Racists in TV just make me work even harder says Anita
COUNTRYFILE presenter Anita Rani has opened up about being the victim of racism during her television career.
The 42-year-old said incidents happened “all the time” including “people thinking it’s OK to imitate an Indian accent in front of me”.
She added: “Things have happened at work, too. Ask any ethnic, black or Asian person who works in any big industry – we just know we have to work a bit harder.
“I’ve had to prove myself a lot more than others and it’s frustrating but it’s not just about race. All women feel it, don’t they? We just have to keep ploughing away.”
Anita has taken on various presenting roles and has fronted numerous BBC documentaries. She also reached the semi-finals of Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 and said she was pleased that she had broken down many barriers.
“First of all, it feels great to have worked so hard and achieved something like that – smashing glass ceilings is a pretty great feeling,” she told Good Housekeeping magazine. “But it’s important to me to speak out about the struggles I’ve had, too. The perception of Asian women has always been very binary – people think we’re quite square and clever and that we don’t have sex until we’re married [of course, Mother, I didn’t have sex until I got married!]. But that’s just not the case. I’ve hated being put into boxes my whole life.”
She also told how her she discussed Countryfile with the Queen when they met at Buckingham Palace a few years ago.
“The door suddenly opened and out walked Prince Harry with his grandma,” she said.
“I was incredibly nervous but she was so disarmingly warm and open. Our conversation is a total blur but I know we talked about Countryfile.”
Discussing getting older in the TV industry, she said:“There’s so much focus on youth and beauty but, for me, there’s more beauty in wisdom. You don’t get that without a few years under your belt.”
● Read the full interview in the May edition of Good Housekeeping, on sale tomorrow.