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31 October 2016

The BBC just ended Black History Month in the worst way possible

An offensive video by BBC Newsbeat perpetuates racist stereotypes about black people.

By Media Mole

“Black people and fried chicken – is there any truth in it?” 

This is the premise of a video released on BBC Newsbeat’s Twitter ten minutes ago, and deleted just a few minutes later. 

Your mole has never been happier that it has neither a TV nor a television licence in its burrow, as the misjudged video has rightly angered viewers.

“A lot of black girls that I know, they’re always like, ‘Yeah I eat loads of chicken because it makes your bum bigger’,” says one white girl in the video, aiming, presumably, to offend in as many ways as possible.

One wonders how the video could have been approved, which sees young people – both black and white – debating the racist stereotype. 

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Although the original tweet (featuring the words “Black people and fried chicken – is there any truth in it?”) has been deleted, the BBC has since reuploaded the video in a new tweet with a different caption, suggesting a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue at hand:

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