When listening to LBC last night I tweeted:
Did @LBC @ianpaynesport just homogenise black people? Maybe he did it error. Sheridan had a point.
— Shasha Khan (@GreenKnight2010) July 27, 2020
I needed to replay the segment on the LBC Catch Up feature on the App to confirm my tweet.
The subject was:
Why are young men of Asian origin almost twice as likely to receive fines for breaking lockdown rules as white men of the same age?
Sheridan from Dagenham rang to say that he found the presenter Ian Payne (pic) irritating for his failure to understand a different perspective. He compared raves in Manchester and parties in London, and also the beaches of Bournemouth to make his point.
Sheridan, a black male, pointed out the facts speak for themselves: [to paraphrase] If we are disproportionately stopped and searched in normal times, then we are more likely to be stopped for breaking lockdown rules.
I stress the word we because Payne then replied to Sheridan,
"Then its not your fault at all."
An aghast, Sheridan then responded,
"What, what, do you claim responsibility for the actions of every white person?"
"No I don't."
"Then why should I?" [repeated 3 times]
There are couple of other exchanges and then Sheridan summarised,
"I think the fact that you can treat every white person as an individual and you treat black people as we are all one homogenous, and we can all be branded with one brush, I think that speaks to your own bias, right there, to be honest."
I think Payne realised he may have displayed some unconscious bias during this call as he referred to Sheridan a couple of times in a defensive way after he cut him off.
