The thin skin of the British Army when it comes to dealing with racism

02nd Aug 2024

The BBC and the Guardian have today reported the case of Kerry-Ann Knight, a former corporal (assigned as a training instructor of Junior Soldiers) at the Army Foundation College, Harrogate. The CMJ is privileged to represent Kerry-Ann.

Kerry-Ann joined the Army in 2011. She is a Black female.  She joined AFC (H) in the summer of 2020, but after trying and failing to address the appalling racism and misogyny she saw there, left the Army earlier this year.  She had raised concerns that one of her fellow instructors was referring to a Junior Soldier using extremely offensive racist language – that same instructor was earlier this year found guilty of sexual activity with a child (one of his Junior Soldiers); she raised concerns about a number of colleagues who were displaying extremely misogynistic attitudes and offensive remarks about women; and things came to a head when she was verbally assaulted and threatened by one of her fellow instructors at a work social event, who made clear he thought nothing of her and that, in his and his colleagues’ opinion, she had not been appointed on merit.  Colleagues talked about ‘lynching’ her; putting her in a ‘hotbox’; and tarring and feathering her.  They shouted ‘watermelon!’ at her when she came into the office. They cleaned their boots on her desk. And they told unforgivable lies about her.

Initially her Chain of Command (CoC) seemed to want to address these problems when she reported them, but the CoC’s efforts, such as they were, were clumsy and half-hearted. And once it became clear that Kerry-Ann expected things to be dealt with properly (particularly because the offensive behaviours only worsened after she complained and because she had complained), the CoC decided to treat Kerry-Ann as the problem. They exaggerated concerns about her mental health – for which there was not a scrap of medical evidence – and removed her from the role she loved, which was working with Junior Soldiers.

If it was not for Kerry-Ann’s tenacity, and the brave support of a small number of her colleagues who had the courage to speak up on her behalf (and attend court to give evidence with her), these appalling events would have gone entirely unchallenged. The Army defended the claim very aggressively, only raising the question of settlement after 8 days in court when it was clear to us that their defence was hopeless. In the end, the Army apologised and admitted both racial and sexist harassment and that they had mishandled her complaints. What an enormous waste of time and money. And what an awful way to treat one of your former soldiers who had given more than 12 years of her life to the Army.

Like Dwight Pile-Gray, whose case was reported last year, Kerry-Ann’s experience shows that, in the British Army, it is considered far worse to accuse someone of racism, than it is to be racist – both Kerry-Ann and Dwight reaped the whirlwind from their colleagues and the wider Army after having the audacity to raise concerns about racism. In both cases, their position became untenable and they had to leave.

Both are calling on the new Defence Committee of the House of Commons, when it is established, to hold an inquiry into the experiences of Black and minoritised service personnel in our armed forces, just as the Committee did for women in the armed forces in 2021. We hope that service personnel of colour in the British Army are able to thrive in the armed forces. But the experiences of Kerry-Ann and Dwight suggest that there remain a host of backward, ignorant prejudices in large parts of the Army and that, when a soldier raises a concern about it, a fundamental failure and unwillingness to address it, followed by victimisation of complainants. In the closed environment of the military, it is vital that people are supported to speak up, get independent advice, exercise their rights and hold those responsible to account.

Kerry-Ann was represented by Emma Norton and Lucy Baston, solicitors at CMJ, and Nathan Roberts of Matrix Chambers. https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/member/nathan-roberts/

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