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Laurence Fox apologises to Sikhs about inclusion of Sikh soldier in ‘1917’

Laurence Fox has taken to social media to apologise for his racist comments regarding Sikhs after major backlash.

Fox posted and apology on Twitter, “Fellow humans who are #Sikhs I am as moved by the sacrifices your relatives made as I am by the loss of all those who die in war, whatever creed or colour. Please accept my apology for being clumsy in the way I have expressed myself over this matter in recent days.”, adding “I stand by everything else I said and will continue to do so. Sleep well.”, the Daily Mail reported.

Fox made the comments while discussing Sam Mendes’ ‘1917 (2020) on James Delingpole’s podcast called ‘The Delingpod’. He accused the film of forcing diversity on its viewers, calling the inclusion of a Sikh soldier “gratuitous” despite the representation being historically accurate. “It’s very heightened awareness of the colour of someone’s skin because of the oddness in the casting. Even in ‘1917’ they’ve done it with a Sikh soldier. Which is great, it’s brilliant, but you’re suddenly aware there were Sikhs fighting in this war. And you’re like “ok”. You’re now diverting me away from what the story is.”, he said, adding, “It is kind of racist – if you talk about institutional racism, which is what everyone loves to go on about, which I’m not a believer in, there is something institutionally racist about forcing diversity on people in that way. You don’t want to think about [that].”

Fox has faced severe backlash for several other regressive opinions in the past.