The BBC is right to ditch the ‘Bame’ label

Broadcasters in the UK have declared they will no longer use the acronym BAME to refer to black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Following a report by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have committed themselves to avoiding this catch-all term ‘wherever possible’, in favour of more specific terms to describe ethnicity. This is good news. 

Last year a task force set up by UK Music, which represents the commercial interests of the sector, called the term ‘outdated and offensive’; this latest report concluded that it could cause ‘serious insult’. Quite so. The categorical term ‘BAME’ might as well have been called ‘Miscellaneous’, in crudely lumping together all non-white people.

The report said that ‘BAME’ had been ‘used to hide failures’ in the ‘representation of certain ethnic minorities’. There is indeed great variation in experiences between ethnic minorities, not least in wealth and education.