No, the countryside is NOT racist and to recommend it’s does the nice folks of rural Britain a serious disservice

BBC Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison insists that BAME communities are unwelcome within the countryside, and that “a time of reckoning” for white folks is approaching. This simplistic outlook is each offensive and fallacious.

Ask anybody who lives in rural Britain what they like about their surroundings and also you’ll obtain the usual replies: there’s much more house, the air is contemporary, the individuals are pleasant, there’s much less visitors and the homes are cheaper. Few will ever admit they love their rural idyll as a result of there are not any black folks.

For not solely is the very thought racist, it’s largely unfaithful that black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities keep away from rural areas. And for some oh-so-right-on BBC presenter to recommend that, carte blanche, so to talk, the British countryside is teeming with bigots is patently ridiculous, wildly offensive and downright fallacious.

Ellie Harrison, one of many pleasant faces of the BBC’s cosy Sunday evening Countryfile programme has taken benefit of the general public profile afforded her in her place as a extremely paid presenter on the taxpayer payroll to lecture the nation on racism within the TV present’s companion journal.

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She explains that her empathy with the lived expertise of ethnic communities was earned via studying each novel by American creator Alice Walker as a scholar at her overwhelmingly white college in Gloucestershire, and from having watched Oprah Winfrey “day-after-day since I used to be a teenager”. Spectacular stuff, certainly.

Other than being stunned she’s ended up in a paying job based mostly on these credentials, you additionally should surprise how the blanket accusation that the English countryside so lovingly evoked by John Constable and William Turner is now a hotbed of racism has been given the oxygen of publicity.

The TV presenter talks a few “time of reckoning” for many who reside within the British countryside, and insists that white folks must acknowledge that they’ve benefited from the previous.

She talks about policing, grievances, financial equality, and why simply protesting about cruelty isn’t sufficient. Please, sufficient. It’s just like the nightmare after-dinner dialog I think about with Harry and Meghan following a fifth bottle of Sauvignon blanc.

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The gist of the accusation is that, in the event you reside within the countryside and also you’re white, then, ergo, you’re a racist. Complete woke nonsense.

Ms Harrison’s declare is a response to a Countryfile function earlier this yr by TV presenter and explorer Dwayne Fields, through which he mentioned a report by the Division for Atmosphere, Meals and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) that recommended some ethnic teams felt the UK’s nationwide parks had been a “white surroundings”.

Mr Fields stated he preferred the countryside, however when he spoke to fellow members of the BAME group, some stated it was not for them. He doesn’t say whether or not that was as a result of they didn’t just like the muddy paths, howling winds, offended cows or incessant rain. No, nothing like that.

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The unstated implication was that members of minority communities don’t really feel welcome in rural areas. That, one way or the other, the ‘whiteness’ of the nationwide parks cited within the DEFRA report excludes them from having fun with the nice outside, albeit in temperatures hardly ever topping the mid-teens and with an ever-likely likelihood of rain.

Nature is colour-blind, so it’s as much as the person as as to if the shared expertise is satisfying. Nature doesn’t care about your racial profile.

My current expertise of Britain’s nationwide parks, within the form of the attractive Yorkshire moors, has not been tainted by a lingering sense of guilt over a presumed lack of BAME ramblers – which was definitely not my expertise – however by the insistence that, in case your canine takes a poop wherever, you have to take the outcome dwelling with you on menace of a advantageous.

Subsequent time you enterprise out, climate and lockdown allowing, take time to have an excellent go searching. Cease gazing at your telephone or dwelling vicariously via Fb and reside for the second. You is likely to be stunned to search out that not all of your fellow travellers appear to be Ellie Harrison. To recommend in any other case is city liberal garbage. Welcome to Nice Britain 2020.

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