Mayalène Trémolet, edited by Laura Laplaud / Photo credits: STEPHANE MOUCHMOUCHE / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 8:31 a.m., August 31, 2023
On Tuesday, the Ministry of National Education published on X (ex-Twitter) a video tribute to Martin Luther King on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the march for civil rights in the United States. Quickly, many Internet users pointed to the lack of diversity of the young teenagers who appeared in the video.
It is a clip that puts the National Education in the embarrassment. In a video released by the ministry itself, five young award-winning children describe their dream in English, on the 60th anniversary of the march for civil rights in the United States. A nod to the famous phrase from Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. A video deleted after a wave of critical comments. Why this controversy?
An absence of diversity denounced
In this video, all the college students filmed are white-skinned. An element that quickly caused a bad buzz on social networks. SOS Racisme particularly deplored the choice of students in this clip and Internet users criticized the ministry for a total lack of diversity. They also denounce the words recited by the children who do not mention the equality between the different skin colors.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech, the Ministry of National Education and Youth published a video promoting educational work around commitment.
This video was made on June 30, on the occasion of the award ceremony…– Ministry of National Education and Youth (@education_gouv) August 30, 2023
Faced with this wave of hateful comments, the Ministry of National Education therefore decided to backtrack and justified itself on X (formerly Twitter) by invoking the disturbance caused by the video, and the violence of certain comments to the regard to the students invested in the project and did not fail to recall that the latter was filmed on June 30, 2023, a few weeks before the arrival of the new Minister Gabriel Attal at the head of National Education.
2023-08-31 09:30:34
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