Kerry-Ann Knight, a black female soldier who was the face of British Army recruitment campaigns, has revealed how she faced years of racist abuse and bullying, making her life while serving in the Army “a living hell.” Knight, who served for more than a decade before quitting earlier this year, took her case to the employment tribunal and has accepted a substantial settlement from the Ministry of Defence.
Knight says that when her complaints were not taken seriously, she began secretly recording conversations, including one where laughter could be heard after a white male soldier suggested “just [expletive] tar and feather her, it’s what they used to do in the old days”. The Ministry of Defence said that it had settled the claim with no admission of liability.
Knight told the BBC that the racist and sexist abuse began at the start of her Army career in 2012. She claims to have had to serve alongside soldiers who claimed to support far-right groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Britain First, and the English Defence League. During one of her first postings, to Germany, she was told to avoid a certain corridor because soldiers were openly displaying swastikas, Confederate flags, and other symbols linked to the far right.
Knight says she was selected to front recruitment campaigns because women and ethnic minorities were under-represented groups. She wanted more individuals of colour to join the Army. However, the 2019 campaign in which Knight featured met with a backlash. British soldiers accused her online of “playing the race card” and of being just “a tick in the diversity box”.
Despite wanting to help the Army change, Knight said that she could not recommend joining for anyone, especially women of colour. The Army claims to have a zero-tolerance policy of unacceptable behaviour, but Knight believes that the complaint process is primarily designed to protect the organisation and “is not fit for purpose”. According to her lawyer, Emma Norton, the British Army’s attitude shows that “it’s worse to accuse someone of racism than it is to be racist.”
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