IN a shockingly racist attack, a white male teenager was recorded in a viral video punching, pushing-and-shoving a black boy before ordering him to kiss his dirty boots.
The victim is reportedly a Zimbabwean, who emigrated to the United Kingdom (UK) recently.
Cumbria police authorities have confirmed the arrest of a white teenage boy who was captured in a viral video assaulting the black schoolboy in Carlisle.
The incident was said to have happened at St John Henry Newman Catholic School in Carlisle.
In the video, the white teen hit the black schoolboy and ordered him to kiss his shoes.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Saturday, the Cumbria Police wrote, “We can confirm officers have arrested a teenage boy in relation to a report of a hate incident involving a boy being assaulted in Carlisle.
“Officers are aware of images relating to this incident being circulated online and concerns in the community over the incident.
“As an arrest has been made, we would urge people not to share the video further so as not to impede any legal proceedings or to identify any of the children involved.”
Zimbabwean journalist , Chofamba Sithole, sounded alarm bells over the glaring racist attack.
He challenged the Zimbabwean Embassy in London to take appropriate action to deal with the vile racist culture.
“The young boy who was racially assaulted in the videos that have gone viral on social media is Zimbabwean, from my hometown, Mutare.
“He only arrived in the UK last December and you can imagine how traumatised he must be to experience such vile treatment. Having grown up in a country where he would not have experienced racism of any sort, the depth of the trauma he has suffered from this dehumanisation is unimaginable,” Chofamba wrote on X.
He said the UK has a long history of intervening in Zimbabwe to call out human rights abuses and at some point, especially under Tony Blair, this constituted a moral crusade that projected western countries, former colonisers who by the act of colonisation negated African humanity, as morally superior teachers of human rights to erring former colonies.
“But it seems now that Africans should be calling out Britain and other western nations to respect human rights in the very basic sense of acknowledging our humanity. The racial bullying of this young Zimbabwean lad comes in a week when the longest serving female black MP in Britain, @HackneyAbbott was racially abused by a white male donor of the ruling Tory party, and it took the Prime Minister an inordinate period of time to call out the racism.
“Other white male members of the government went on record to endorse the donor’s non-apology, telling people to move on. Diane herself was denied the opportunity in the House of Commons to address the Prime Minister on her own abuse!
“These are seriously disturbing developments, and these incidents aren’t random happenstances, they’re quite common in Britain, and they need to be confronted. Our government needs to stand up for its people wherever they are, and it would reassure the very significant community of Zimbabweans in the UK to hear from the Zimbabwean Embassy and know that they’re engaged with this issue.”-Punch
