Rich whites have been using the concept of race to divide and conquer the poor since time immemorial. This has manifested over time in episodes that reflect what are arguably the insidious effects of Stockholm Syndrome.
Case in point is British Labour MP Rupa Huq, of Pakistani descent, accusing British Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, of Ghanaian descent, for sounding only “superficially black.” This, because Huq thinks Kwarteng sides too much with whites in their systemic exploitation of the poor.
Is “superficially black” British for Uncle Tom…?
In truth, Huq was calling Kwarteng an Uncle Tom. And, even in Britain, that comes pretty close to calling a black man the N-word. This is why the fallout surprised nobody.
Labour MP Rupa Huq has been suspended from the parliamentary party pending an investigation after she called the chancellor ‘superficially’ black.
Speaking about Kwasi Kwarteng at a party conference fringe event, Ms Huq also said: ‘If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black. … He’s superficially, he’s, a black man but again he’s got more in common… he went to Eton, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through top schools in the country. If you hear him on the Today programme you wouldn’t know he’s black.’
(BBC, September 27, 2022)
And Huq’s obligatory apology followed:
I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting. My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.
(The Guardian, September 27, 2022)
She was right, so how could she have been so wrong?
The British pound fell to all-time low against the U.S. dollar early Monday after Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng pledged a sweeping package of tax cuts, fueling concerns about the government’s economic policy as the UK teeters toward recession. …
Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office three weeks ago, are betting that lower taxes and reduced bureaucracy eventually will generate enough additional tax revenue to cover government spending. Economists suggest it is unlikely the gamble will pay off.
(PBS, September 26, 2022)
The budget Kwarteng presented last week might be bad for the British economy. But it is patently so for poor Britons. I suspect it was this obvious fact that provoked Huq to hurl those racist comments at him.
The irony is that she came across as equally superficial in her criticism. Because she focused on how Kwarteng sounds instead of on what he says.
But there’s no denying that Huq’s criticism is right in spirit. After all, anyone who knows anything about economics knows the fiscal policies Kwarteng announced will mostly benefit rich whites at the expense of poor blacks.
Meanwhile, more than half of black children in the UK are growing up in poverty. And, as Huq knows all too well, the Labour party is championing fiscal policies to redress systemic disparities that cause black children to be at least twice as likely to grow up poor as white children.
A black face for racist policies
Liz Truss won universal praise for cabinet appointments that featured no white man in any of the four great offices of state for the first time in British history. Except Kwarteng is undermining that praise by implementing fiscal policies – which disadvantage the poor (especially blacks) – that would give even a white, racist chancellor pause.
But I’m detecting a pattern here. Because the same can be said for Truss appointing Suelle Braverman, of Indian descent, as home secretary. After all, Braverman is on record championing some of the most draconian and racist immigration policies in British history.
Frankly, the Tory party seems to be winning praise for appointing ethnic minorities to front conservative policies that do little more than reinforce the rights, privileges, and benefits whites have always enjoyed. Of course, this is no different from the Republican party here in America using black Tim Scott in the Senate and black Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court to front policies to roll back civil rights and repeal laws to redress inequality – like those on affirmative action.
This is why (black) Britons would be forgiven for calling Kwarteng an Uncle Tom. That, of course, is a self-hating black who is so desperate to please whites that he champions more racist causes [or policies inimical to the interests of blacks] than any respectable white ever would.
You’re still black, Kwasi
The irony of ironies is that Kwarteng might be the most qualified person ever appointed chancellor. After all, his credentials include a “first” degree in classics and history from Cambridge University, a Harvard University Kennedy scholarship, a PhD in economics from Cambridge, working as a financial analyst, writing several books, and speaking several languages. Hell, he even “writes poetry in Latin.”
Yet, when this “schoolboy error” triggered the public humiliation Kwarteng is now suffering, the schadenfreude seemed most palpable among the very whites he fraternized with and sought to impress all his life. Their patently racist insinuation is that the economy is collapsing not because he is championing their fiscal policies, but because he’s black.
Moreover, they are clearly relishing being able to hail the white Governor of the Bank of England for coming in like a white knight. This, to rescue the British economy from the “unprecedented” troubled waters this black chancellor plunged it into. Is there no end to the white man’s burden…?
Indeed, perhaps you’ve heard them propagating the canard that, thanks to Kwarteng, Britain is suddenly being treated like one of its former Third World colonies. But this is why all that remains is for them to force Kwarteng to amend his budget in a way that makes Huq’s groveling apology seem haughty. Or worse, Truss may face the awkward imperative of having to fire him – her old friend and current neighbor – to save her premiership. But such are the hazards of valuing personal loyalties above all else in politics…
Whatever the case, if you don’t believe his own white Tory colleagues are reveling, as indicated, in the humbling of this “uppity black man,” you’d don’t know racism…