(Photograph: TheAsianAwards, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
When the beknighted multimillionaire Lenny Henry made the claim that black people were underrepresented on television back in 2019 (while simultaneously receiving the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ at the South Bank Sky Arts award ceremony), I naïvely suspected he’d bitten off more than he could chew. I should have known better:
‘You know, my thing is nobody left behind, no one left behind now in our industry. Let’s have people behind the scenes, and on camera, and let’s have that be diverse and representational.
We shouldn’t have to put up anymore with walking onto a set and not seeing people who look like us. So, 50/50 male female, 15 or whatever you want, 15% BAME, and you know 0.3% people with disabilities working in our industry—that’s disgraceful.’
Unfortunately for Sir Lenny, the BBC diversity tsar of the time was a certain June Sarpong; a Dickensian waif, struggling to make ends meet on a £267,000 three-day week. While Sarpong had been charged with a £100 Million expenses account to ‘showcase BAME talent’, she was clearly devoting the majority of her time to the creation of esoteric aphorisms, such as: ‘White people are never judged on their race’. Amen sister.
Despite the ‘Black and minority ethnic’ demographic only constituting around 12% of the population, the BBC nonetheless upped its quotas from 15-20% in the hope of silencing the complaints. For many, it did not go far enough.
One such heroic crusader in the war against whiteness is BBC Five Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake, who incidentally already took the British countryside to task earlier in the year when he claimed its ‘white and middle-class image’ puts off Asian visitors. Now he’s taking the fight to the BBC, where he claims the management failed to provide him with the correct PPE against toxic whiteness; thereby exposing him to radiation which has affected his mental health (although in fairness, he must have lost that battle some time ago).
Addressing the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) conference at BBC Media City in Salford a fortnight ago, Arthanayake explained:
‘It’s really affecting me that I walk in and all I see is white people. The hardest thing is to walk into a room, look around and nobody looks like you. I’ve seen a lot of people leave this building because they couldn’t deal with the culture. If you want journalists to progress, they have to be who they are’
(Just not the honkies, obviously).
He finished his soliloquy with the veiled threat, ‘The BBC needs you a lot more than you need them because if we do not represent our audience the future for the BBC is grim.’
In a break from tradition, there was no suggestion of any actual racism on the part of Arthanayake’s colleagues; except for their overt whiteness, which they made no attempt to conceal. Say what you want about Justin Trudeau, but at least he’s always willing to make others feel at home by blacking up, should the occasion warrant it.
Beyond the obvious race grift, it’s hard to see what Arthanayake’s actual complaint is here. The BBC routinely does all it can to fire veteran white employees on the basis of their skin colour, and excludes new ones on much the same grounds. It has highly inflated quotas for non-whites, in an industry where significant overrepresentation is already the norm. If you happen to doubt that, keep an eye out for the Christmas adverts this season, and let me know if you see anything white beyond the snow. Besides which, with the exception of London and certain other regional pockets, Britain is still a majority-white country. So what precisely does Arthanayake want us to do about it? Does he think ‘not having to be exposed to whites in their own nations’ is a human right? How about 50% quotas for non-whites? Nope? How about whites forced to wear masks, or simply banned from the workplace altogether?
Assuming Arthanayake is being serious here, he and the many like him are missing a trick. Not only is there nothing wrong with homogeneity – it’s the standard practise across the globe. Go to Asia or Africa and try telling the locals they’re overrepresented, and see how you get on. Furthermore, Arthanayake might claim he’s championing ‘diversity’, but he’s not; he’s seeking to install Liberal hegemony. Demanding the intersectional balance of the workplace be brought in line to suit your own specific requirements, is not only equally arrogant and preposterous, it flies in the face of the need for competence; and surely, even at the BBC, that still has some bearing on the conversation?
But more than any of that, there’s a much simpler question at hand: what exactly is he doing here, in England, at the BBC, if he’s not happy? I have no objection whatsoever to those who hate white people (although I do wish they’d be honest about it for a change), but if your mental health is suffering wouldn’t a change of scene be preferable? Nihal, there is an alternative me old son. Why not take a sabbatical to your ancestral home of Sri Lanka? That £155k per annum should afford you all the bitter lemon cocktails you can sup, and, more to the point – you’ll be able to avoid whites entirely!
Frank Haviland is the author of Banalysis: The Lie Destroying the West, and writes a Substack here.
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