Anger after landlord ‘blacks up’ for party

A landlord has ignited a race row after he “blacked up” and was paraded around his pub by a black man dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a Halloween party.

Simon Tickner, landlord at The Queen’s Head pub on Stockwell Road in Brixton, dressed as a “witch doctor” and was accompanied by another partygoer who came dressed as a member of the KKK who apparently was also seen giving a Nazi salute, according to reports by the Evening Standard.

Pictures of the party soon went viral with many people taking to social media sites to express their shock at the event calling it “absolutely inappropriate”.

Speaking to the Standard, Nisha Damji, a PR worker, said: “Just because the person who was wearing the Klan outfit is black, doesn’t somehow make it okay and certainly doesn’t justify the Nazi salute. It’s absolutely inappropriate especially in Brixton where there has been a history of racial tension.”

After voicing her shock on Facebook the pub’s official account allegedly responded by calling her “bitch” and telling her to “suck my d*ck” – comments that Tickner has since apologised for.

Tickner told BBC London that he did not write the Facebook post himself claiming not to know who was behind it adding that many people had access to the account.

Several campaigners for racial equality have since joined in the row with Jabeer Butt, deputy chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation, stating that people who claimed that because it was “a black person dressing up” it was “ok” were wrong.

Lee Jasper, a race relations campaigner, said the party was “beyond the pale” and that the pub had “completely stepped over the line”.

“This isn’t the Fifties era of ‘no blacks and no Irish’ — they have totally misjudged the climate of modern Brixton,” Jasper said.

Despite criticism landlord Tickner, 45, who has been hosting parties “for the black community for 25 years”, said he did not see the problem.

“The whole point of this place is that it’s inclusive. It was a party where 75% of guests were black and no one complained. We were taking the piss out of people with sensitivities,” he said.