Journalist explains why Danny Baker's tweet about the royal baby was a 'blatant example of racism'

The British journalist Afua Hirsch has earned praise after she spoke out on Sky News and condemned the racist joke that got former BBC presenter Danny Baker fired from his job.

Earlier this month, the long-serving presenter and radio host was axed from the BBC after he tweeted a joke, which appeared to compare Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's baby to a chimpanzee.

In the days since Baker has attempted to apologise and state that he had no idea that the baby was mixed-race but has subsequently seen his popularity increased as a result of the scandal.

The debate on the topic has continued to linger on and was a talking point on the Sky News panel show The Pledge on Friday. During the episode, Hirsch delivered a passionate condemnation of Baker and the inherent racism that still exists in our society.

How is he the victim? This is a pregnant woman who had to arrange new levels of protection because of the levels of racist abuse that she was receiving, which escalated when she announced that she was pregnant.

She has always had racist abuse but when she announced that she was pregnant it multiplied because there is so much toxic racism in our society. 

That's not Danny Baker's fault but what is Danny Baker's fault is that he did something that was so offensive that when I first saw it I actually thought it was a prank.

Nobody who the BBC has given a platform to could be stupid enough could say this and not intend for it to be racist.

We could talk about unintended racism or micro-aggressions, this is none of those. This is the most blatant, clear cut example of racism.

Generations of people have recognised that this as an overtly racist trope. Within people's lifetimes, people were still being compared to monkeys and dehumanised regularly. 

She went on to point out the success of Baker's live shows since the sacking before ending on this point.

I'm worried about the millions of black people who regularly live with this kind of abuse and then have to be in spaces like this where everyone denies that it is a problem. That is something that I could not feel more strongly about and I'm living it in this conversation. It's not good enough.

Hirsch has shared the clip on her Twitter account and it has since gone viral, with many thanking her for what she said:

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