'Absurd!' GMB row breaks out over Rule Britannia ban amid claim it is 'racist propaganda'
A GMB panel erupted into a heated debate on whether British anthems Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory should be banned from the final night of the BBC Proms.
GMB: Rule Britannia is ‘not something to celebrate’ says guest
Good Morning Britain (GMB) became the stage for a heated debate on whether the two songs should be dropped from the Last Night of the BBC Proms. Prof Kehinde Andrews from the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University insisted both Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory should no longer be played due to their "racist propaganda" connotations. Prof Andrews insisted the UK should strive to move on from its colonial past to help create a "non-racist" society for future generations.
The academic said: "Ban is the wrong word, it's not censorship.
"It's saying some songs, particularly those two, are racist propaganda which celebrates the British Empire which killed tens of millions people, many of which like myself are descendants of those victims of colonialism.
"It's totally inappropriate, it's not about banning and censorship, it's about saying what songs do we want to represent us.
"If, and it's a big if, we do want an anti-racist Britain then songs like these should not be celebrated in the proms."
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But campaigner Inaya Folarin Iman hit out at the academic, branding his argument as "absurd" and insisting "people don't listen to this and think I want to reinstate slavery."
Ms Folarin Iman also admitted she felt frustrated with minority leaders claiming to speak for the whole groups despite the different positions within different communities: "We're being spoken for."
She told GMB: "Kehinde has a particularly one-dimensional ideological worldview. He has a very one-dimensional view of Britain, he views Britain as a land of racism and hate and all of these things.
"I think it's completely and fundamentally divorced with what most people believe Britain to be."
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Proms: Aida Garifullina performs Rule Britannia in 2019
She added: "We recognise it's a complex history full of horror and terrible triumph and many uplifting things.
"We need to teach history holistically and not trying to teach a narrative of self-loathing.
"This doesn't help a single ethnic minority life, I find it very hypocritical that a lot of people don't have a problem with music that talks about stabbing but this song is an issue of censorship."
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BBC music TV commissioning head Jan Younghusband said: “We have a lot of problems about how many instruments we can have.
“It is hard to know whether it is physically possible to do [Rule, Britannia!].
“Some of the traditional tunes, like Jerusalem, are easier to perform… We also don’t know if we’ll be in a worse situation in two weeks’ time.”
The proposed ban of Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory comes after the Rugby Football Union (RFU) announced they would consider putting an end to the use of the song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot from their games due to connections to the slave trade.