Kemi Badenoch has become the first black woman to lead a major UK political party but can she reunite the Conservative party? She’s hailed Margaret Thatcher as her inspiration and says she’s flattered by the comparisons to Thatcher.
(Good Morning Britain, November 4, 2024)
Badenoch channeling Thatcher too literally
No doubt, Kemi Badenoch is as flattered by comparisons to Margaret Thatcher as Barack Obama was by comparisons to JFK. But while Obama was keenly aware of the racism embedded in such comparisons, Badenoch seems blissfully unaware.
The answer to that question from Good Morning Britain is, at best, a qualified yes. After all, the party didn’t unify around Badenoch as a true leader; they chose her as a virtue-signaling mascot. She’s Black, so how could their policies be racist? And let’s be honest — they love the optics of trolling Kamala’s America.
Conservatives know that Labour’s historic majority means Badenoch doesn’t have a prayer of becoming prime minister. So, they’re content for her to serve for now as the Black face of their patently racist policies. But if the polls show they stand a chance of winning in five years, they wouldn’t hesitate to dump her for a more “suitable” leader. They’d reason that Black Badenoch would fare even worse in a general election than Asian Sunak did.
A token exception
That said, Badenoch is just the latest in a shameful caucus of minorities (aka Uncle Toms), damned by their willingness to say the racist things none of their self-respecting White colleagues would dare. Exhibit A: former PM Sunak. Former cabinet ministers Priti Patel and Suella Braverman also deserve dishonorable mention. But, showing her determination to upstage them all, Badenoch used her inaugural PMQs on Wednesday to defend Trump with the zeal of a MAGA Republican.
That brings me to the irony of this first Black leader doubling down on the Conservative Party’s reputation for lacking diversity in policy, practice, and personnel. Because Badenoch seems all too content to be the token exception, the one Black face in a sea of conformity. She’s now the personification of the age-old phenomenon of “getting yours” and burning the bridge behind you.
“Family photo” speaks volumes
Badenoch telegraphed her intent to display the most self-hatred of any Black politicians in UK history. Only that explains the “family photo” of her shadow cabinet she published on Tuesday. Because, remarkably, it didn’t include a single Black face besides her own.
She defied odds, climbed political ranks, and rose as a trailblazing Black woman in British politics. But the cabinet she chose sends a troubling message: self-effacing compliance trumps representation. Then again, this family photo might be the clearest manifestation of Badenoch channeling Maggie, whose first family photo didn’t include a female face besides her own.
Labour’s all-White leaders
Still, regular readers know the contempt I have for liberal hypocrites. So, I’d be remiss not to point out that, despite preaching the gospel of diversity and inclusion, every leader of the Labour Party has been a White man. By instructive, if cynical, contrast, the last five leaders of the Conservative Party have included two White women, one Asian man, and now this Black woman.
If they weren’t so blinded by political self-righteousness, members of the UK Labour Party would see the need to hang their heads in shame.