Lenny Henry And Media Racism

Lenny Henry, in an address to the Royal Television society last night, said scriptwriters and producers still bandied around offensive terms too readily:

"Words like wog, Paki and coon back then, and chav and pikey today, have a profound effect on our communities," he said. Henry hit out at the lack of progress in employing staff from ethnic minority backgrounds off screen, and called on executives to set specific targets and reach out to young people. "To walk on set and find a black DOP or an Asian boom operator is as rare as seeing John McCririck on the front cover of Vanity Fair."

After spending some time on Google, this from 2003 stands out, not for Henry's comments, but for a few others:

Bectu, Britain's biggest broadcasting union, recently branded UK television "institutionally racist", accusing programme-makers of excluding ethnic minorities and ghettoising them away from mainstream shows.

Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow has also claimed that when black and Asian trainees enter the newsroom they are encouraged to become reporters so they can be seen by viewers. This gives the impression the media employ more people from ethnic minorities than is really the case.