In recent weeks, British media has misidentified prominent black figures on live broadcasts
When the basketball legend Kobe Bryant died alongside his daughter and seven other people in a helicopter crash at the end of January, the BBC reported on it with a clip of Bryant playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Except it wasn’t Bryant, it was the current Lakers star LeBron James, who like Bryant is African American.
This week, the BBC aired a report from Parliament in which they misidentified Labour MP Marsha de Cordova as another black MP, Dawn Butler.
.@BBCNews @BBCPolitics I love my sister @MarshadeCordova but we are two different people. Marsha is amazing and deserves to be called by her own name. Diversity in the workplace matters it also helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this. pic.twitter.com/pXyrGKJ4hZ
— Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙 (@DawnButlerBrent) February 3, 2020
Why do these mistakes continue to happen – not just on the BBC but across the British media – and why is it always black people who are misidentified.
Dawn Butler talks to JOE about being confused for her black colleagues by the British media, and her exasperation with racism.
