Kemi Badenoch says UK is best place in the world to be black

Badenoch has been peddling this line for ages.

She is the daughter of two wealthy, educated Nigerians. She has no idea what it's like to be black in a "normal" community and looks down on other black people. She has also made Islamophobic comments. Just because she's black, don't think she can't be racist.

That's her opinion - who knows it might be true, I'm not Black so can't say.

But what's with her dig at the Left and denial of Tory racist behaviour?

Not for the first time is she stirring it.

She is the daughter of two wealthy, educated Nigerians

So is this a different Kemi Badenoch?

"In 2015, Badenoch was declared to fill the vacancy left behind by Victoria Borwick in the House of Commons. Badenoch went on to retain her seat in the Assembly in the 2016 election and was elected into the UK parliament. While at the parliament, she often spoke about her experiences of poverty in Nigeria and living without electricity or functioning water supply. She also narrated how she had to do her homework using candles

Sorry, didn't close quote.

It's from guardian.ng

Kemi’s father is a GP and her mother a professor of physiology. She spent a chunk of her childhood in the US where her mother held a university teaching post. Lagos in particular, due to the oil money has a large and wealthy middle class. Lagos is also one of the fastest growing cities in the world in recent decades and the city infrastructure has not fully kept pace: there are planned electricity outages to this day which cause my friends living there much annoyance.

She may have spoken about poverty in Nigeria but it wasn't her poverty.

As has been said, lack of utilities was due to general problems of supply in Nigeria.

I think, from what I have read, that the UK is the best place to be black ( certainly in Europe.)
There is racism of some kind in all countries, but we are generally a very fair society, where a person can get on in life no matter the skin colour.We have plenty of race laws in place and people have changed their thinking a lot over the last 40 years or so.

Whatever you think of the Tories they're leading the way in promoting people of different ethnic backgrounds: Sajid Javed, Rishi Sunak, Alok Sharma, Priti Patel, all-in senior government roles. Obviously hard working and well educated people. Fine by me.

Statements like this should only be made by people who have lived in every country in the world, and preferably by people who have experienced being rich, poor, male, female, sick, well and every other combination of circumstances that add up to 'being black'.

Otherwise, how can she possibly know?

As a white female it is not for me to say if a black females views on racism in the U.K. are right or wrong.

GrannyGravy13

As a white female it is not for me to say if a black females views on racism in the U.K. are right or wrong.

Agreed, and I think that as one black woman Kemi Badenoch is not in any position to speak for every other black woman either.

how can she possibly know?

She is stating an opinion based on her own experience, just as other people do.

Do people think relative wealth/poverty influence this kind of opinion?

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

As a white female it is not for me to say if a black females views on racism in the U.K. are right or wrong.

Agreed, and I think that as one black woman Kemi Badenoch is not in any position to speak for every other black woman either.

She didn't claim to be speaking for every other black woman.

Aveline

Whatever you think of the Tories they're leading the way in promoting people of different ethnic backgrounds: Sajid Javed, Rishi Sunak, Alok Sharma, Priti Patel, all-in senior government roles. Obviously hard working and well educated people. Fine by me.

Well they are all from an Indian/Pakistan background so not many different ethnic backgrounds there.

They aren't white though. I wasn't sure what the correct term was these days and didn't want people jumping down my throat about it. Oh well.

BBC reporter Rianna Croxford says she nearly quit over abuse ‘pile-on’ after Kemi Badenoch criticism

inews.co.uk/news/media/bbc-reporter-rianna-croxford-nearly-quit-kemi-badenoch-instigated-online-abuse-1076556

There are many Afro-Caribbean Conservative MP’s I just googled

Baggs

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

As a white female it is not for me to say if a black females views on racism in the U.K. are right or wrong.

Agreed, and I think that as one black woman Kemi Badenoch is not in any position to speak for every other black woman either.

She didn't claim to be speaking for every other black woman.

Well who is she speaking for? And unless she has lived in every other country in the world, how does she know that the UK is the best for black people? What does that actually mean?

it is a meaningless statement, whichever way you look at it.

Aveline

They aren't white though. I wasn't sure what the correct term was these days and didn't want people jumping down my throat about it. Oh well.

I'm not sure just having a certain ethnic group represented proves they are leading the way. If you are Afro caribbean you won't feel included in govt because there are some Indian ministers.

GrannyGravy13

There are many Afro-Caribbean Conservative MP’s I just googled

But they haven't been promoted. None of the ones referenced were.

I wonder how many black or Asian MP’s there are in the Hungarian Parliament? Or Spain/France/Italy/ Greece etc.

lemongrove

I wonder how many black or Asian MP’s there are in the Hungarian Parliament? Or Spain/France/Italy/ Greece etc.

Probably not so many, but you can’t read anything into that as other countries didn’t rule a quarter of the world for donkeys years.

Oh I think you can read something into that, as all those countries have different ethnic mixes.Not just in politics either, but business leaders and movers and shakers, policemen and policewomen, barristers, solicitors and any other high powered or professional job.
The truth is that anyone can succeed in the UK and they do.

I’m white and so probably not able to make a fair comment, as I don’t have any experience of being black in the UK or anywhere else. The one thing I would say is that I absolutely would not like to be black in the Deep South in America, in particular in Mississippi. I enjoyed my tour of the south but I was quite shocked at the conditions many black people live in there. I don’t think I’d like to be white there either, the area was fascinating with all it’s history of the civil war, the plantations, the beautiful antebellum houses (we stayed in one or two) but live there, no I couldn’t. We know there’s massive racism in the USA but you have to see this to believe it.