Beard Liberation Front
30th December
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Beard Liberation Front agrees with criticism that there were too few Asian beards in Beard of Year poll
Paul Chowdhry
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said it agrees with criticisms that there were too few prominent Asian beard wearers in the 2019 Beard of the Year poll.
The vote was won by Strictly It Takes Two star Rylan Clark Neal.
The campaigners say that they have been aware for some time that shortlists for quarterly and annual Beard Awards drawn from figures in the public eye can exclude popular beards from ethnic minorities, who themselves may not feature in the media as much as their public impact warrants.
From the Beard of Winter shortlist in January 2020 the BLF says it will be making a particular effort to make contenders more representative and inclusive of British society
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we’ve been aware for a long time that shortlists of prominent beard wearers can look ‘hideously white’ and we have begun to address that. However there is much more work needed and we agree with the criticism that the Beard of the Year 2019 shortlist was not as representative as it should have been.
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