A drama school ranked top 10 in the world issued a formal apology to Michaela Coel and Paapa Essiedu following an interview with The Guardian in which Essiedu described a racist incident. Coel and Essideu—the only Black students in the group—watched as a teacher performed an improvisation in which she played a prison officer looking for drugs from prisoners, who were played by students. “Suddenly she shouted: ‘Hey you, N-word, what have you got behind you?’” Essiedu recalled. The teacher later told Essiedu he didn’t enunciate clearly and that he spoke as if his mouth was “full of chocolate cake.” Essiedu said they were “shellshocked.” A spokesperson from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama told The Guardian that what the pair experienced was unacceptable. The school said it was working on “commissioning an external report into historic racism” and completing a “comprehensive and ongoing process of staff training and reflection.”
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