Countryside is racist and has to change, says BBC presenter
‘Countryfile’ host admits Black Lives Matter has led her to confront prejudice and no longer ‘keep quiet’
THE British countryside is racist, a Countryfile presenter has said, revealing that Black Lives Matter has led her to re-evaluate her own behaviour.
There was debate over an episode of the BBC show earlier this year when Dwayne Fields, a Scout Ambassador, presented a section about perceptions by ethnic minorities of the countryside.
The report focused on research from the Department of the Environment, which was published last year and said that some ethnic groups felt the UK’S national parks were primarily a “white environment”.
Now Ellie Harrison, a presenter on the show, has spoken up on the issue and said ethnic minorities do face discrimination in the countryside, and there is “work to do”. She said the huge reaction on social media to the programme had taken the show’s producers a week to read and sort.
Harrison wrote in Countryfile magazine: “I spooled through the comments, which broadly came in three flavours: ‘I’m not racist so there is no racism in the countryside’; ‘I’m black and I’ve never experienced racism in the countryside’; and, importantly, ‘I have experienced racism in the countryside’.
“So there’s work to do. Even a single racist event means there is work to do. In asking whether her the countryside is racist, then yes it is; but asking king if it’s more racist than anywhere else – maybe, maybe not.”
The presenter senter also said she he felt she needed ed to change her behaviour in the wake of the Black Lives Matter ter movement, doing ing more to confront racism instead of simply listening to people of colour.
“Until l this point, I believed ignorantly, that me being not racist was enough,” she explained.
“I believed that I should keep quiet and listen to black people.
“That because I read and loved every Alice Walker book as a teenager, have watched Oprah every day since I was a youngster ... it wasn’t my problem.”
Harrison added that she is sometimes too polite to those close to her who say racist things.
She said: “There is a big and crucial difference between being not racist and being anti-racist.
“At times in the past I have given measured and polite replies to people – sometimes close to me – who have said racist things.
“But being anti-racist means being much clearer that it isn’t acceptable .... Let the knife and fork squeak uncomfortably over supper.”
The Campaign to Protect Rural Eng
‘At times I have given polite replies to people – sometimes close to me – who have said racist things’
land has vowed to remove barriers to the countryside for non-white people. It has said in a mission statement: “The countryside is for everyone. We will only achieve a countryside that’s rich in nature, accessible to everyone and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency if we end the racial inequalities that exist in engagement with the count countryside, confirmed by powerful testimony from individuals and communities and an solid data.” There have be been concerns that people from ethnic minority groups are less likel likely to be able to get access to the countryside, and it may not feel like a welcoming environment if it is perceived as mostly white. Harrison said that in order to be anti-racist, white people in the countryside mu must acknowledge th they have benefited fr from the past, the behaviours of many g generations ago and n notice “for white people, skin colour is not the cause of hardship and suffering, even if our lives haven’t been easy”.
She added that policing must be made fair, and economic equality must be achieved.