Rav Bansal reveals he’s been subjected to racist abuse since The Great British Bake Off began airing
A contestant on the current series of The Great British Bake Off has said he has been subjected to racist abuse.
Rav Bansal posted on Twitter: “So today I was asked ‘are you the p*ki on the not so British bake off?’ Really, in 2016?”
The 28-year-old Sikh, who has made it through to the third week on the popular BBC programme, did not reveal any further details about the altercation.
His co-star Benjamina Ebuehi quickly responded, writing: “So horrible.”
She added that their fellow Bake Off contestant Selasi Gbormittah should “sort them out”, to which Selasi replied: “What is happening?”
Ali Imdad, who took part in the fourth series of the programme in 2013, wrote to Bansal: “Oh Rav, I still get it. It’s an unfortunate part of being on Bake Off. I throw chapattis at them now.”
Former Bake Off contestants Richard Burr and Martha Collison, who both appeared on the fifth series in 2014, also replied to his tweet.
Richard wrote that “some people are just poison” while Martha added “that’s awful”.
After his initial tweet, Rav shared his appreciation for the support from his followers.
He wrote: “Thank you for all the kind messages, I am fine, honestly. It’s Friday and the weekend is in touching distance, all good!! #PositiveVibes.”
Last year’s Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has previously opened up about being the victim of racist abuse due to being a British Muslim, and that she “expects it now”.
During a recent edition of Desert Island Discs, she said: “It has happened. Through my early teens when you had big things happening in the news like September 11… you do get abuse and I did get abuse.”
“I’ve had things thrown at me and been pushed and shoved. It sounds really silly because I feel like that’s just become part of my life now. I expect it. Absolutely I expect it.”
