For years Labour have made a great show of championing equality, yet there is a vicious breed of left-winger that reacts negatively toward people of colour who dare to believe in something other than socialism.
Sajid Javid's appointment as the first ethnic minority Briton to a Great Office of State should have been universally celebrated. Instead, news of his selection was met with left-wing outrage. Tariq Mahmood is just one of the Labour party's many supporters who jumped online to dub Javid a "coconut", a racist term for a brown person who is supposedly 'acting whiter' to gain social acceptance. Countless other Labour activists branded Javid an "Uncle Tom", an equally revolting term typically reserved for black men perceived to be excessively servile to white people, also for the purposes of gaining acceptance. When given the opportunity to denounce such views held by those within his party, the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, refused to do so.
The modern Labour party increasingly operate like the Death Eaters from Harry Potter, and much like the Weasley's, BAME Conservatives are considered "blood traitors". Director of the No. 10 Policy Unit, Munira Mirza, has become the latest addition to an already long list of BAME Conservatives slandered as racial gatekeepers. She is portrayed as a token minority, who has betrayed 'her own' by allegedly providing the Conservative government the cover it needs to pursue policies that would 'negatively impact' the BAME community. It has been argued her appointment to such a prestigious position within the Downing Street operation was more to do with the colour of her skin than her education, knowledge or vast experience.
Instead of being celebrated as the first BAME woman to hold a Great Office of State, Priti Patel has been forced to contend with this race traitor narrative throughout her career. Additionally, she has been accused of only supporting hard-line positions as a means of acquiring the approval of white Conservative voters and colleagues. On the rare occasion Labour choose to accept a BAME Conservative's opinion as being their own, they ridicule that individual for being the 'wrong type' of minority. It should go without saying that this, in itself, is extremely racist. Alas, this view is seldom challenged because this particular type of left-wing racism has been normalised, and even legitimised, at all levels of British society today.
For example, the Guardian recently published a racist and culturally insensitive cartoon depicting Patel as, in her own words, "a fat cow with a ring through its nose". The left-wing paper refused to take the image down, stating simply that "politicians of all parties are quite often caricatured as animals." It is difficult to imagine such an image of a Hindu Labour MP would have ever been commissioned, let alone approved for publication. Similarly, in response to Patel's courage in sharing her personal experiences of racism, 32 Labour MPs thought it appropriate to write a letter accusing her of "gaslighting the very real racism faced by black people and communities across the UK". Conservatives have never levelled such charges against the many BAME Labour MPs who have referenced their own experiences and backgrounds over the years.
Regardless of whether or not they choose to admit it, the Labour party live in a glass house when it comes to the issue of racial discrimination. Conservative commentator, Rita Panahi, perhaps summarises Labour's approach to BAME Conservatives best: "For all their own rules about lived experience, about respecting minority voices, women, people of colour, refugees or whatever other boxes I tick in their oppression Olympics…none of that matters if you don't identify as a victim and if you're not an obedient migrant pet". It's about time the party practice what they preach by abandoning pre-conceived, and inherently racist, notions of what a 'good' minority should be and apologise to the many people of colour who they have deeply offended in their quest to monopolise the BAME vote.