A controversial academic today risked to wrath of Britain's veterans and their families after calling the RAF airmen who bombed Nazi Germany war criminals.
Dr Kehinde Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, said the decision to build tributes like the Bomber Command Memorial desecrated with white paint yesterday was like 'justifying terrorism'.
He said: ‘We are talking about a war crime. I think it is a tragedy they died, but we don’t need a statue.’
His extraordinary statements came on ITV's Good Morning Britain today where host Piers Morgan asked him: 'Why do you see everything that we are proud of as sticks to beat our country with? Sometimes you have to stand up and fight'.
Dr Andrews fired back: ‘You can’t justify terrorism by saying we won a war. The next time a terrorist lets off a bomb I’ll come back to you, because you just justified it.’
Police are still hunting for the gang who toured central London throwing white paint over multiple war memorials and a Winston Churchill statue during a 12-hour vandalism spree.
Dr Kehinde Andrews (centre right) made the extraordinary statements came on ITV's Good Morning Britain today including WW2 heroes shouldn't have statues in their honour
Dr Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, called building the Bomber Command Memorial 'justifying terrorism' and Piers Morgan hit back: 'Why do you see everything that we are proud of as sticks to beat our country with?’
The Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park to remember its 55,000 war dead has been defaced with white paint overnight on Sunday, causing outrage in Britain
Specialist clean-up workers use high pressure steam to clean the paint vandals squirted over the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park
The memorial features seven air crew and was built to commemorate the sacrifice of 55,573 airmen who lost their lives serving in Bomber Command during the Second World War
Dr Andrews is a professor of black studies in the school of social sciences at Birmingham City University.
He has written books over the past five years including 'Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century' and 'Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement'.
He has also written for publications on both sides of the Atlantic including the Guardian, Washington Post and New Statesman.
Writing in the latter last week about Black History Month, he said: 'If schools want to genuinely engage with black history then they can embed it into their teaching.
'For example, rather than teaching the industrial revolution as a triumph of British engineering alone, teachers should link it to the enslavement and colonisation of Africa, which was essential to British history.
'There is also nothing wrong with teaching the history of the rest of the world, which was just as pivotal to the development of Britain.'
And speaking about the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle in May, he said it was meaningless for Britain's black community in addressing racism in job prospects, the criminal justice system and health disparities.
Dr Andrews added: 'When we sit back and actually analyse what's happened and what's changed, we'll realise it means nothing at all.'
The Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park,
