Arsenal Ambassador and Bollywood actress Esha Gupta somehow didn’t realize comparing a Black athlete to a gorilla was offensive.
Bollywood actress Esha Gupta somehow didn’t realize comparing a Black athlete to a gorilla was offensive. Ignorance must be bliss for some.
The Arsenal club ambassador recently posted a conversation with a racially insensitive comment about Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi. Gupta shared a screenshot of the convo from WhatsApp on Instagram to her 3.4 million followers.
Just been blocked. To recap:
1. Esha Gupta posts racist comments about Iwobi.
2. Gupta apologises for anyone who thinks she’s being racist, but doesn’t apologise for the racism.
3. Gupta blocks anyone who calls her out.
Is this acceptable, @Arsenal? pic.twitter.com/EaQshyozu8
— Dan Critchlow (@afcDW) January 27, 2019
The 33-year-old received a message from Varun_Gupta17 which read: “Solves our winger issues. I can’t see that gorilla faced Iwobi running down the flank again. He’s so bad ya.”
Esha Gupta replied saying, “Hahahahahaha I honestly dunno why they don’t bench him more.”
And then Varun_Gupta17 followed up with a response: “It’s like evolution stopped for him. Didn’t change from Neanderthal to man.”
After receiving backlash for posting this conversation, Gupta quickly removed it from her account. She followed up with an apology that still didn’t seem quite right.
https://twitter.com/eshagupta2811/status/1089554196267978754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1089554196267978754&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2F8294358%2Fesha-gupta-arsenal-iwobi-gorilla%2F
“Guys I’m sorry you thought it was racist. Was bad on my part, being a sports love, Wallah meant it. It was us discussing our frustration during the game. Sorry as I didn’t realize it directed towards racism.”
A black person’s comparison to a gorilla or monkey is a universally racist reference. And as an avid soccer fan, Esha Gupta should know this since black players have dealt with racist abuse before.
So, although she states that she didn’t know, there’s no excuse for anti-blackness ignorance.
