The Telegraph has a story about how a trainee schoolteacher, who failed her probationary period, unsuccessfully decided to sue her school because her mentor had imitated a Caribbean accent when quoting the old Lilt drink advertisement’s slogan. The failed teacher lost her case in all aspects, bar one:
Ikhals Yousif, a trainee primary school teacher, sued for race discrimination after her colleague put on an accent to say “totally tropical taste” in imitation of the catchphrase used to promote the soft drink in the 1980s and 1990s.
She claimed the woman assigned to be her mentor, named only as Ms Athersuch in the tribunal judgment, used a “foreign accent” to impersonate the advertising slogan after being asked if she wanted something from the shops.
After doing the impression, during a conversation in June 2021, the woman asked “is that appropriate now?” and made a comment to imply the advert was “racially inappropriate”, the employment tribunal heard.
Ms Yousif was later dismissed after failing to pass her probation at Ashley Church of England Primary School – run by The Good Shepherd Trust – in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, which she had joined in October 2020.
She then took legal action against the school, accusing it of racial discrimination and harassment.
However, an employment judge ruled that while the remark was “ill-judged”, it was not “malicious” or connected to Ms Yousif’s race.
They noted that the Lilt “branding and advertising” related to the Caribbean, whereas Ms Yousif was Iraqi.
The tribunal heard the school had become concerned that Ms Yousif was taking time off from work without telling the truth about the reason for her absences.
She was asked to meet with bosses to discuss her progress but responded by accusing them of race discrimination.
The trainee wrote in an email: “I feel it is highly discriminative because I have seen peers and colleagues at the same level, contributing similar levels of effort and capability pass their NQT [newly qualified teacher status], the only discrepancy between them and I [sic] is purely my ethnicity.”
Ms Yousif was informed that she had not been successful in completing her NQT year and that she would be subject to a further extension – but this would not be at the Ashley school.
The teacher was then sent a letter confirming the termination of her employment and stating that her probation period had been unsuccessful.
Nonetheless, the tribunal judge Camini Kumar determined that the comment had been “ill-judged”:
“Whilst an ill-judged comment on Ms Athersuch’s part generally and in the context of a workplace, we accepted as genuine Ms Athersuch’s explanation that it was a comment that she would make to others in relation to the drink Lilt, copying the advertisement that had previously appeared on TV.
“We note that the branding and advertising referenced the Caribbean whereas [Ms Yousif] is Iraqi Middle Eastern.”
It was heard that Ms Yousif tried to argue that the comment was made because her partner had “Caribbean heritage”, but this was dismissed by the panel on the grounds that Ms Athersuch was “not aware” of this.
The tribunal, however, did uphold one claim which was that dismissing Ms Yousif after she made her race discrimination claim amounted to victimisation since she had been informed that she would be staying on for one more year.
The most memorable aspect of this story is, surely, the number of people, institutions and money available in Britain today to support litigation by those who take offence, especially when things haven’t gone their way.
Worth reading in full.
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“The tribunal heard the school had become concerned that Ms Yousif was taking time off from work without telling the truth about the reason for her absences…”
…Now who’s past life does that remind of (hint: “dodgy CV”)?
Grifters of the world unite and get sent packing.
Lance Percival: regular on That Was The Week That Was… “His party piece each week was a session of improvised calypsos in the style of Cy Grant, an act he had made his name with in cabaret over the previous decade.”
Ill-judged performances, I suppose.
You must be referring to The Britisher, I sometimes watch his show, not sure what his stance was during the Plandemic though.
I’m confused. Why is the ad potentially inappropriate? I mean, tropical fruit is a thing, from that part of the world, and people there do talk like that. So it’s just reflecting reality. Maybe only non-white people are allowed to do that though. White people must not ever imitate non-white people in any way, but it’s fine for non-white people to “play white” because white culture doesn’t actually exist – it has been appropriated to be “human culture” that everyone has access to. Maybe because it’s so bloody good…
‘White’ Jamaicans have a distinctive accent similar (to my ear) to ‘black’ Jamaicans. I’m sure there are differences but I reckon most Brits would be unable to distinguish different Caribbean accents. Not too surprisingly people have accents which reflect their origins.
Using the phrase ‘Totally Tropical’ just shows that the advert stuck in the mind. I particularly liked the version of the ad where two very up-beat women berate a ‘Gloomy little man’. They’re probably so up-beat due to the astonishing sugar rush the drink gives.
I haven’t had a Lilt in years. I prefer tea, coffee, wine and ale (not at the same time).
I don’t know any “white” Jamaicans. Chris Blackwell has a sort of RP accent but he went to Harrow school. It doesn’t surprise me to hear the accents are similar.
Not a Lilt man myself. Water when thirsty, or tea or coffee if I need a hot drink, otherwise any kind of booze.
I used to drink cider & spirits, suppose you can get away with it when younger. I often had a cider & black (is it ok to say black) until I realised that beer and ales were much kinder on my head and stomach the next day.
Beer and wine with food, digestif after dinner, pre dinner cocktails with nibbles. Never more than one or two units on an empty stomach.
Used to drink Pernod, black & cider as a teenager, have not touched it since…still remember the hangovers and sickness
Look up and have a listen to Lady Colin Campbell. She is a white Jamaican.
Ah interesting – thanks. I can hear the Jamaican influence but not sure I would have spotted it had I not been looking for it.
She used to be a guest on GB News and is based on many subjects, but looking at her Youtube it’s all about the Royals, shame, but that is her speciality.
I’m the same, Tea in all weathers.
Just messing around with some counterfactuals here:
1. You would use the faux Caribbean accent if speaking with a white colleague/friend- why then is it racist to behave in the same friendly way to a non white person?
2. You are a black person perhaps a lawyer educated at Harrow and with an impeccable rp accent in your normal speech. Is it then racist to adopt a faux Caribbean accent when describing certain soft drinks?
3. You are a chiselling entitled Iraqi harridan sponging off British tax payers . Why don’t you just make your way back to Iraq and sponge off your brothers and sisters who are certainly much more worthy people than we poor racist so-and-so’s and who would surely be delighted to have you back
So, if an Iraqi speaks with an RP accent then surely that’s just as ‘racist’?
Cultural appropriation I suppose.
So, an American actor using a British accent for a role (or the other way around) could also be racist…
It would depend on the colour of his skin.
Only white people can be racist.
Do keep up!
But hang on, if you say black people can’t be racist, surely that’s racist, they can be anything we can.
Oh dear my head hurts.
Why shouldn’t a school be able to fail a student regardless of race, ethnicity or whatever? If she wasn’t up to the job then she deserved to be weeded out. I was in the trade long enough to know there were people who should never have been allowed in a classroom. She’ll be a problem wherever she goes.
I got chatting to a young, tall, (very handsome and dapper) black man, of some indeterminate African extraction, on the top of Lion’s Rock in Sri Lanka, recently, who spoke with a highly clipped RP British public school accent. I was guessing he was the son of some big noise wealthy Nigerian politician or some similar such. ‘Where are you from’ what my question. The sarky curt reply delivered was ‘Islington’ and I was made to feel that I was the racist. But if I was a black man and had asked the same question would I have been given the same short shrift? The assumption that white people are being racist is racist itself. We are just remorseless realists.
’Oh, I thought you sounded very English’ was my response. That dealt with that to my satisfaction.
Nonetheless, the tribunal judge Camini Kumar determined that the comment had been “ill-judged”:
Did Camini Kumar’s ancestors fight at Waterloo, Agincourt, Crecy, Poitier, one wonders?