London's Metropolitan Police on Sunday said they were investigating the person who used racial slur 'coconut' for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman during a pro-Palestine rally in the city. The police described the act as a 'hate crime' and asked people to help identify the culprit.
The pro-Palestine rally took place in London on Saturday. In a photo that has gone viral, a woman can be seen holding a placard showing Sunak and Braverman under a coconut tree.
Sunder Katwala, an author and director at UK-based think tank British Future, said that worryingly a large number of people seem to be unaware that "coconut" is not just deplorable - and no way to make a political argument - but that it is unlawful racist abuse, that can be prosecuted and has been prosecuted.
Katwala shared a decade-old article that reported how a councillor was found guilty of racial harassment after she used a 'coconut' slur during a heated debate. The report, published in 2010, said Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat, called an Asian opponent a 'coconut' during a heated debate.
The court heard the term was used to accuse someone of betraying their heritage by pandering to white opinion, just as a coconut was brown on the outside but white in the middle, the report said.
Anwar Akhtar, film and theatre maker, said he thinks it was harsh and brutal, but Asians should be allowed to call out other Asians, "who build political careers by empowering the far right". Akhtar, however, acknowledged that "it's sensitive, complex, and can also cause harm."
Responding to Akhtar, Katwala said there were a million ways to criticise politicians for language or conduct without using racial slurs (that are unlawful). "There is no right for some people to use racial slurs, as abuse vs people they want to abuse from their own group, another minority, nor the majority group."