The idea that a white person should be named as ambassador for the British Asian Trust was mocked by some people. But what if the tables were turned? And is our reaction simply being dictated by how others react towards us?

This week the Prince of Wales named global pop star Katy Perry as a new ambassador of his British Asian Trust in a major drive against child-trafficking.

Katy joined joined Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at a black-tie reception and dinner at Banqueting House in London. DJ and music producer Naughty Boy, comedian Russell Peters and broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake were among the guests gathered as the Prince announced the singer as an ambassador of the Trust's Children's Protection Fund for India.

But the announcement did not go down well with some Twitter users and commentators who felt it was strange that Katy Perry should be chosen. She is neither British nor Asian.

The British Asian Trust ambassadors in recent years have been some of the most well known Asian celebrities from across the UK.  So, why not keep to the same theme and chose someone from an Asian background? Clearly, there are a number out there.

The fact remains that Katy Perry is a global superstar and is lending her support to projects in south Asia and said she wanted to "help shine my light on the work that the British Asian Trust will be doing in south Asia, and to be a part of finding solutions to child-trafficking."

So, is it really a huge deal that Katy Perry should be chosen? And why did some people react in such a way?

Much of this boils down to the feeling that an Asian organisation is only doing this to garner publicity.

Asian Image:

The British Asian Trust dinner was held at Banqueting House, Whitehall, London on Tuesday (February 4) (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) 

Some readers may recollect an Ethnic minority award ceremony in 2004 which honoured David Beckham with Sporting Personality of the Year. The BBC’s Greg Dyke won Media Personality of the Year and Tom Cruise picked up the best Film Actor Award. Clearly, it wasn’t the best choice at the time and was rightly criticised. What was the point of claiming to promote Asian talent if you were going to just hand out an award to anyone and everyone?

Sadly, since then they have not been the only ones guilty of this.

We also have this sense that by choosing a white celebrity ahead of the many suitable Asians organisers are we losing the very notion of being a ‘British and Asian’ charity. We should be supporting ‘our own’ first ahead of others.

There may well be some truth in this but in this case the charity already has a wide range of Asian celebrities from across the UK already backing the causes.

Which takes us to what would happen if the situations were reversed.

Imagine for a moment an Asian celebrity was to support a white Christian charity or an International charity - which has happened on numerous occasions. What if then there was an outcry of sorts against this? How would this be deemed?

We would be supporting the said celebrity in their fight against ‘white privilege’ and backing their campaign for equal treatment.

It becomes increasingly difficult to claim to want equal treatment when we simply react the very way others react.

What happens is we begin to talk more about this appointment rather than the actual cause this was meant to support.