Just Like Trump: British ‘Apprentice’ star under fire for ‘racist’ tweet about Senegal win at World Cup
Alan Sugar, the UK business magnate who stars in the British version of The Apprentice, has come under fire for what many are calling a ‘racist tweet’ about Senegal's soccer team.
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This week, Alan Sugar, the UK business magnate who stars in the British version of The Apprentice, has come under fire for what many are calling a ‘racist tweet’ about Senegal’s soccer team.
Like his American predecessor Donald Trump, Sugar is facing backlash for tweeting without a moral filter. Under a picture of the Senegal soccer team, Sugar wrote: “I recognise some of these guys from the beach in Marbella. Multi tasking resourceful chaps.”
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The insinuation was that these Black men looked more like street vendors selling goods and trinkets than the professional athletes that they really are. To further make his point, Sugar even inserted images of fake sunglasses and handbags under the feet of the players as if they were peddling them.
Many of his 5.47 million followers were enraged by the dismissive stereotype, including BBC anchor Babita Sharma, who called the post “shocking and vile.”
“A shocking, vile tweet that you take a screen grab of because you know it will soon be deleted,” she posted.
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A shocking, vile tweet that you take a screen grab of because you know it will soon be deleted. pic.twitter.com/28E6SxEva7
— Babita Sharma (@BabitaTV) June 20, 2018
And she was right.
Although Sugar initially acted like he was amused by people’s reactions, after the story was widely picked up on by UK media, he deleted the message.
“Just been reading the reaction to my funny tweet about the guy on the beach in Marbella,” he wrote. “Seems it has been interpreted in the wrong way as offensive by a few people . Frankly I cant see that I think it’s funny. But I will pull it down if you insist.”
On Tuesday, Senegal became the first African nation to score a win in this year’s World Cup. Their victory against Poland sparked a huge international celebration, but some people like Sugar, chose to dampen the otherwise joyous occasion.
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A History of Racist Tweets
This isn’t the first time Sugar has been in hot water over a post. In 2013 he was investigated by police after a complaint was made about a tweet depicting a crying Chinese child, along with the caption, “The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for leaving the production line of the iPhone5.”
In this incident Sugar has now deleted multiple tweets on the subject and continued to apologize, “I misjudged [my] earlier tweet. It was in no way intended to cause offence, and clearly my attempt at humour has backfired. I have deleted the tweet and am very sorry.”
Piara Powar, executive director of anti-racism group Fare (Football Against Racism in Europe), was unmoved by the apology and told the BBC that Sugar’s “stereotyping of a whole race” was “disgraceful and damaging”.
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