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AIBU?

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Original poster

Is Boris Johnson really racist?

121 replies

ArnoldBee · 09/06/2020 15:56

Something on my fb has popped up and to me it leads to an interesting debate.
Boris can be a pain, has had a privileged life and appears to look very pale white. However given his ancestry and that of his wife that he has had 4 children can he really be labelled as racist?

OP posts:
Clavinova · 09/06/2020 16:57

SimonJT
Extract from Pink News, but you already know this -

"In Parliament, Boris Johnson was an early pro-LGBT rebel. Despite his early beliefs, Johnson’s legislative record is markedly more liberal."

"Elected to Parliament for the first time in 2001, Johnson rebelled against his own party on several occasions to back LGBT+ rights measures."

"Defying the Conservative leadership at the time, Johnson voted in 2003 to abolish Section 28, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, and voted in 2004 to permit civil partnerships for same-sex couples."

"Alongside George Osborne and John Bercow, Johnson was one of just a handful of Tory MPs who were willing to back the Labour government’s LGBT+ reforms."

Elsiebear90 · 09/06/2020 16:57

@HollySideEyes @3LittleMonkeyz

Yep, it’s the same mentality that’s winning Trump votes, it’s like the more offensive he is the more they defend and love him for it, he obviously appeals to a part of them that agrees. A lot of people like to think this country isn’t racist, but actually it is, people are just more undercover about it here than in the US, it’s more subtle, people are in denial about themselves and others.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/06/2020 16:59

BAME ministers are window dressing?

Do you include women in that?

FFS! Don't use your dislike of the man to denigrate the careers of those many people.

Gwlondon · 09/06/2020 16:59

Come on, why would you marry someone who is half Indian? Why? Come on. Think a bit. It’s a narrative fed to you by people who don’t want you think about Tony Blair and what a conservative would write at the time of Tony Blair being in power. Imagine being a Tory at that time of Tony Blair’s landslide. (Over 20 years ago)

Also why would Tony Blair just suddenly make one mistake with Iraq and taking us to war? There is no way he was a perfect prime minister with one flaw on foreign policy. I was too young at the time. I didn’t understand the protests against the war. I didn’t have an opinion against Tony Blair except I didn’t thrust him until it came to the war and I assumed he knew things we didn’t. Turns out he had his own agenda.

Gwlondon · 09/06/2020 17:07

This is stuff he wrote 20 years ago. In Tony Blair’s time. A shameful time where we started a war on the back of a dodgy dossier which had been made up. 10,000’s died.

Unless everyone on this thread is younger than me? Can’t be possible?!?

tabulahrasa · 09/06/2020 17:09

@Gwlondon

This is stuff he wrote 20 years ago. In Tony Blair’s time. A shameful time where we started a war on the back of a dodgy dossier which had been made up. 10,000’s died.

Unless everyone on this thread is younger than me? Can’t be possible?!?

And?

Other people managed to discuss it and even write about it without also being racist...

Clavinova · 09/06/2020 17:15

MockersGuidedByTheScience
First hand experience here

If Natalie Rowe is telling the truth why hasn't her anecdote been picked up by the left-wing media?

3LittleMonkeyz · 09/06/2020 17:16

@CuriousaboutSamphire

I don't know if window dressing is right, but I don't believe he sees them as his equal and I believe that they had more barriers to get there than his red carpet roll out from Eton.

BaileysforBreakfast · 09/06/2020 17:19

A non racist would not even contemplate using the word 'piccaninny', even as a joke. So, yes, I reckon he is.

panavia · 09/06/2020 17:21

I fail to see how the 'letterbox' comment is racist?

Which race was he denigrating there?

BubbleBathandBook · 09/06/2020 17:22

FFS stop trying to make excuses for him OP. It matters not what his ancestry is. His words and actions are those of a racist (and misogynist homophobe, as has been said).

My father was born in the East End to working class market traders. Later in life he got a white collar job and moved to posh Berkshire. He is the most appalling class snob you've ever come across. You'd think he had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth.

BubbleBathandBook · 09/06/2020 17:27

@gwlondon constantly waffling on about Tony Blair isn't going to distract us from the discussion at hand which is about how Boris Johnson is Racist. Please take your "whataboutery" elsewhere.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/06/2020 17:28

@3LittleMonkeyz it's impossible to disagree that his Eton background gave him all sorts of advantages.

But I'm not sure about him not valuing others because of their ethnicity, or sex. Look at how much support Priti Patel has had from him.

MockersGuidedByTheScience · 09/06/2020 17:31

Johnson is a man who, in Heseltine's words, sees which direction the crowd is heading, rushes to the front and shouts "Follow Me!"

His support for LGBT rights comes alongside his references to 'tank-topped bum-boys.'

WakeAndBake · 09/06/2020 17:33

I believe that they had more barriers to get there than his red carpet roll out from Eton.

I’m not sure Rishi Sunak red carpet roll out from Harrow was particularly obstructed by barriers. He managed to get into the hedge fund business, become a multi-millionaire and then fairly swift career progression to be chancellor.

Not all non-white people have it hard.

HollySideEyes · 09/06/2020 17:38

That's great about Rishi and Priti, doesn't stop Boris being a racist.

Alsohuman · 09/06/2020 17:40

Perhaps you have trouble believing they could be talented, qualified, intelligent enough to do well in important jobs. There's a word to describe that kind of stereotyping............

Not in the slightest, however Priti Patel doesn’t fit in the same sentence as talented, qualified or intelligent. No stereotyping involved.

MockersGuidedByTheScience · 09/06/2020 17:42

Marrying into a billionaire family may also not have hindered Rishi's rise.

No son of a bus driver, he.

AgeLikeWine · 09/06/2020 17:45

Almost certainly not, but another thing he is not is stupid. What he is doing is blatantly pandering to the racist attitudes of his power base, the Tory core voters, most of whom are over 70 and whose reactionary mindsets and prejudices he understands intimately.

Gwlondon · 09/06/2020 17:46

@BubbleBathandBook It’s not whataboutery If the piccanies comment was about Tony Blair stepping off a hypothetical plane and How Tony Blair views himself on the international stage. (Then 20 years ago) Did you read the article?

3LittleMonkeyz · 09/06/2020 17:47

That's because first and foremost he's a snob. But he doesn't think they will be PM does he? He doesn't see them as equal competition.

flamingochill · 09/06/2020 17:49

Alok Sharma is also a product of independent schooling. Perhaps Boris' racism is targeted towards the poor rather than all ethnic minorities? His ex-wife was a QC and it is common knowledge that lighter-skinned BAME people usually face less racism than darker skinned.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/06/2020 17:50

I don't recall saying it did @Holly.

Just saying that he doesn't seem to discount anyone's input based on skin colour or sex.

Notwithstanding anyone's personal opinion of the BAME person in question, or their personal wealth.

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