Stormzy has been battling racism this week on social media from mainstream media outlets, Twitter users and politicians.
In an interview with an Italian media outlet, the artist was asked if racism still exists in the UK and taking into account the current political climate, statistics and real-life experiences, Stormzy replied, “Definitely, 100%. It’s like, ‘Oh no, we’re not racist’. But there’s a lot of racism in the country. The difficult thing with the UK is, as you said, in Italy it’s a clear problem, whereas trying to explain that Britain is a racist country is the most difficult thing ever. They think, ‘No, it’s not. Stormzy you’re successful. Look at London, there’s loads of black people’. It’s a more difficult case to fight.”
The quote, “definitely, 100%” was used as clickbait by many publications such as the Daily Mail and ITV news who spun the quote to frame it as if Stormzy said that the UK was 100 per cent racist.
Referencing the media storm, the artist said, “All you publications and media outlets that are intentionally spinning my words for some clickbait can suck my dick and please don’t try beg it in the future”.
Some social media users took issue with the misused quote and began attacking the Heavy is the Head artist on Twitter.
The onslaught of vicious tweets include one which told the rapper to go back to Ghana if he thinks the UK is racist and another which used intimate details of Stormzy’s childhood to attack him.
ITV have since apologised to Stormzy for their misleading headline. They wrote on Twitter, “On Saturday we reported on an interview by an Italian newspaper with the British rapper Stormzy in which the subject of racism in the UK was discussed. It was felt the headline at the top of this story on our website and Twitter post did not reflect these comments fully and was therefore amended. The tweet regarding the quotes was also later removed. We would like to apologise to Stormzy for any misunderstanding.”
See ITV’s full tweet below.
The unfortunate incident exposed racism in mainstream Britain and opened up a dialogue on race relations in modern day society.
Following racist chants at a football game tonight, Gary Lineker tweeted, “Seems that there may well have been another racist episode. Those that were quick to condemn @stormzy’s comments should take note.”
Many social media users are also discussing their experiences of racism and the dialogue can only do good with the hopes of making the UK fairer for all ethnicities.