Left: Soccer Aid For Unicef Last September Which Raised Over £13m For The International Charity. Olly Is A Guest On The Show. Sadly Sir Mo Is Not (Despite Being A Soccer Aid Player & One of Britain’s Greatest Sporting Heros).
The Racially Non-Diverse List of Guests Is Particularly Disappointing Considering How Many Guests Have Been Squeezed Into The Show, Which Incidentally Starts In Black History Month.
This New Generation Coming Up Expect And Anticipate More Diversity & Inclusion. And Frankly So Does The Current One. We’ve Lived Through More Than Enough of This Crazy Stuff. It’s One Historical Step Forward. Two Historical Steps Back.
To Be Fair ITV Is Currently Doing Great Work With Diversity (And We’ve Said So On A Number of Ocassions, Regarding A Number of Their Programmes, Including Ainsley’s Fantastic Previous Series ~ Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen). So What’s The VAR Explanation For This Extreme Case of Exclusion? A Lack of Diversity Behind The Cameras? It Never Even Occurred To Anyone As A Consideration? Jermaine Jenas Was The Only Black or Mixed Race Football Personality Available During The Making of The Series (Highly Unlikely)? Or Some Other Explanation…?
It Is A Searing Irony That Jermaine Jenas Made Has Made A Number of Great Documentaries Including One Last October (Black History Month) About Football And Racism (Hunting The Football Trolls: Available On MyFour).
ObservingThis Lack of Diversity Is Not About Quotas. It’s A About Quality. And Equality. At Such A Big Moment! An Entire Football Field of World Classs Black Football Talent, Young & Old, Has Been Excluded In A Modern Day, World Cup Food & Football Programme, Hosted By A Veteran, Charismatic, Highly Acclaimed Caribbean Chef, To Boot! And In This Country, In This Day And Age, That Is A Crying Shame!
It’s The World Cup And Quite Literally The World Is Watching. Here Was A Mutual Chance For The Show To Shine And For The World’s Audience To Learn Through Examples of True Diversity & Racial Harmony, In A Context That Could And Should Have Been Organically Exemplary. Football Is Said To Be The Language of The World.
The Audience (Including Us) Have Been Denied Equality, Diversity of Stories, And A Golden Opportunity For Even More Great Interactions, And Fun & Jokes, With Other People Who Have Caribbean And African Heritage, Just As Ainsley Does. Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen Is A Proven Success Which Highlights That Such Inclusion Makes A Huge Difference. Making This Backward Step By Displaying Such Racial Exclusion, Especially Starting With A Programme Scheduled To Start In Black History Month, Seems Like A Bit of A Penalty Situation.
Maybe Next Time The Powers That Be Will Find Extra Time For Some VAR Post Match Analysis And Call up Some of Those Who Have Previously Been Benched And Make Sure Such Disappointing Oversight Doesn’t Happen Again.
The Food On The Menu Is Wonderfully Diverse. The People Actually On The Show Should Be Too. Just As Ainsley’s Fans Are!
” Now It’s Enormous And We Ain’t Going Back ”
Chef Ainsley Harriott On The Lionesses Success In Winning The Euros 2022
The Excellent Series (His Best Ever) Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen Is Available On ITV X
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