THE Chase’s Shaun Wallace has rejected claims his Dark Destroyer nickname is racist insisting ‘I chose it and I’m proud of my skin’.
Shaun, 60, has held the nickname ever since the ITV quiz show began in 2009.
However, earlier this week, a London lawyer went on Lorraine to explain how she doesn’t let her children watch the beginning of the show because of Shaun’s nickname.
Paula Rhone-Adrien said she took issue with a “Mastermind champion being described purely down to the colour of his skin”.
Her comments lead to a number of people contacted Shaun on Twitter to see if he felt his Chaser nickname was offensive.
One Twitter user asked Shaun: “Just heard a woman on Lorraine saying she won’t let her child watch the chase because it’s racist due to your nickname.
“Can you clarify if you are offended by being called the Dark Destroyer?.”
Shaun made his feelings clear on his nickname as he replied with a firm: “Absolutely NOT!!!”
A fellow Twitter user called Robin replied: “Really? Hope this lawyer has been put right. Am sure that if @TheShaunWallace had a problem with the nickname “The Dark Destroyer”, then @ITVChase wouldn’t use it? #TheChase”.
Shaun replied: “I don’t Robin.”
He then told another of his followers: “I am proud to be dark in skin who destroys his opponents intellectually.”
The debate around Shaun’s nickname is nothing new and he was at the centre of an unlikely race storm last year after TV execs in charge of the show Down Under dropped the prefix Dark over fears of racial undertones.
Yet with ITV now under pressure to follow suit, the 60-year-old barrister says he is proud of his nickname — one coined by his good mate, host Bradley Walsh — and requested that it remained unchanged for the start of the new series this year.
Shaun told The Celeb Report on Sunday in July: “It was actually Bradley who started to call me the Dark Destroyer, and there was absolutely no side or sinister reason behind it.
“So no, Britain may be less PC, but guess what? I am proud to be black.
“And because of my intellect — and I destroy people because of my intellect — then so be it. That’s the way I use the term the Dark Destroyer, and I am not offended. And I hope other people aren’t offended either.”
The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV.
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