As Black Lives Matter protests continue to sweep the nation, there’s no better opportunity for those who consider themselves anti-racists to assess their own behaviour and be wary of accidentally committing micro-aggressions. But despite being vocal in his support for the movement, when television presenter Piers Morgan fell foul of the latter yesterday there was no self-assessment in sight.
During an interview with legendary grime MC Dizzee Rascal that was supposed to promote his upcoming drive-in UK tour, seemingly out of nowhere Morgan brought up the inflammatory “White Lives Matter” banner that was flown by Burnley football fans over their match with Manchester City on Monday, and demanded that the South London rapper (real name Dylan Mills) explain the aims of the Black Lives Matter movement. While perhaps well intentioned, Mills was thoroughly unimpressed with the Good Morning Britain host’s approach to the subject, responding: “Am I the black spokesperson?”. Along with questions like ‘can I touch your hair?’ and ‘where are you really from?’, it’s important to note that expectations to speak for an entire race is a typical microaggression frequently experienced by people of colour.
What utter nonsense. https://t.co/P4y67RfdDa
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 23, 2020
“Do I have a view? I’ve got a bunch of views but it’s early if I’m honest”, Mills said when pressed for an answer. Morgan however refused to back down, moving his tone from inquisitive to aggressive: “Well give me some of your views, come on”. Trying to diffuse the tension, Mills joked that maybe Morgan was considering him a black spokesperson since he had his afro out and was looking “a bit natural and that”, though when met with scoffs, Mills instead appealed for he and Morgan to “keep it calm”. “I’ve got a bunch of views” he repeated, “but right now is not the time”. This nonetheless did not stop Morgan from accusing his guest of reacting “very aggressively to a very polite question”, to which Mills wryly looked off-camera to say “This is what happens: I become the aggressive black man! I just wanted to be nice, and look how he’s behaving”. Seemingly unphased by the interaction, Morgan stated that his intentions had been to just give the artist “the opportunity” to share his views “if [he] wanted to”, a sticking post he returned to when confronted on social media.
I didn’t feel ‘mugged off’. I asked @DizzeeRascal about #BlackLivesMatter & he said he didn’t want to talk about it. Entirely his prerogative. https://t.co/cK7kXfhi6v — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 23, 2020
In response to one Twitter user ridiculing Morgan for being “mugged off”, he replied: “I didn’t feel ‘mugged off’ I asked Dizzee Rascal about Black Lives Matter and he said he didn’t want to talk about it”. What is conveniently ignored here, is that in truth the dialogue did not initially begin with a question but with the instruction: “try and articulate to people what Black Lives Matter actually means”. Watch the full clip below:
