NANA AKUA: The BBC’s self-righteous determination to Photoshop an image to make a white hand seem black is advantage signalling of the worst kind

Over the course of eight years criss-crossing Britain as a peripatetic motivational speaker at colleges, I made repeated visits to Wales. And I’ve to say that I’ve by no means visited a rustic so overwhelmingly white.

I might usually discover myself not simply the one black individual within the classroom – and in some circumstances your entire college – however the one member of an ethnic minority.

Provided that the 2021 census reveals that 93.8 per cent of Wales’s inhabitants recognized as ‘white’ this was no nice shock.

The actual fact is that the overwhelming majority of Britain’s ethnic minorities are concentrated in England, virtually completely in a choose few cities and cities, corresponding to London, Birmingham, Luton and larger Manchester.

Which is why the most recent show of self-righteousness by the BBC makes my blood boil.

For years, the BBC illustrated information tales about Welsh elections on its web site with an image of a white girl’s hand casting a vote in a poll field emblazoned with the Welsh flag. 

Now it has emerged that in March final yr, somebody had the brilliant concept of Photoshopping the image to make the hand seem black 

For years, it illustrated information tales about Welsh elections on its web site with an image of a white girl’s hand casting a vote in a poll field emblazoned with the Welsh flag.

Now it has emerged that in March final yr, somebody had the brilliant concept of Photoshopping the image to make the hand seem black. I feel everyone knows why this was completed – but once more, the BBC wished to trumpet its woke credentials. God forbid that anybody ought to accuse them of not being diversity-aware.

In truth, it quantities to advantage signalling of the very worst kind.

Solely final week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s media crew used {a photograph} of a white household of 4, comprising a heterosexual couple and their two youngsters, for example of a picture that ‘doesn’t symbolize actual Londoners’.

Solely final week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s media crew used {a photograph} of a white household of 4, comprising a heterosexual couple and their two youngsters, for example of a picture that ‘doesn’t symbolize actual Londoners’. 

The newest show of self-righteousness by the BBC makes my blood boil, writes Nana Akua (pictured)

As I wrote then: ‘What prejudice, conceitedness and error lie behind these phrases. Think about if Khan’s workplace had known as for an image of a black household to be rejected as a result of it ‘didn’t symbolize actual Londoners’? There would rightly be an outcry.’

And there must be an outcry over this too. I would not thoughts a lot if the BBC practised what it preaches. However – as somebody who labored for the company on and off for 13 years – I can let you know that, whereas the extremely seen onscreen expertise is impeccably various, it is a completely different story behind the scenes.

From producers and administrators to camera-operators and lighting technicians, in my expertise the racial profile of the employees was –to cite former director-general Greg Dyke – ‘hideously white’.

Doctor, heal thyself!