British professional boxer and two-time heavyweight world champion, Anthony Joshua, has defended a speech he gave a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford, where he called for a “boycott of white shops”.
Joshua did not write the speech himself but was instead reading it on behalf of a friend who could not attend. The pugilist claimed that racism was the real “virus was the real virus” and that “we”, referring to the gathered protestors, were the “vaccine”.
The majority of the speech was the usual rhetoric repeated ad nauseum about blacks being perpetual victims of racism etc etc but at one-point Joshua told the crowd:
“Show them where it hurts, abstain from spending your money in their shops and economies, and invest in black-owned businesses.”
This apparent call for a boycott of businesses owned by white people and people of other non-black races provoked a backlash from commenters online with some calling Joshua himself a “racist” for encouraging the discrimination action against other based solely on the colour of their skin.
In the reply to criticism of his calls for a boycott of non-black businesses Joshua gave a cogent and insightful response posting:
“If you think I’m racist, go f**k Yourself.
If you watch the whole video, the speech was passed around for someone to read and I took the lead.
I personally spoke from the heart about the Watford community, ideas of personally investing 7 figures to create unity and opportunities and adding change to the African/Caribbean community.
Shops aren’t the issue here.
Before you talk shit you better boycott racism.
I said what I said and will act to make change.”
Numerous other Black Lives Matter protests took placed across the UK on Saturday and Sunday, in Bristol a mob tore down a statue of Edward Colston and dropped it in the River Avon. Colston was a 17th-century slave trader who was instrumental to development of the city.
Meanwhile in London on both Saturday and Sunday protests descended into violence with rioters defacing numerous public statues and buildings including war memorials and the Cenotaph and injuring dozens of police offcers.
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