Raab in race row over taking knee
FOREIGN Secretary Dominic Raab insisted he has “full respect” for Black Lives Matter campaigners after getting caught up in a race storm yesterday.
He faced criticism when he suggested “taking the knee” was a symbol of subjugation and originated in popular American fantasy drama Games Of Thrones.
He said he would not kneel in support of the movement, insisting he reserved the gesture for “the Queen and the missus when I asked her to marry me”.
The kneeling gesture was popularised by American footballer Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand for his country’s national anthem in protest at racism.
But Mr Raab said he felt the action showedsubordination instead of liberation.
Shadow justice secretary
NAOMI Campbell’s refusal to dress like black fashion stereotypes gave the supermodel her “difficult” label, she says.
She refused to dress like a servant or wear styles with dreadlocks as her white colleagues glammed up for top magazine shoots.
Naomi, 50, told Radio 4’s Women’s Hour host Jenni Murray yesterday: “I was raised to be proud of the colour of my skin and I would not be bullied.
“A lot of people at the beginning of my career tried to put me in maids’ outfit, or a stereotype with dreadlocks and a hat.
“That’s where with me saying, ‘No, I will not be dressed like this, I am not a gimmick’ and opening my mouth – then you get called difficult.
“Why should I accept that when I can see my white counterparts look glamorous and gorgeous in the magazines?”
Londoner Naomi, the first black UK model to appear on the cover of British Vogue, launched the Diversity Coalition campaign in 2013 to address racism in the fashion industry.
She recalls a Vogue Italia photoshoot where no foundation matched her skin tone because “we didn’t know you were black”.
They mixed several colours with lots of grey and Naomi says: “When the cover came out I just cried because I wanted to so much to be on the cover of this publication but I didn’t want to be grey.
“I went through that for many, many years.”
She also says it took her “decades” to get equal pay and black models still have not had “the seat at the table that we deserved”.
David Lammy called the remarks “deeply embarrassing”. Lisa Nandy, shadow foreign secretary, said they were “really disrespectful” and had a “flippant tone”. But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen warned against “blatant virtue signalling” over the protests. He said: “I don’t think the majority of the great British public want or respect politicians who pander breathlessly to this sort of blatant virtue signalling behaviour. Are the left insinuating that unless you “bend the knee“you are a racist? If so, how pathetic.” During an interview with talkRADIO, Mr Raab said: “On this taking the knee thing – which I don’t know,
Cried
maybe it’s got a broader history – but it seems to be taken from the Game Of Thrones.
“It feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination, rather than one of liberation and emancipation – but I understand people feel differently about it so it is a matter of personal choice.”
He later said: “If people wish to take a knee, that’s their choice and I respect it,” adding: “We all need to come together to tackle any discrimination.”
Downing Street said Mr Raab had given a “personal opinion” when he said taking a knee was a symbol of subjugation.
● ENGLAND rugby chiefs have launched a review into the Swing Low, Sweet Chariot anthem due to its links to slavery.
With the Black Lives Matter movement inspiring international change to institutional racism, the Rugby Football Union has decided now is the time to review the song’s “historical context”.