Sol Campbell should be saluted for participating in the Operation Black Vote campaign to encourage minorities to register to vote
“If you don’t register to vote, you’re taking the colour out of Britain”, suggested Sol Campbell in a caption to accompany a photograph of himself with his face coloured white. His bold move, as part of photographer Rankin’s campaign for Operation Black Vote, however, attracted both praise and criticism this week.
One critic claimed that the former Arsenal and England footballer turned anti-‘Mansion Tax’ campaigner “sees racism around every corner” and went as far as to point out: “WTF [sic]? So white people ‘blackening their faces is racist, black person [sic] ‘whitening’ is not? Where is the outrage?”
Frankly, anyone who shares this view entirely misses the point as in posing for Rankin, Sol Campbell and others such as David Harewood, June Sarpong and Tinie Tempah have encouraged an under represented group to participate in the electoral process. How on earth can that be a bad thing?
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