There’s an of kerfuffle covered in the Daily Mail in which Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards SLAMS viewer who branded all-black panel honouring her late son Jamal as ‘anti white’. Now I really don’t care much about this fight. Itis just boring social media nonsense. But what interests me is ITV’s decision to supposedly honour the first anniversary of Edward’s son Jamal’s death with an all-black panel.
What is the twisted thinking behind this? Since when do you honour someone by assembling a panel of people who share their race rather than their experience? Jamal Edwards died of a drug overdose. His death had nothing to do with race. Surely it would have made common sense – not to mention humanity – to have a panel of women who had also suffered the loss of a child, particularly to drugs?
The direction our society is going is dehumanising. If we can’t have a non-racial society where people come together based on shared interests or experiences, but instead are divided up by race, is this really progress? It sounds more like apartheid.
UPDATE: Some idiot in the comments asked if I’d be outraged by an all-white panel. If the pitch for the show had been: “In honour of this white person’s late son, we’re going to have an all-white panel today”, yes, I would be totally fucking outraged. As would any decent person.
