Several days ago, TV presenter Rochelle Humes announced on Instagram that she is shooting an investigative documentary about why Black women in the UK are four times more likely to die during childbirth (or shortly after), than their Caucasian counterparts.

After this announcement, Humes was praised for “campaigning for diversity in literature, to pushing schools to increase diversity in stories they carry and now she wants to take things further with a powerful exploratory documentary deep-diving into why black women in the UK are four times as likely to die due to childbirth-related issues”.

I stopped and scratched my head after reading this praise. Rochelle Humes has always been the former S Club Juniors star turned successful TV presenter to me. I don’t ever remember her speaking publicly about Race or diversity. So, as you can imagine I was confused. But I have since been informed that Humes did campaign to diversify books in schools. (www.littleboxofbooks.co.uk)

However, news of her up and coming documentary has been met with backlash.
Author Candice Brathwaite says she was dropped from hosting a documentary about Black women dying in childbirth, allegedly after Humes announced she was making a documentary on the subject matter.

If this is true, then it once again highlights the media’s obsession with Black people and aesthetics. They always want to opt for what they deem as “palatable” and the acceptable face of Blackness.

British television has a VERY LONG history of doing this.