What’s the problem with Anthony Ekundayo Lennon identifying as black?

Anthony Ekundayo Lennon, the white director who has identified as black, is on the receiving end of a backlash from black and ethnic minority actors. They are aggrieved that Lennon has taken a black person’s place on an Arts Council England-funded programme. The Independent’s Paula Akpan lambasted Lennon, “you don’t get to pick and discard which signifiers of blackness you’re going to wear. Choosing when to don a cape of blackness is a luxury that black people do not have”. Yet substitute the word ‘black’ for ‘woman’, and you suddenly see why it was possible that Lennon felt he could simply become whatever it was he felt inside. Self-identification is everything, sensible debate is effectively stifled; why shouldn’t Lennon live as a black man if he feels like it?

The Independent went on to say that for Lennon to actively “claim space” that wasn’t his and “purposefully misrepresent” himself “goes beyond ignorance – it’s entitlement.