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

It also contradicts what she was saying before she realised that her current message is popular in the Conservative Party.

Badenoch went to sixth form college in Wimbledon and used to recount a tale that her teachers didn't think she could be a doctor because she's black. They told her she should become a nurse instead. Her narrative changed.

Badenoch is my MP and is completely useless. She is hardly ever here and doesn't respond to constituents. It appears she realised that claiming the UK is the best place in the world for blacks is a popular narrative and adopted it. It's about her only message and she's sold it many times in articles in right-wing publications.

When she stood as an MP in London as Kemi Adegoke, she was rejected soundly because it was obvious she couldn't care less about poorer blacks. I don't know whether they're still available, but some of the communications she had with local people was available online. She's a Conservative and thinks she's superior to others, including blacks. She didn't like being associated with them as a result of her skin colour, so acknowledged that racism does exist.

Kemi's statement, as previous posts have said, is a sweeping generalisation. It's generalisations that lead to racial stereotypes and the negative stereotypes contribute hugely to institutional racism, so although it's nice to hear that, and she has every right to express her positive experience, perhaps it wasn't the most considered way to phrase it.But a good headline-grabber...

My DiL is French and of N African ethnicity. She came to the UK about 20 years ago and feels very much more comfortable here than in France. She is Parisian and has rarely been on the receiving end of the kind of racism in the UK that she endured in her home country.

That’s not to say we don’t all worry for my GC, though, when such things can turn on a sixpence.

Apparently no European-wide data is available on how many people are discriminated against because of their racial or ethnic origin.
The UK is the only country to collect equality data on ethnic minorities.
This means that it's hard to do any kind of meaningful comparison across Europe, let alone the world.

Antonia I expect you're right about rural areas being very different to cities, our friend lived in cities, the worst he said was Paris.

I'm white, but I've got ears. Listen to people's stories. And of course today us the day Dalian Atkinson's killer got 8 years for manslaughter
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-57603091

I'll ask a friend who.as a black female police officer is well placed to express an informed opinion. Watch this space.

Rosie5. Antonia I'm sorry you experience racism in Britain, but your experience in France is the absolute opposite of a friend of my husband. He experienced such awful racism in France that he moved to England
I'm sorry to hear that. I think it might depend on where you live in France. I was in a rural hamlet; the kind where everybody knows everybody, knows everything about everybody. I think it must be different in a larger town or city, and of course, as you said, it's all down to one's individual experience.

Antonia I'm sorry you experience racism in Britain, but your experience in France is the absolute opposite of a friend of my husband. He experienced such awful racism in France that he moved to England. They met in a pub, when my husband was having a drink after work when he was working away from home. They got chatting and a firm friendship has ensued. The friend says he has experienced less racism here than in France or his brief time in Italy. I suppose every individual will have their own unique experiences.

Thank you for clarifying, Lemongrove.

No ‘dismissal’ at all Antonia of course I believe your account, and know there are many instances of racism ( especially the more casual everyday type) which are individually hurtful, but we must see that overall, if black and ethnic minorities do well
In chosen professions, it reflects the racism levels within a country.I am glad that the UK does allow for achievement regardless of skin colour, in such a way.

21lemongrove. I have just been googling racism in France and Germany, not pretty reading! Anecdotes are one thing and facts are another. Of course there is still racism here, as there is everywhere. But the stats show there are black and Asian and other ethnicities in so many ‘top’ jobs here compared to many other European countries, that we are doing something right
I do object, quite strongly, to your apparent dismissal of my experiences of racism as 'anecdotes' and not 'facts.'
I can assure you that the racism I have experienced was not anecdotal, but totally factual. Maybe that's not what you intended, but that's how you are coming across.
I do agree, though, that there are more ethnic minority people in top jobs in the UK compared with other countries. France has an elite of politicians who all came from the same 'grande écoles.' There can also be discrimination in France based on a politician's accent and place of birth, even if they are white.

I have just been googling racism in France and Germany, not pretty reading! Anecdotes are one thing and facts are another.
Of course there is still racism here, as there is everywhere
But the stats show there are black and Asian and other ethnicities in so many ‘top’ jobs here compared to many other European countries, that we are doing something right.

I think that is correct - in fact. Which does not say it is perfect, at all.

Antonia

*lemongrove. 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.*
With respect, I disagree with you. I am mixed race, for context. It's true that overt racism has declined recently, but I don't think the underlying feelings have, for many people. It's simply that it is not socially acceptable now to be perceived as racist,but many people still are. It's very subtle sometines, but easy to see when you're had a lifetime's experience of it. It can be the way someone looks at you, a frosty tone of voice, the smile for the previous white customer that doesn't extend to you - I could go on.
It's equally impossible to comprehend it totally if you never experience it. The subtle, drip drip of it. For more context, I lived in France for many years and only experienced racism three times - all from British people.

I'm white, my husband isn't, my kids obviously are mixed race and I agree with you. I see the difference if I am alone and if I am with him. As you say it can be subtle and that makes it hard as people dismiss it as oh it happens to everyone or you're imagining it.

lemongrove. 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.
With respect, I disagree with you. I am mixed race, for context. It's true that overt racism has declined recently, but I don't think the underlying feelings have, for many people. It's simply that it is not socially acceptable now to be perceived as racist,but many people still are. It's very subtle sometines, but easy to see when you're had a lifetime's experience of it. It can be the way someone looks at you, a frosty tone of voice, the smile for the previous white customer that doesn't extend to you - I could go on.
It's equally impossible to comprehend it totally if you never experience it. The subtle, drip drip of it. For more context, I lived in France for many years and only experienced racism three times - all from British people.

These days it seems that if you want to become an MP, especially a Tory MP, ethnicity matters less than privilege and wealth.

In every country and in every society and ethnic group there will be people who were born to privilege, and became accustomed to many advantages perhaps including excellent education at schools where they not only got high marks in exams, paving the way to elite universities, but also made very very useful social connections.

That is the determinant or being accepted as "one of us" in the modern Tory Party.

There might be the odd exception of the "self made man" like Sajid Javid, who did not start off as "one of us" but became a very wealthy banker so he gets in to the club.

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.

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.

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.

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

GrannyGravy13

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

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

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.

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.

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