- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
THE Apprentice has been accused of racism after Lord Sugar fired a fourth black and ethnic minority (BAME) candidate in a row.
Contestant Lubna Farham was be fired from the competition this week, making her the fourth BAME person to be sacked. Shahin Hassan was sacked in week one, Kenna Ngoma in week two and Souleyman Bah in week three.
Fans immediately took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
One tweeted: “Another #BAME contestant gone. Think they can officially call that place #thewhitehouse #TheApprentice.”
Another tweeted: “Sorry, is this the fourth week in a row that a person of colour has been eliminated? If they’d been clearly to blame for the task failures it might be fair enough – but they weren’t and Sugar looks suspiciously as though he might be racist.”
The Apprentice has denied racism allegations, saying the candidates’ performance determines whether they stay or go.
This comes amidst amid another racism row involving contestant Lottie Lion.
Before the show’s current series began airing, Lion allegedly called Farhan – who has Pakistani heritage – as “Gandhi” in a WhatsApp group chat.
Fired contestant Bah has accused producers for failing to intervene when he experienced racism on the show.
During a conversation with last year’s winner Sian Gabbidon on her The Wake Up Call podcast, Bah said: “I think there were comments that, you know, yeah… I won’t get into the details of it, but I think it was definitely what it was.
“I will counter that by saying it was ignorance, really. It’s definitely ignorant racism. I think there’s blatant racism and then there’s ignorant racism. I think my beef isn’t with the perpetrator per se; its more for what’s been done about it. It seems that I’m still waiting for the outcome.”
A spokesperson for The Apprentice said: “Which candidates return to the boardroom at the end of a task – and are therefore in the firing line – is determined by being on the losing team, and the project manager of that task deciding to take them back into the boardroom.
“The candidate’s performance both on the task and in the boardroom are then key to Lord Sugar’s decision.”
