Len Goodman has been a judge on Dancing with the Stars since the show started and has been a professional dancer since 1967.
This makes him a beloved figure in the realm of ballroom dancing, and this affords him lots of public appearances. However, in one of his latest appearances, he said something that caused a bit of controversy when he was quoting his own grandmother.
Here is what went down at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in the United Kingdom.
Len Goodman accused of ‘xenophobia’
Len Goodman was live on the BBC and was talking about the Platinum Jubilee. However, his description of the British delicacy coronation chicken caused the BBC to come back on and later apologize for his comments.
The Platinum Jubilee celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. When the conversation with Len turned to food, he admitted that he had little to no skills in the kitchen. Therefore, he relies on his wife to cook, and he said that they had coronation chicken the night before for their tea.
“I’ve never had it before,” Len admitted. “I’ve never had curry and curry powder, you know, my Nan used to call it all ‘foreign muck.’”
Coronation chicken is a cooked chicken dish based in a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce, although it also contains curry powder. The dish was invented for the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
He then said that he actually enjoyed it, finishing up what he felt was an amusing little story. However, it was what his “nan” used to call it that has people lashing out at Len.
This brought out the people on Twitter who laid into Len, accusing him of xenophobia.
People on Twitter rip into Len Goodman
Political commentator Adam Schwarz didn’t care that Len was quoiting his “nan” and seemed to believe Len shared the beliefs.
“A dollop of old fashioned British Empire xenophobia from Len Goodman on the BBC’s Jubilee coverage,” he wrote.
“Yes, Goodman was quoting his nan, who was probably born during the 19th century. But if you’re sharing a racist quote, doing it while physically wincing at the target of the racism and telling it as a supposedly humorous anecdote is no way to do it.”
However, there were others who took Len’s side and said the criticism was too harsh.
“If you were as old as Len Goodman then your nan probably called it foreign muck as well,” wrote @eastleedslass on Twitter. “Different generation, different times. Stop trying to out today’s values on yesterday’s people.”
Dancing with the Stars is on hiatus. The dancing reality competition series will return in late 2022 to its new home on Disney+ streaming.