I’m not going to defend Susan Hussey — if she really behaved the way Ngozi Fulani claims then it was wrong. But the way Ngozi Fulani has handled this will, if anything, fan the flames of racism and a lot of people will be asking whether her reaction has been disproportionate; and many people will believe it has.
It’s perfectly reasonable to ask “where are you from”; and given someone who displays their heritage as clearly and openly as Ngozi Fulani it’s pretty obvious her family heritage is going to be overseas. Again, there’s nothing remotely wrong with that. In fact all the black people I know are delighted to be asked about their family background and heritage and why on earth shouldn’t they be, whether they’re British or not?
OK, I would have approached the question very differently from the way Susan Hussey did, but this is an 82 year old woman for heaven’s sake; and the idea that Ngozi Fulani doesn’t want to appear “ageist” simply doesn’t hold water — many old people without a racist bone in their body would have behaved exactly as Hussey did.
The problem here is that far from diffusing the problem of racism, Ngozi Fulani is likely to make it worse. She’s already being accused of deliberately creating the problem that she’s claiming to be the victim of, which just provides more fuel for racists.
What a pity Ngozi Fulani didn’t use this as an opportunity to point out that what Susan Hussey was wrong, but without vilifying an 82 year-old woman, regardless of Hussey’s privilege. Instead, to many she’s just coming across as someone with an agenda who was looking to cause trouble.
