Prominent black and ethnic minority figures have signed an open letter demanding that the BBC reconsider its decision to uphold a complaint against presenter Naga Munchetty.
Actors Lenny Henry and Adrian Lester, and broadcaster-journalists Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Afua Hirsch, are among the 44 signatories of the letter, published the same day as a senior BBC figure defended the Corporation’s stance on the issue.
On 17 July this year, BBC Breakfast host Dan Walker, on-air, referred to people of colour being told to “go home” in the context of President Donald Trump’s comments about a group of women in the House of Representatives. Munchetty, responding to Walker’s invitation to share her experiences, said she also had once been told to “go back where I came from”. She said such a remark was “embedded in racism” and that people understood what it meant.
Walker asked her how she felt about Trump’s remarks to which she said she was “furious and I can imagine lots of people in this country will be feeling absolutely furious a man in that position thinks it’s OK to skirt the lines by using language like that.”
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