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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBBC Fires Danny Baker Over Racist Royal Baby Tweet
LONDON A BBC radio personality was fired on Thursday after tweeting an image of a couple holding hands with a suited chimpanzee alongside the caption: Royal Baby leaves hospital.
Mr. Baker deleted his tweet within hours, but it circulated widely online and drew outrage for its racist imagery. British social media users called for the BBC to fire him. The newest addition to the British royal family Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is also the monarchys first multiracial baby in recent history. He is half-American through his mother, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and some of his ancestors were born into slavery.
Earlier, Mr. Baker had attempted an apology, tweeting first: Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased, and then: Once again. Sincere apologies for the stupid unthinking gag pic earlier. Was supposed to be joke about royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race, so rightly deleted.
Charlene White, a newscaster for Britains ITV network:
To post a pic picturing a 3-day-old baby of mixed heritage as a monkey, then claim it was a joke? she wrote in tweet. Thats old-school prejudice and racism at its peak. Its unacceptable.
CNN also faced criticism earlier this week for a publishing a piece touching on racial issues and stereotypes surrounding Archies birth that included the subhead, How black will the royal baby be?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/world/europe/danny-baker-tweet-royal-baby.html
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)No, Danny, your mind is so infected with the disease of racism you can't distinguish it.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)A simple "congratulations to the happy famoly for a fine healthy baby" never occurred to him. He was too busy being a smart ass and tweeting something to get attention to himself. Saying nothing would have been the smarter, wiser thing to do.
Ohiogal
(32,213 posts)What an asshole.