A former soldier in the British Army has been awarded after claiming she faced over a decade of racism and sexism, The Guardian reports.
Kerry-Ann Knight, 33, alleged the mistreatment began after she appeared on a national recruitment poster, saying "Your army needs you and your self-belief," while she was training in 2012.
Knight, who was the only Black female soldier in her unit, believes the recruitment poster caused resentment among fellow soldiers.
While stationed in Germany with the 26 Regiment Royal Artillery unit, Knight said: “There was a lot of sexism. However, when you put race into play, as well, for me, it just felt like it was multiplied by 10.”
Knight later took on a new assignment as an instructor at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, where she trained recruits.
In a witness statement, the former soldier said her colleagues “took it in turns to shout out ‘watermelooooon!’ anytime I walked into the room.”
Knight added that male soldiers would refer to her as a “black b-tch” but say: “I’d still shag you though.”
“One evening, I returned to my room to see someone had drawn images of huge black penises all over the wardrobes in my room,” Knight said in a statement.
Knight also said her colleagues would discuss lynchings and being "tarred and feathered." One colleague allegedly mentioned putting Knight in a "hot box," referencing a scene from “Django Unchained” where a Black slave was locked in a wooden coffin.
The former soldier said she reported the racism and misogyny over several years. In response, the army allegedly removed her from her assignment of training junior soldiers, citing concerns about her “mental or emotional state."
“I think when it got to that stage, that’s when I just realized that the army is institutionally racist,” Knight said. “And they would go above and beyond in order to discredit me as an individual, in order to protect the army image, to portray that racism doesn’t exist, even though it was there in black and white.”
After serving roughly 12 years in the Army, Knight left as a corporal earlier this year and filed an official complaint. Knight took her case before a military tribunal, which led to her receiving a financial settlement and public apology from the Army.
“The army accepts that you had to work in an unacceptable organizational environment where you experienced racist and sexist harassment," the army said in its apology last month. "There was a failure within the army in not responding properly to that environment or your complaints about it.”
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