Slaver statues may fall but Boris Johnson – and the structural racism he embodies – goes on and on
The echoes of the thud with which Edward Colston’s statue hit the slabs probably hadn’t even died away before a Downing Street spokesman was telling us Boris Johnson is convinced the UK is not racist.
The country doesn’t have to be; he alone is racist enough for all of us:
No 10 spokesman for a Boris Johnson who called Black people “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”, and Muslim women “bank robbers” and “letter boxes”, says the PM doesn’t think the UK’s racist. I can think of one prominent member, Downing Street address, who spouts crude racism
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) June 8, 2020
We all can.
Prominent among the tweets on my Twitter timeline (TL) today was a link to a 2016 article in which Johnson suggested that then-US President Barack Obama may have an “ancestral dislike” of the UK.
Writing a column for The Sun newspaper the outgoing Mayor of London recounted a story about a bust of Winston Churchill purportedly being removed from White House.
“Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” he wrote.
One cannot imagine him suggesting that Donald Trump’s part-German ancestry gives him a similar “ancestral dislike” of the UK, though. Can you?
And the decision to invoke Winston Churchill may be considered a mistake, in hindsight. But then, look at the way others mention him:
https://twitter.com/SoulSmellsofAmi/status/1269788636205256706
(Incidentally, if anyone sees that hypocrite Finkelstein getting on his high horse about anti-Semitism about this, just remind him that he was happy to praise the racist Churchill.)
The fact that the UK state endorses racism is proved by a simple fact: even though we have laws to prevent racial antagonism from being stirred up, the police will not use them against the Prime Minister – he is literally above the law, despite all claims by the Establishment that nobody is:
https://twitter.com/RedRadicals/status/1269928734863351809
This Writer has experienced the same frustrations when reporting other members, of previous governments, for law-breaking. The police either say it’s somebody else’s problem or flat-out refuse to consider it.
In the case of a government minister – or indeed the Prime Minister – displaying racism, this becomes an example of not just institutional, but structural racism:
The four dimensions of #racism #InstitutionalRacism #structuralracism #interpersonalracism #internalisedracism pic.twitter.com/uLrc882eMY
— Amar Abbas FRSA (@AmarAbbasUK) June 7, 2020
“Multiple institutions” – in this case the police and Parliament – “collectively uphold racist policies and practices.”
So Johnson is completely wrong.
The United Kingdom is racist. Perhaps the prime minister can’t see it because he’s such a damned racist himself.
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Fascist women hater dictator boris believes whatever insults he utters against women is okay because he is a white wealthy male and now he is a fake prime minister. This means he creates laws for us peasants whilst he and his fascist tory cronies are above the law!
‘Do as we order you not as we do’ is the mantra of the women hating fascist tories!
“then-US President Barack Obama may have an “ancestral dislike” of the UK.” What about the native New Yorker squatting in No.10.?