3½-minute read
Dermot Feenan
LLB MA LLM Barrister-at-Law FRSA
Once upon a time, there was a government minister. Her name was Kemi Badenoch. Kemi had a blind spot. Though she could see some things, she couldn’t properly see race and its effects. Kemi ought to have known better.
You see, Kemi is the Equalities Minister in the UK. She is Black. She went to university. Twice. She was quite lucky. Her dad was a doctor, a GP. Her mother was an academic, a professor.
Like many children born to professional parents, Kemi had a fairly comfortable family life. Her parents’ jobs meant that Kemi was able to attend the International School University of Lagos. Very few Nigerian children can get into such a school.
Her mother’s occupation also meant that Kemi was taken with her when her mum went to work in the US. Kemi’s mother is a first cousin to Nigeria’s current vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo. He comes from a very famous, powerful family in Nigeria.
Even though Kemi had these advantages, she likes to tell people that she worked in McDonald’s. A lot of well-off people with blind spots do that. They want some people to think they’re just like them.
Kemi has said all sorts of odd things about skin colour. She said that most children don’t know the colour of skin of the author of a book. Is Kemi just being funny? She sure does like a laugh – as we’ll see later.
Doesn’t she know of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? Doesn’t she know that children by the age of three can recognise different skin colours, and that because people can be cruel some young people aren’t proud of their dark skin colour?
That’s why a famous actress wrote the book Sulwe. It tells the story of a little girl who learns to love her ‘skin the colour of midnight.’ That actress is Lupita Nyong’o. She is also Black and comes from Africa. She says she wrote the book to help little kids love their skin.
It’s easy to see why some in Kemi’s Party, especially white people, would love Kemi. A white man interviewed her for Conservative Home and, referring to her Party conference speech, said: ‘It was tremendously refreshing to hear you thanking white middle-aged men. Thank you.’
Then there’s Margaret Ashworth. She’s a former journalist and member of The Conservative Woman. Writing after Kemi attacked Critical Race Theory in Parliament (yes, seriously), she asked ‘I am beginning to wonder if we have found our next Conservative Party leader.’ LOL.
She exclaimed, in a way Tories of a certain age do, ‘How refreshing!’ She went on: ‘Perhaps head teachers who have been falling over themselves to ‘decolonise’ their courses – even at Eton – will realise that they have been made to look fools by the divisive race activists.’
Mrs. Ashworth must have a blind spot. She doesn’t mention that those calling for changes at Eton were the pupils , alumni, and parents; hardly ‘divisive race activists.’ Do ‘race activists’, like the Bogeymen, haunt the nightmares of worried Tories?
Kemi said that Britain is the best country to be black: ‘I’ve lived in the US, I’ve lived in Nigeria, so I feel like I’ve got some context to compare… I look at South Africa and look around Europe and ask: are those places better to be black than the UK? I don’t think so.’ LOL.
Oh dear, poor Kemi. There are 195 independent sovereign states in the world! It’s not even clear which countries Kemi looked ‘around’ in Europe. All 27 EU member states? The European Economic Area? Just the continent of Europe? Maybe other countries, like Turkey… or Israel?
Even stranger, Kemi treats all Black people as the same. Maybe some Black people would NOT want to live in Britain. Just saying. I mean the weather’s pretty bad and the prime minister acts like a clown.
Kemi seems to believe that simply by saying something makes it true. Sometimes, well-off people do this. They don’t need to watch their words. Or maybe she just looks at her boss lying and blustering in a posh voice that few question and thinks, ‘Hey, I could do that’. LOL.
@Dermot Feenan 2020