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Wednesday 19 February 2020

Is Boris Johnson racist?


To answer the question, no.

I do not consider Jeremy Corbyn to be antisemitic despite the way he has shared platforms with antisemites (and similar actions).

Boris Johnson has said racist things and has employed those who expressed racist views. And when it comes to this racist comments, they include the columns about African children looking like “flag-waving piccaninnies,” “watermelon smiles” and even describing a group of Ugandan children who once sang for him at a ceremony in Uganda as “Aids-ridden choristers?” And I know that this is controversial, but his deportation of foreign criminals was not racist in my view, but there is an argument that denying some of these people of colour, proper legal representation was.

Labour fell into his trap by fixating on the wrong matter when it came to those deportations.  Most members of the public will be in favour of the deportation of foreign criminals.  Labour should not have focused on that as they came across as being in favour of the rights of criminals and illegal immigrants (even though these people were not so) and the Tories came across as being tough on crime and also being firm on immigration.  What they should have discussed was denying people of the correct legal protections.  Most people will be against the denial of legal rights just based on skin colour and Labour should have focused on that.

So while I do not think that Boris Johnson is racist, he is guilty of using racist language in the past and he is certainly guilty of pandering to prejudice when it comes to gaining votes.