Controversial comments from a UN human rights lawyer who said ‘shallow’ is a ‘racial trope’

A UN human rights lawyer who said the word ‘shallow’ was a ‘racial trope’ has sparked a series of controversial comments – including accusing an Apple employee of ‘ mansplaining” for telling a woman who asked to be served by a female member of staff, “I’ll be happy to help you”.

Dominique Day chaired a working group of experts on people of African descent which said there had been a failure to tackle ‘systemic’ racism in the UK – a finding which the government says , was based on a “superficial analysis”. In response, Miss Day claimed it was an “upgrade” of “lazy” and called it a “familiar racial trope”.

His UN group has previously claimed racism is the cause of global warming and criticized a major race report by the UK government’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities for ‘normalizing white supremacy’.

Miss Day also writes about race and gender issues in a personal capacity, including the discrimination faced by dogs with ‘black-sounding names’ and how ‘motherhood’ has ‘indispensably supported white supremacy’ .

The American’s comments about a “mansplaining” Apple employee came in a thread about an incident at a store in New York in August 2021.

Journalist Laura Bassett wrote, “I’m at the Apple Store SoHo. A gray-haired woman walks in and announces, “I’d like to buy a woman a phone. A male associate said, “I’d love to help you!” She replies, “No offense. but I ask for a wife. Men are too linear and can’t understand what I need in a phone.” lmao.’

After a follower asked why the male employee thought the customer could talk about him, Ms Day claimed he had acted according to the ‘playbook of patriarchy’.

She wrote: “I think you already know that the belief that white male voices/leadership are still needed and relevant is in the patriarchy playbook, with mansplaining as the primary weapon for those who don’t appreciate it. not.”

Miss Day attended Harvard College and Stanford Law School and now lives in New York, where she leads the social justice organization Daylight.

In 2018, she wrote in a blog post on AVERAGE on the links between the instinct of “mothering” and racism.

“Motherhood has been an indispensable supporter of white supremacy in America. We must heed the covert, even intimate, acts of caring that perpetuate institutional racism,” she wrote.

The lawyer said mothers were often ‘outright and openly racist’ out of a desire to protect their children, citing the example of a Colorado woman who called police on two Native American teenagers during her college tour son because they looked ‘scary’.

Last year, she cited a study in an academic journal that found dogs with black or Hispanic-sounding names were adopted more slowly.

Responding to the report, she said: “People just run on racism. Shelter dogs, especially pit bulls, with black-sounding names are adopted more slowly. People layer racial fears and white supremacy wherever the discretion to do so exists.

In 2021, a report by the UN’s Miss Day Task Force found that climate change was “linked to economic and political frameworks that have systematically ignored people’s right to life and other basic human rights. of African descent”.

He added: “Climate change is a byproduct of our continued economic reliance on extraction, exploitation and accumulation through dispossession,” the experts said.

The group’s report on racism in Britain was released after a 10-day visit to the country last week to uncover evidence of “racism, xenophobia and afrophobia”.

After the visit, he wrote to the government to express his ‘very extreme concern’ at the failure to tackle ‘structural, institutional and systemic racism’ against black people in Britain.

In response, Number 10 “firmly” rejected most of its findings and said the report presented a “superficial analysis” of complex issues.

It angered Miss Day, who claimed the word ‘shallow’ was an ‘upgrade’ to ‘lazy’ – which she said had been used in a meeting during her trip – and l ‘has called it a “familiar racial trope.”

But former Cabinet minister Shailesh Vara, whose family moved to Britain from Uganda in the 1960s, told MailOnline Downing Street’s response was “by no means a trope”.

“A 10-day tour through England is hardly a good way to really understand the situation.” Of course, this is a superficial analysis, it is by no means a trope,’ the Tory MP said.

“The UN report does not reflect the UK as it is. The fact that so many people from all over the world want to come and live here sends a powerful message and says a lot to refute the UN analysis.

It’s not the first time Miss Day has dabbled in British politics, with the lawyer previously accusing Cabinet Secretary Dominic Raab of ‘brass neck’ for a November 2020 tweet about the importance of standing up for rights Britons living in EU countries.

In addition, his task force criticized a landmark 2021 study by the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities which found there was no evidence of institutional racism in the UK suggesting it contributed to ‘supremacism’ white”.

In its recent report on race discrimination in the UK, Miss Day’s group called for an immediate and unconditional moratorium on the use of joint venture laws by prosecutions and the use of strip searches by police during arrests and searches.

“We are seriously concerned about the impunity and failure to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system, deaths in police custody, ‘joint enterprise’ convictions and the dehumanizing nature of arrest and prosecution. (strip) search,” he said in a statement.

In his preliminary findings, he also claimed that austerity measures have exacerbated racism and racial discrimination against black people.

Speaking at a press conference in London on Friday, Ms Day said: ‘I have never visited a country before where there is a pervasive culture of fear in black communities – linked to a range of health issues. asylum, residence and police.

“An entire community experiences constant and ongoing human rights violations as part of the routine and normalization of daily life.”

A government spokesperson said: ‘We strongly reject most of these findings. The report mistakenly views people of African descent as a single homogeneous group and presents a superficial analysis of complex issues that fails to consider all possible causes of disparities, not just race.

“We are proud that the UK is an open, tolerant and welcoming country, but that hard-earned global reputation is not adequately reflected in this report. We are not complacent and acknowledge that some people experience racism in Britain, but we are very clear that it has no place in our society and must be eradicated.

“The UK government has made great strides in tackling racial and ethnic disparities, most recently with our groundbreaking Inclusive Britain strategy, which focuses on closing achievement gaps between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Instead of sowing division, we must celebrate the fact that this country is striving to give everyone, from every community, in every corner of the UK, the opportunity to prosper and succeed.