BBC Radio Host Fired Over Racist Tweet About Royal Baby Archie
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor has been making headlines ever since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and Harry, welcomed him into the world on Monday. But racism has already reared its royal head for the royal baby. In a shocking incident, BBC broadcaster Danny Baker has been fired from BBC Radio 5 Live after posting a racist tweet about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s adorable new baby.
On Wednesday, shortly after the royal couple had their first photocall with their newborn son, Baker, 61, tweeted a black-and-white photo of a man and woman holding hands with a chimpanzee while wearing a suit jacket and a top hat, with the caption, “Royal baby leaves hospital,” CNN reports.
Baker quickly came under fire for the tweet and was widely accused of racism in a flurry of responses on the social media site. He deleted the tweet and said he was sorry the “unthinking gag” had “whipped some up,” then defended his faux pas by saying racist connotations had not occurred to him because his “mind (is) not diseased.”
Baker later explained that the tweet was “supposed to be a joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race.” The fallen former BBC presenter admitted that royal watching is not his forte and admitted he made an “enormous mistake” with his joke about circus animals.
I wrote this piece for @MetroUK about why Danny Baker’s tweet is racist in every manner of the word. Unseasoned people do unseasoned things. https://t.co/CNSqB7HFt3
— Kelechi (@kelechnekoff) May 9, 2019
In a statement posted by The Washington Post, a BBC spokesperson called Baker “a brilliant broadcaster,” but said his serious error of judgment “goes against the values we as a station aim to embody.” It was then announced that Danny Baker will no longer be presenting a weekly show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Baker later blasted his former employer on Twitter, saying the BBC threw him under the bus in an overblown incident.
“The call to fire me from @bbc5live was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity, “Baker tweeted. ” Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits’ knees knocking. ”
In a subsequent tweet, Baker also apologized to baby Archie for the gag pic and admitted he shouldn’t have used the “funny” image in that context.
“Enormous mistake, for sure. Grotesque. Anyway, here’s to ya Archie, Sorry mate,” Baker wrote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxNPb_9B0fn/
Archie Harrison, the son of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, has made history as the first mixed-race child in the royal family. Markle, a former American actress, was born to an African-American mother, Doria Ragland, and a white father, Thomas Markle. Sadly, the biracial bride of Prince Harry has been subject to racism ever since she began dating the royal family member. At one point, Prince Harry said he was disappointed in the media for op-eds about his then-girlfriend’s mixed-race heritage, and for the racist snobbery that the couple has encountered.
