Alfie Brown apologises for using racist language in historic routine
- Stand-up Alfie Brown has apologised for a 2015 routine in which he used racist language
- A clip from the "anti-racist" routine has circulated widely on social media in the last two days, causing offence
- He wrote: "Years ago I realised my mistake and made every attempt to remove [the clip from the internet], not because I was scared of it being found, but because it was wrong. And hurtful. I was ignorant ... I apologise deeply for it"
Alfie Brown has apologised for a historic stand-up routine in which he used racist language.
Video of part of the 2015 routine, in which he says the n-word, has been circulated on social media in the last two days, attracting widespread criticism.
In the two-minute clip, Brown reflects upon the origin and use of the n-word, the creation of racial slurs and the nature of offence.
In a statement posted on Twitter yesterday, he wrote: "I agree with all the criticism of the video being circulated and apologise unreservedly for the abhorrent racial language I used.
"It was recorded in 2015 and years ago I realised my mistake and made every attempt to remove it, not because I was scared of it being found, but because it was wrong. And hurtful. I was ignorant.
"It was a young comedian's arrogant attempt to be transgressive as the routine's intention was to be anti-racist. But it was stupid, I regret it, and have regretted it for a long time. It became clear that me using the language wasn't ever justified, even if trying to undermine it. I've never suffered racism and now years later this material is causing pain to people who have. I apologise deeply for it."
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Fellow comedian Nabil Abdulrashid, who appeared alongside Brown at the Forge comedy club in Brighton on Saturday, was among those who condemned the routine, writing on Twitter:
"@abcomedian this you? Not gonna lie, it's very fortunate for you that you weren't doing this material when we gigged together on Saturday.. wtf?"
The Britain's Got Talent winner added: "I genuinely am sick and tired of these guys thinking because they can dress this shit up in faux intellectualism it's ok to say this shit. He knows very well he couldn't do this in front of an audience where even a handful of black people or Asians were present."
Kemah Bob also responded to the clip, posting: "wait a minute... *I* an actual Black person don't even feel comfortable saying the N word on stage [so] what in the clan rally is Alfie Brown thinking?!"
Brown has previously sought to address the controversy around his use of the n-word in a 2018 interview on the BBC's No Country For Young Women podcast.
When presenter Monty Onanuga told him that she found his use of the slur offensive, in a routine about coltan mining and slavery, he said that he'd chosen to use the actual word rather than the abbreviated euphemism because "I wanted to do a bit about modern slavery and slavery's more offensive than the word.
"The fact that you were shocked by the use of the word, everybody should be more shocked and much more shocked by modern slavery ... the myriad ways in which modern slavery takes place. But the fact that we all get to react to a word ... and I have no idea about the individual pain that is caused. But I, essentially in terms of modern slavery, I just chose to offend people with the word to highlight the horror of something I felt was more important than just a reaction to language."
Onanuga then asked if what he was doing was "clickbait or trigger-baiting to find the funny". Co-host and comedian Sadia Azmat suggested it had been a "brave" decision and that it was "hypocritical" to "skirt around the word, just say what you mean, you know it's inside of you and you probably say it at your white parties with your friends", before the conversation moved on.
Responding to Brown's apology yesterday, stand-up Leila Navabi wrote: "There is a BIG difference between 'racial language' and 'racist language' and the clip featured the latter."