The Misidentification of People of Colour in British Media.

By Furvah Shah

Following the sudden death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, on January 26th following a helicopter crash, condolences poured in immediately and media coverage was intense. Amongst those covering the story, BBC’s News at Ten featured a piece about the players' death during their programme. However, they made the mistake of including footage of another black basketball star, LeBron James, instead. 

Kobe Bryant (left) and LeBron James (right)

Paul Royall, the editor of the BBC programme, tweeted that “we apologise for this human error which fell below our usual standards”. However, this is not the first incident of ‘human error’ in which the BBC, and other notable British media companies have unashamedly misidentified people of colour. 

Whether it’s the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, being misidentified for Pakistani cricket player, Wasim Akram, or if it’s member of Parliament, David Lammy, being mistaken for the journalist, Gary Young, the continuity of this issue is becoming increasingly alarming and problematic.

In particular, two prominent black, female members of Parliament have been mistaken for each other multiple times during the BBC’s political coverage. Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Dawn Butler, and Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Marsha de Cordova, have been left feeling clearly frustrated with this continuous ‘mistake’ from the media.

Marsha de Cordova

Dawn Butler

“Black women in politics are repeatedly called upon to justify our existence in that space”, stated Butler, who stressed that “it’s not about making a mistake. It’s about making an effort to recognise people for who they are.” Cordova shared a similar sentiment, as she tweeted that “this is what happens when the media does not represent the society it reports on”.

Looked upon as isolated incidents, such mistakes can perhaps be forgiven. However, It is extremely worrying that even though these multi-million-pound institutions have many employees who are paid to correct, fact-check and inform their viewers, this problem is still ongoing. In the example of the political sphere, there are hundreds of white members of parliament who have not been subject to the same problem, so why is it only the few black and minority ethnic MPs who are being misidentified in the media?

This continuous pattern sends a strong, unfortunate message that despite their successes, people of colour are seen as interchangeable and unworthy of being known by influential, British media institutions. The lack of organisation and recognition of the issue from the perpetrators leads to the conclusion that popular, British media is simply projecting racial bias, carelessness and insensitivity in their representations of black and minority ethnic people. 

This is not a problem that occurs solely in the media, either, but in the everyday lives of people of colour. Whether it is a young, black male being told by the police that they ‘fit the description’ of a suspect, or Muslim women being told they are unrecognisable because of their religious coverings, there are undoubtedly subtle and institutionalised forms of racism that lead to ‘mistakes’ like this.

The incident of Kobe Bryant was particularly distasteful due to his sudden death, and it served as a highlight to the issue of misidentification of people of colour in British media, but also, the lack of diversity in such institutions. Perhaps, if the BBC and other broadcasters had a more inclusive, diverse and representative work-force, then such issues would not be as prominent and representations of people of colour would be much more thoughtful, indicative and bottom line, correct.