Good question! But are you sure it's really had its day?
As with “black”, BAME’s critics are right to highlight the term’s shortcomings – it feels wonky and contrived while implying that all ethnic minorities are part of a homogeneous group. Moreover, it has never really sat well with ethnic minorities themselves. Indeed, BAME has been a particularly unsuccessful candidate for widespread adoption.
According to Google Trends, searches for “BAME” shot up in April 2020 – probably because of its frequent usage in reporting Covid health disparities. The fact that it’s already on the scrapheap shows the term was never really fit for purpose.
Oh, it's served one purpose, perhaps its original one - to divide and label us all, to seperate the deserving sheep from the racist goats. The racehustlers and grievancemongers will be bereft when it's confined to the dustbin...
With BAME unloved and on the way out, the question now is what should replace it, exactly?
Over to you, Reader!
Dare we say anything?
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