Coronation Street actress Sair Khan has said that a recent controversial storyline was her idea.
The storyline saw her character, Alya Nazir, subjected to harsh racial abuse by Underworld clients.
When Alya met with the clients, Dale and Justin, one of them told her to “Lighten up will you? Oh, you can’t you’re still that colour,” after she said that she didn’t want to have a drink.
Dale also told Alya that “her lot” were boring.
Actress Khan has since revealed that the storyline was her idea.
Speaking to BBC News, she said that she pitched the storyline because racism was an issue that she wanted to tackle.
“This was an issue that I definitely wanted to raise and wanted addressed, because I get a lot of people coming up to me, young Asian girls, Asian guys, that are so happy to see me on the television a representation of them.
“I’m so happy to be that voice for them in all the positive elements that come with that, but there is negativity and I thought that was definitely worth exploring.”
Many viewers praised the soap for accurately representing the everyday racism that many people in the UK still experience.
Racism storylines are so important, this happens so casually everyday #Corrie
— jennifer (@jenlizrose) December 27, 2017
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