The BBC have posted a photo on their official Instagram account of an illustration that endorses the controversial Black Lives Matter movement.
The post, in essence, promotes the BBC’s newly-launched ‘mental health toolkit’ called Headroom. It encourages people to ‘be kind’ to themselves and to not feel guilty when feeling ‘down’ and ‘burnt out’. The words and artwork featured are by Nadia Akingbule, a freelance, openly-leftist illustrator who has previously posted illustrations in support of the Labour Party (featured on her Instagram @nadiaakingbule). She frequently collaborates with the BBC, whether that be for BBC Sounds, BBC Body Positive or BBC Bitesize.
The supposedly-impartial BBC have faced a backlash on many platforms, including this tweet from Turning Point UK:
The Instagram post has also received criticism from other notable right-leaning commentators such as Darren Grimes, who commented: “Why is the BBC commissioning and publishing art with the logo of a political group that last summer engaged in wanton acts of criminality? And why are we all forced to pay for it?”
Grimes refers to the civil unrest seen in the US and around the world that was spurred on by the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Riots, looting and vandalism related to this movement caused damages to property estimated at ‘$1 billion-plus’, according to the news website Axios.
