About

Question Time Racist Rant Reaction is a reaction image and video of a man's disgusted facial response to a woman's question about immigration in England on the roundtable show Question Time.

Origin

On February 20th, 2020, BBC Question Time tweeted a clip of a woman responding to the immigration policies in the country. They wrote, "'We should completely close the borders … enough is enough' This audience member says the number of people ’flooding in’ to the UK is costing public services too much. #bbcqt." In the clip, a man can be seen grimacing during her question. The post received more than 6.7 million views, 15,000 likes, 14,000 comments and 3,700 retweets in less than two months (shown below).

“We should completely close the borders … enough is enough”This audience member says the number of people ’flooding in’ to the UK is costing public services too much. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/T5EshhWqQu

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) February 20, 2020

Spread

Following the post, people responded to the video by highlighting the man's reaction. Twitter^[1] user @JimMFelton tweeted, "Do enjoy the guy sitting next to her trying to let the TV know he's not with her using only his eyes and legs / Eyeroll, bit of light eyebrow work, fuck it I'm going full Fleabag." The tweet received more than 5,300 likes and 240 retweets in less than two months (shown below, left).

Over the next few hours, others shared their thoughts on the man's reaction.

Following its circulating on social media, the clip was referred to as a "racist rant" by journalist Ross McCafferty." He wrote, "Lets call a spade a spade here. This is an unhinged, factually inaccurate, racist rant. That the BBC saw fit to broadcast it, then clip it for clicks on social, shows just how backwards Question Time now is." The tweet received more than 25,000 likes and 4,200 retweets in less than two months (shown below).

Lets call a spade a spade here. This is an unhinged, factually inaccurate, racist rant. That the BBC saw fit to broadcast it, then clip it for clicks on social, shows just how backwards Question Time now is. https://t.co/hKD00CNZ9G

— Ross McCafferty (@RossMcCaff) February 21, 2020

Two days later, on February 22nd, the man in the video, Will Austin tweeted,^[2] "Truly overwhelmed by the kindness and support since my #bbcqt trauma live you lot! After 30 years of trying to articulate a coherent argument for the left I now find that a meme of my cringing face is infinitely more powerful than my words! Let's all do it – #facesagainstracism." The tweet received more than 78,000 likes, 11,000 retweets and 1,000 comments in less than two months (shown below).

The following day, The Independent^[3] published an article on the meme. Metro^[4] also published an article entitled "Question Time slammed over ‘racist’ 90-second rant demanding Britain close its borders."

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References