British Conservative Party MP, Kemi Badenoch, has said that the political Left label black conservatives “Uncle Toms” and “house negroes” if they dare to “think differently.”
Badenoch, who is black and of Jamaican descent herself, condemned common insults levelled against black conservatives from the Left, with labels such as “Uncle Tom” or “House Negro” being thrown around following a controversial government report on institutional racism in Britain.
“It is wrong to accuse those who argue for a different approach as being ‘racism deniers’ or ‘race traitors,’” said Badenoch, who is currently the UK’s Equality Minister.
“It is even more irresponsible, dangerously so, to call ethnic minority people racial slurs like ‘Uncle Toms’, ‘coconuts’, ‘house slaves’ or ‘house negroes’ for daring to think differently.
“Such deplorable tactics are designed to intimidate ethnic minority people from their right to express legitimate views. This House depends on robust debate and diversity of thought. Too many ethnic minority people have to put up with this shameful treatment every day.”
The recently released “Report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities”, found that Britain is a “beacon to the rest of Europe and the world” on racial issues and that institutional racism in Britain does not exist – a result which caused outrage on the Left, and, according to Badenoch, even led to government MPs receiving serious death threats.
“We no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities,” read the report’s foreword.
While it admitted that “impediments and disparities do exist”, it alleged that they were “varied and ironically very few of them are directly to do with racism”, generally being down to other factors such as family influence, socio-economic background, and culture.
As a result, many leftwing and left-leaning organisations, have been scathing in their condemnation of the reports findings, calling it “reprehensible”, “an attempt to normalise white supremacy”, and accusing the British government of repackaging “racist tropes into fact.”
UN condemns 'reprehensible' UK race report for repackaging 'racist tropes into fact. https://t.co/kIglooBtt2
— Tara John (@tarajohn) April 19, 2021
“The report cites dubious evidence … by using the familiar arguments that have always justified racial hierarchy.”
UK race report attempted to normalise white supremacy, says body of UN experts https://t.co/laA6YgHBXr pic.twitter.com/3Qlxsf1opL
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 19, 2021
Bardenoch gained international attention from the press recently after she reprimanded schools that pushed ideas central to Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory, such as the notion of “white privilege”. Bardenoch ruled that teaching white privilege as uncontested fact at schools was illegal under UK law.
Black Tories are the wretched of the earth. #DecolonisetheCurriculum https://t.co/4H9HKNGhRV
— Sharmaine Lovegrove (@SharLovegrove) October 21, 2020