UK
A Black Woman Tory Leader? Sure, As Long As She’s Batshit Right-WingNovember 6, 2024
Source: Freedom News
Photo: Number10, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Kemi Badenoch exemplifies the decades-long tradition in the UK of ‘pulling up the ladder’, practiced by class-ascendant immigrants on the right of the political spectrum
Kemi Badenoch is the death’s head of the Tory Party. A withered husk,it is now completely hollowed out since its heyday in the 20th century and grasping for relevance, in a political landscape that sees the neoliberal Labour party and the far-right dominate mainstream discourse.
It seems obvious enough, with her racist and anti-migrant rhetoric, that Badenoch was chosen by the Tory membership. They are terrified out of their wits that Reform UK will beat them in the elections of the future. The Tories are making a hard pivot to the extreme right in order to court some of the more disturbing elements in our society, and Badenoch will be the face of that pivot in the coming years.
Yet there is more to it. Badenoch’s appointment is the latest in a series of desperate pleas to the Tory electorate, pretending that the Party is not as racist and misogynist as everything they say indicates. With the double power of her gender and race, she is the salve to the part of the country that the Tories are desperate to win over, and a convenient mouthpiece for all the virulent racists and misogynists within it. After all, if a black woman is calling for more draconian measures against immigrants, how could it be racist?
But Kemi is not one of us. She is not for the liberation of black people and women up and down the country. She not only opposes reparation payments for the descendants of the people enslaved under the British state, she is also vehemently against teaching Black history. She also backed the Sewell report, which denied that Britain today was institutionally racist. Badenoch not only believes that trans girls are not girls, she has also publicly stated that maternity pay is too high for women doing the fundamental work of raising the next generation. A defender of black, brown and women’s rights she is not, and that is not even including her vile comments on immigration.
Badenoch exemplifies the decades-long tradition in the UK of ‘pulling up the ladder’, practiced by class-ascendant immigrants on the right of the political spectrum. We will never know whether she believes everything she says, or whether it’s just a cold calculation to appeal to the most rabid right-wingers in the populace. But we have seen the like time and again. From Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, all the way to the doors of number 10 with Rishi Sunak, we have seen migrants and their descendants prostitute their position as brown and black people for the sake of a morsel of political power and entrenching themselves in the ruling class.
Badenoch has now reached this pinnacle herself, and does not give a damn if the people at her level do not look like her. She is interested only in herself and seems confident that she will not reap the whirlwind that her ‘culture war’ posturing has sown.
But with her massive unpopularity amongst the broader electorate, Badenoch’s cosying up to the old, rich, white racists that make up the Tory Party membership will not be enough to give her a platform to rule over us. They are dying out. Siding with racists, she has tied her mast to a sinking ship and I for one will eagerly watch her go out to sea without a raft.
Why would I, a Brit of Nigerian descent watch in glee as Badenoch flails around spewing divisive rhetoric in a burning house? Because, as the saying goes, Skinfolk aren’t always your kinfolk
Photo: Number10, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Kemi Badenoch exemplifies the decades-long tradition in the UK of ‘pulling up the ladder’, practiced by class-ascendant immigrants on the right of the political spectrum
Kemi Badenoch is the death’s head of the Tory Party. A withered husk,it is now completely hollowed out since its heyday in the 20th century and grasping for relevance, in a political landscape that sees the neoliberal Labour party and the far-right dominate mainstream discourse.
It seems obvious enough, with her racist and anti-migrant rhetoric, that Badenoch was chosen by the Tory membership. They are terrified out of their wits that Reform UK will beat them in the elections of the future. The Tories are making a hard pivot to the extreme right in order to court some of the more disturbing elements in our society, and Badenoch will be the face of that pivot in the coming years.
Yet there is more to it. Badenoch’s appointment is the latest in a series of desperate pleas to the Tory electorate, pretending that the Party is not as racist and misogynist as everything they say indicates. With the double power of her gender and race, she is the salve to the part of the country that the Tories are desperate to win over, and a convenient mouthpiece for all the virulent racists and misogynists within it. After all, if a black woman is calling for more draconian measures against immigrants, how could it be racist?
But Kemi is not one of us. She is not for the liberation of black people and women up and down the country. She not only opposes reparation payments for the descendants of the people enslaved under the British state, she is also vehemently against teaching Black history. She also backed the Sewell report, which denied that Britain today was institutionally racist. Badenoch not only believes that trans girls are not girls, she has also publicly stated that maternity pay is too high for women doing the fundamental work of raising the next generation. A defender of black, brown and women’s rights she is not, and that is not even including her vile comments on immigration.
Badenoch exemplifies the decades-long tradition in the UK of ‘pulling up the ladder’, practiced by class-ascendant immigrants on the right of the political spectrum. We will never know whether she believes everything she says, or whether it’s just a cold calculation to appeal to the most rabid right-wingers in the populace. But we have seen the like time and again. From Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, all the way to the doors of number 10 with Rishi Sunak, we have seen migrants and their descendants prostitute their position as brown and black people for the sake of a morsel of political power and entrenching themselves in the ruling class.
Badenoch has now reached this pinnacle herself, and does not give a damn if the people at her level do not look like her. She is interested only in herself and seems confident that she will not reap the whirlwind that her ‘culture war’ posturing has sown.
But with her massive unpopularity amongst the broader electorate, Badenoch’s cosying up to the old, rich, white racists that make up the Tory Party membership will not be enough to give her a platform to rule over us. They are dying out. Siding with racists, she has tied her mast to a sinking ship and I for one will eagerly watch her go out to sea without a raft.
Why would I, a Brit of Nigerian descent watch in glee as Badenoch flails around spewing divisive rhetoric in a burning house? Because, as the saying goes, Skinfolk aren’t always your kinfolk
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