In the age of Brexit, the cost of living crisis, high inflation, high interest rates, high taxation, low growth, climate crisis and serious international turmoil, the business secretary might make headlines talking about business and economics. But then Kemi Badenoch is not in the running to improve Britain, she is in the running to lead the Conservative party. She is here to do well: and if you want to do well in certain echelons of British life, there are 14 words that govern your every utterance: “No Black person ever went broke telling white people what they want to hear.”
With that in mind, this is Kemi: “I tell my children this is the best country in the world to be Black – because it’s a country that sees people, not labels.” Back of the net. She continued: “It wasn’t a tough decision for us to reject the divisive agenda of critical race theory. We believe, as Martin Luther King once said, people should be judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin.”
Kemi would be Rishi, so here comes the tummy tickle followed by every rightwinger’s favourite (and only) King quote. We see you, Kemi. But still, let us indulge her for a moment, is Britain really the best place to be Black?
It would be brutally dishonest to suggest that Britain is not a good place to live – for anybody. We are a nation blessed with (often stolen) wealth, truly talented people (many of them were stolen too), and robust systems and controls that theoretically seek fairness, compassion and justice. But scratch the surface, look at some of the statistics and stories that constitute the Black British experience, and less than stellar themes emerge.
Just 24 hours before Badenoch made her “best place to be Black” speech, Hubert Brown, a 61-year-old Black man based in Bristol, was fatally stabbed in the neck in what police say is being treated as a “race hate crime””. In most cases, Black life in Britain is treated as cheap. Last year, in the early hours of 20 November, Fatoumatta Hydara and her two daughters died after her neighbour took petrol from his motorbike and poured it through their letterbox and set their house alight as they slept. He was convicted of murder. It was an unimaginably horrific crime, but didn’t spur massive coverage or a significant political response.
“It’s the economy, Kemi!” And on practically every measure of financial prosperity in Britain, from employment rates to wage gaps to business financing, Black people face additional hurdles and often lag behind. Those of us who do manage to establish ourselves in the professional realm often face serious code-switching (and sometimes, racism laundering) demands that can be a stepping stone to mental (and sometimes even physical) health issues.
Putting aside internationally shameful abominations such as the Windrush scandal, the report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (which the UN condemned as an attempt to normalise white supremacy) and the flight of Britain’s first Black princess to America, an analysis of key areas of Black life in Britain – power, portrayal, privilege, protection, pound sterling – reveal varying degrees of comparative disadvantage.
The groundbreaking Black British Voices report – produced by the Voice Newspaper, Cambridge University’s sociology department and management consultancy I-Cubed – polled more than 10,000 Black Britons and outlines their many concerns. It’s stark, bleak and in total opposition to Badenoch’s rosy assertions. Just 50% of Black Britons consider themselves proud to be British, 95% of respondents believe the UK’s school curriculum neglects Black lives and experiences and fewer than 2% think educational institutions take racism seriously; 87% expect to receive substandard levels of healthcare because of their race, while 79% believe the police still use stop and search unfairly against Black people.
Despite, and not because of, the likes of Badenoch and her party, Black people in Britain have made enormous progress and have contributed massively to Britain as a society, and are now – in many ways – a force behind much of the culture holding us together. However, the idea of pondering if Britain is the best place to be an oppressed minority is preposterous. The question should never be: “Is Britain the best place to be Black?” The question and measure should be: “Is Britain as good a place to be Black as it is to be white?”
One thing that is certain if you are Black: Britain is a great country to be a racial demagogue, and racism laundering by those who fancy themselves for the country’s top job could prove a very smart move.
Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker, and the author of Think Like A White Man. His new book, The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism From The Moguls of Rap, is out in 2024
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