The Sky Historical past Channel is lastly investigating contestant Darren Lumsden’s neo-Nazi tattoos, however solely after critical pushback from viewers.
The UK’s History Channel has suspended broadcasting of its new present The Chop: Britain’s Prime Woodworker after viewers identified that one of many contestants had neo-Nazi tattoos on his face. Viewers observed the tattoos after a teaser was launched that featured “The Woodman” (aka tattooed contestant Darren Lumsden).
The Chop: Britain’s Prime Woodworker copied the format of The Nice British Baking Present. Nevertheless, as a substitute of baking tall towers of bread and cake, the contestants construct wood equipment to brighten a big cabin within the Epping Forest. The primary episode premiered on October 15, after viewers had already noticed the doubtful tattoos. Sky Historical past is rather like the USA’s History Channel. with the identical emblem. Now, Sky Historical past has taken down all pictures and promos that embody “The Woodman” and stopped airing episodes. This transfer did not occur as quick because it may need.
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When individuals first identified that the numbers on Lumsden’s cheek, 88, have been a Nazi image (88 references the eighth letter within the alphabet, H, and stands for Heil Hitler), Sky Historical past initially defended Lumsden. They claimed that 88 represented the yr his father died. In an official assertion, Sky History mentioned, “The manufacturing workforce carried out intensive background checks on all of the woodworkers collaborating within the present, that confirmed Darren has no affiliations or hyperlinks to racist teams, views or feedback. Sky Historical past is illiberal of racism and all types of hatred and any use of symbols or numbers is totally incidental and never meant to trigger hurt or offence.” See a more recent tweet from Sky Historical past below:
Whereas we examine the character & which means of Darren’s tattoos now we have eliminated the video that includes him from our social media, & is not going to be broadcasting any eps of The Chop till now we have concluded that investigation. Sky HISTORY stands in opposition to racism & hate speech of all types.
— Sky HISTORY (@HISTORYUK) October 20, 2020
Sky Historical past’s claims that 88 represented Lumsden’s father’s yr of dying have been shortly debunked. Twitter person and author Dawn Foster revealed that “very fundamental analysis throws up the truth that his father was on the electoral roll at a Bristol handle from 2002-11 regardless of allegedly dying in 1988.” Past the 88, Lumsden has extra widespread Nazi symbols that Sky Historical past evidently did not discover. On both facet of his temples are the letters 23 and 16, which stand for “white energy” (with “w” being the twenty third letter of the alphabet and “p” being the sixteenth.) He additionally has the phrase “homegrown” tattooed on his higher lip, which is a typical white supremacist and anti-immigrant phrase within the UK. Nevertheless, it does not finish there. Dr. Adam Rutherford, who wrote How To Argue With a Racist, tweeted different potential Nazi symbols on Lumsden’s face. See the tweet below:
Darren seems to have these two on his face
88 = HH = Heil Hitler
23/16 = WP = White SupremacyThere’s additionally:
18 = AH = Adolf Hitler
1488: a reference to the so-called 14 phrases, coined by white supremacist terrorist David Lane— Dr Adam Rutherford (@AdamRutherford) October 20, 2020
After beforehand defending Lumsden’s character, Sky Historical past lastly acknowledged that the proof was damning, and introduced that they might take motion. Whereas they investigated, they took down the video that includes him from their social media pages and stopped airing episodes of The Chop. For a channel that is speculated to know its historical past, they have been fairly simply fooled by Lumsden’s excuses for his tattoos. To make issues worse, October is Black Historical past Month in Britain, which added to the viewer’s dismay over the casualness of Sky Historical past Channel’s response.
Supply: Pajiba, Sky HISTORY, Dawn Foster, Dr. Adam Rutherford
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