Threats made against woman who challenged Laurence Fox over racism on Question Time Rachel Boyle described the actor as a ‘white privileged male’ in a televised row over media coverage of Meghan Markle

Rachel Boyle, the mixed-race university lecturer who was accused of being racist by white actor Laurence Fox on Question Time, has received scores of threats on social media.

Ms Boyle, a researcher on race and ethnicity at Edge Hill University in Lancashire, challenged Fox during a televised discussion about the media treatment of Meghan Markle.

Since the clash, the academic, 39, has received a torrent of abuse from users via Twitter and email that appear to be members of the alt right.

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“At this stage I’m not worried but I’m going to monitor it closely,” she told the Observer.

However, she also received scores of messages of support following her appearance, and said she would “absolutely” make the same points again in hindsight.

“The lad sitting next to me in the audience lent over and said: ‘You’re going to go viral tomorrow you know’. I started laughing like ‘Oh yeah, whatever’. In terms of how it’s unfolded I’m incredibly proud of how I handled the situation, of what I said. I’m proud to be this voice, proud to have this platform.”

The row

During the discussion on how the press had treated the Duchess of Sussex, Ms Boyle commented from the audience: “Let’s be really clear about what this is, let’s call it by its name – it’s racism. She’s a black woman and she has been torn to pieces.”

Responding to her comment from the panel, Mr Fox said: “It’s not racism.

“We’re the most tolerant, lovely country in Europe. It’s so easy to just throw your charge of racism at everybody and it’s starting to get boring now.”

She described him as a “white privileged male”, for which Fox then labelled her “racist”.

She believes it was Mr Fox’s response to her comment that led to the row going “nuclear”, rather than the point she had made.

“It was the way in which he dismissed my perspective, talked over me and then made really ridiculous statements for which he has no basis apart from his own personal position.”

https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1218188790612877312

The argument continued via Twitter when the actor tweeted a Martin Luther King quote at Fox.

“I was just speechless when I saw that,” Ms Boyle says. “I thought how can you conflate what you said to me, your viewpoint, your position, with the views of a civil rights activist who was shot and killed?”