Police confirm ‘no racist slurs or language’ in viral video that ‘made teacher’s life hell’

West Midlands Police have confirmed that a viral video in which a young teacher allegedly made a “racist slur” while canvassing with a friend in local elections did not contain racist language. Police say they obtained the original footage of the doorbell and are closely reviewing it after a complaint filed by the woman used racist language.

They found “no evidence of any racist insults or language being used”. Their ruling supports evidence obtained separately by the Labor Party, which also found no evidence of wrongdoing.

The video, covered with captions falsely showing what the woman was saying, went viral after it was shared by Akhmed Yakoob. The failed mayoral candidate, who is now running for Ladywood MP, shared it with his nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok and several other social platforms. His supporters joined in.

Yakoob, a criminal lawyer, also posted the 27-year-old woman’s name and the school she teaches at in Wednesbury, with others sharing these details along with her phone and email details.

READ MORE: Teacher’s life ‘ruined’ by hate attack as fake racism claim goes viral

As a result, the woman and the school were besieged with abuse. At one point the school, Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School in Wednesbury, was receiving 100 emails an hour, with calls for her to be fired, threats and abusive comments among them. She was personally inundated with messages on the phone and online.

The upload follows a widely shared video of the door which went viral on Bank Holiday Monday. Yakoob shared it to his 194,000 TikTok followers and on Instagram and Twitter. The woman, speaking to BirminghamLive, and visibly distraught, said it had been a hellish experience.

“I couldn’t stop shaking, constantly in a frenzy, my whole world came crashing down. It is not only detrimental to my teaching career, but also to my identity. All my life I’ve been known as polite, okay. – well mannered, helpful person and always had a very good reputation and that was blown up by a false accusation.”

She received death threats, told her she was a dirty racist scumbag and warned to “watch what’s going on” among the thousands of messages. West Midlands Police say they are supporting her through her ordeal.

“I’ve had supportive family and friends, thankfully, and my students’ parents and peers who know this is not something I would ever do have been amazing. I have a close relationship with them so it was a relief to see them reach out and message me I can’t thank the school enough for their support.

“I hope the people who posted this and made this false accusation never experience this for their own children and families. I hope they realize that their words and actions can affect someone’s life forever.”

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Her friend Qasim Mughal, elected since he was a councilor for Netherton and Holly Hall in Dudley, said the police statement confirmed what he already knew – that she was within reach of the exchange.

“My friend is the innocent victim of something horrible and it shows how fast fake news spreads. The video insinuates that he says those words and people spread them.”

In a brief statement, Mr Yakoob, said he had now “deleted the post from all my social media” but continued to plead with BirminghamLive to listen to the video again. When asked about the resulting abuse for being “outed” as a racist, he denied wrongdoing, telling us: “I made no such claims and I would like to see the findings made (by the Labor party and West Midlands). ) and will make no further comment.”

Others who posted the original video – including rapper Lowkey and Yakoob’s local supporters – have since deleted it. When asked if he carefully reviewed the original video before using it on his channels, he did not respond. Nazir Afzal, a son of Birmingham and a former chief prosecutor, said in response to our story today: “The candidate and his allies must respond properly, with the same force with which he and others circulated the false information. Online abuse has real- world consequences.”

A city linguist said the mass “mishearing” of words is potentially an example of “confirmation bias”, especially when shared by a “trusted source”.

Stephen Pihlija, a linguistics expert at Aston University, said we can be “primed” by context to “mishear”. “If you’re already being told that racist comments might be in what’s being said, you’re ready to hear it. You hear what is being said to you. In a case where someone powerful or someone you trust says that there is racist language (or leads you to hear racist language by saying, “This is racist language”), then you are ready to hear or expect to hear something racist .”

Police statement

“Following allegations of a racist remark made by a Dudley canvasser caught on the doorbell footage, we obtained the original audio and scrutinized it closely. I found no evidence of any insults or racist language being used. The canvasser has received significant abuse as a result of the footage being shared on social media, which is distressing. She has been fully updated on our findings and offered her support.”

The real exchange

The video clip from the center of the storm shows a doorstep exchange between the teacher (hawker 1) and a resident, with a second hawker (hawker 2) also involved. The complete exchange went:

Canvasser 1: “Did you vote nicely for Labour?”

Resident: “No man”

Canvasser 1: “Who did you vote with?”

Resident: “(Akhmed) Yakoob”.

Hawker 1: “No problem, thanks.”

Hawker 2: “Who did they vote for?”

Hawker 1 (challenged line): “I couldn’t understand… Ninety…” the clip ends. (The number refers to the beginning of the house number)

Yakoob and others shared a version of the ringer footage with captions/transcription that claimed the final line contained three words, two of them a slur against people of Pakistani origin.