BBC in racism row over fried chicken social media post

The corporation put the video on Newsbeat’s Twitter feed, on the last day of Black History Month, to promote a documentary about racism faced by black people in today’s Britain.

A tagline, “Black people and fried chicken - is there any truth in it?”, which accompanied the clip was later removed.

The video was later reposted with a change in accompanying text, stating: “We’re talking about being black and British, the stereotypes you might face, like this one?”

In the film, which asks “Is it true all black people like chicken?”, a black girl states: “It’s not the only food that we eat.”

A white girl says: “Apparently it makes your bum bigger so a lot of black girls that I know, they are always like, yeah, ‘you know, I eat loads of chicken because it makes your bum bigger’.”

And a white man adds: “Certain cartoons and films and things like that, they have played on that stereotype a little bit.”

The video drew criticism on Twitter, even after the headline was changed.

Ellen @tuplandia wrote: “Are you going to apologise for your previous headlines? It’s not edgy or provocative. It’s wrong.”

Massa Bruce @KwesSRC wrote: “So with all things going on, whether or not we like fried chicken is your go to topic?? Tasteless bullshit.”

@susan1878 wrote: “This is incredibly offensive and racist.”

Guyanne Saul @GEHSaul said: “You ought to be ashamed. This is the best you could come up with for Black History Month and someone signed off on it???”

The short films still remains on Twitter and Newsbeat’s social media accounts.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “These short films show young people from various backgrounds discussing their experiences of dealing with different stereotypes, which accompanies a wider documentary looking at racism in the UK.”

The tweet linked to a documentary posted on the BBC iPlayer, in which reporter Nesta McGregor examines the Black Lives Matter movement.