Don’t rain on their
Oh, nO! There is going to be an all-white Bake Off final! And I’m not talking about the type of sugar they are going to use.
Following the departure of teaching assistant Benjamina Ebuehi last week and financial assistant Selasi Gbormittah on Wednesday, that leaves only engineer Andrew Smyth, teacher Candice Brown and garden designer Jane Beedle to bake their way into the last show. And the only thing they have in common is a lack of racial diversity.
Meanwhile, it has been noted in some quarters that three black and minority ethnic contestants were the first three to be voted off the new series of Strictly Come Dancing. DJ Melvin Odoom, EastEnders actress Tameka Empson and now BBC Breakfast presenter naga Munchetty have all been given their marching orders.
In all cases, it was an innocent combination of bad luck, calamity and circumstance that led to their demise — but how tragic that some still determine to see this as a racebased conspiracy.
You would think, hope and pray we had moved on from such nonsense, but there will always be those who are resolved to see racial tensions in even the most virtuous instances.
Anyone who watched the GBBO semi-final this week could see, yes, that Selasi’s puff pastry was rough and his fondant fancies were anything but fancy, while naga often resembled a trundling ironing board on the dancefloor.
That’s got nothing to do with race relations, just a lack of lamination (making the pastry) and syncopation (dancing the Charleston).
The only surprise is that the UK’s chapter of Black Lives Matter (On Reality Shows) are not pitchforking into the BBC foyer as we speak. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time. PS DO YOU want to know what the real scandal is about naga’s early departure from the dancefloor?
There’ll be no more of her adorable partner Pasha!