Support Our 'Order Of St Michael And St George Insignia Image Is Racist And Afriphobic, And Must Go!' Petition

Oct. 2 2020

The images of the different iterations of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) insignia are unequivocally racist and Afriphobic. In the version at the top of the accompanying montage, the devil looks very African. And even the current 2011 “light-skinned” version, which the Cabinet Office points to as an improvement, still perpetuates the racist colour hierarchy. It's racist, particularly against both olive-skinned people and those of multiple heritage.

What is it with a Eurocentric or white supremacist mindset that depicting the devil with wings or a lower body of a serpent is not grotesque enough without making the devil look African, dark, brown or “light-skinned”?

As co-ordinator of the African identity advocacy strand TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question), I'm appealing to conscious Africans, allies and Afriphiles, to call out these racist images, and support campaigns for their removal from GCMG and other spaces, such as the life-size statue in a Catholic church ground in Ghana.

By signing this petition, you are declaring your support for the petition to be handed after the October 31 2020 close, to:

the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) Chancellor The Rt Hon Lord Robertson and Prelate Bishop David Urquhart,

requesting that the Order withdraw the current “light-skinned” devil iteration, make a formal apology for unwittingly promoting racism and Afriphobia, promise to institute anti-racism training within the Order's organisation and embed anti-racism awareness within its processes that will commission, review, sign-off and promote the 'non-racist' GCMC replacement image and other images on its other insignia.

We challenge the Order to rise to the challenge, and in the words of GCMC motto: 'Auspicium Melioris Ævi' ('Token of a Better Age'), produce a new image that is in keeping with this current age of heightened racial equity awareness.