go back to them? "
ReplyDeleteBecause wherever it is she comes from, she'd never command the sort of salary she's currently got for telling her host country they are all wrong!
"There used to be a time when you could just watch TV shows for entertainment."
And read books, and play PC games, and watch sport, and... *sighs*
"Pantone chart attached."
😂
"... we have a very unpleasant minority of non white people in UK today who want to use race as a means to get whatever they want."
Because they've been taught that they can, and it'll be tolerated.