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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAward-winning podcast duo James Duncan and Fuhad Dawodu have apologised for engaging with “racist jokes” on a rival show. <\/p>\n James and Fuhad, better known as Shxtsngigs, appeared last month on US comedian Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast.<\/p>\n The pair faced backlash afterwards for laughing along with comments Schulz made about black women that were criticised by listeners as being based on racist stereotypes.<\/p>\n They opened Monday’s episode of their podcast by saying sorry and that there was “no excuse” for their behaviour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The podcasters, who won a Mobo Award in February, had been on a six-week trip to the US when they appeared on the Flagrant podcast.<\/p>\n It has tens of thousands of monthly listeners and sells itself as being “unfiltered” with presenters who “could care less about sensitivities”.<\/p>\n In the episode with James and Fuhad, released on 17 July, they discussed the “black girlfriend effect”.<\/p>\n The phrase inspired a TikTok “before and after” trend where mixed race couples would post pictures showing how their relationships had changed them. <\/p>\n In the podcast, Fuhad starts by saying black women “glow up the other culture” – make their partners more stylish – with James adding that their boyfriends may get a beard, tattoos and a fade haircut.<\/p>\n “They shave their hair because they start losing it,” Schulz interjects. <\/p>\n “Because he’s so stressed to be around this black girl complaining all the time.”<\/p>\n James and Fuhad laugh along as Schulz continues: “They grow their beard because they need a cushion when they get slapped.<\/p>\n “I think the black girlfriend effect, it might be a protective instinct.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There was a backlash online with fans saying the jokes played into the “angry black woman” trope<\/a> of an overly emotional and aggressive personality.<\/p>\n Addressing the online reaction on Monday’s podcast, James says: “Andrew was making a joke, frankly a racist joke, and we were laughing at it.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s literally no excuse.”<\/p>\n James says he expected to be the person who would “stand up, kick those cameras down… [and] smack homeboy in the face”.<\/p>\n “But when you’re in there, you’re in shock,” he says, likening it to “fight or flight”.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s not even about pity laughs or anything,” Fuhad adds. “We just wanted to get out of that situation.”<\/p>\n James acknowledged their reaction “really, really hurt people that look to us for support and look to us to feel protected”.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re sorry. For me it\u2019s one of them ones where you don\u2019t realise that, when you\u2019re part of a community, you don\u2019t realise you can hurt your own community,” he says.<\/p>\n “We don\u2019t condone, we don\u2019t appease that behaviour.<\/p>\n “We don\u2019t rate it and we don\u2019t want you guys to think we were sat in that room rating what was going on.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shxtsngigs is one of the top-ranking podcasts on Spotify in the UK, with millions of Instagram followers and just under two million YouTube subscribers.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Let our community down’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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