It is important to understand precisely what is being said there: the story that everyone can relate to, the character that we as an audience are supposed to be able to project ourselves onto with the most ease, the ‘universal’, is white. The default is always white. There are no vacancies in that spot – ever – for people of colour. No Nigerian-British everyman. No unexceptional Bangladeshi-British Joe Bloggs/Jaleel Begum. Characters of colour only make it into the mix specifically ‘when the role calls for it’. Let that sink in for a moment.
