Black Lives Matter is under fire in the U.K. by Kemi Badenoch, an Equalities Minister, who says the movement exacerbates a “dangerous trend” of teaching “white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt.”
Ms. Badenoch, who is Black, recently told colleagues that Black Lives Matter is a political movement masquerading as a benign call for equality.
“What we are against is the teaching of contested political ideas as if they are accepted facts,” the Tory MP said. “We don’t do this with communism. We don’t do this with socialism. We don’t do this with capitalism.”
The conservative added that too much of what BLM activists advocate for — particularly when it comes to Critical Race Theory — is “too close to home.”
“[It’s an] ideology that sees my blackness as victimhood, and their whiteness as oppression,” she continued. “I want to be absolutely clear. This government stands unequivocally against Critical Race Theory. Some schools have decided to openly support the anti-capitalist Black Lives Matter group, often fully aware they have a statutory duty to be politically impartial. Black lives do matter. Of course, they do. But we know that the Black Lives Matter movement … capital B L M … is political.”
Ms. Badenoch said that she’s already witnessed a glimpse of the racial friction caused by Critical Race Theory played out in practice.
“I know this because at the height of the protest, I’ve been told of white Black Lives Matter protesters calling … [apologizes] … a black armed police officer guarding Downing Street a pet n——-,” she said. “That is why we do not endorse that movement on this side of the House. It is a political movement. And what would be nice would be for members on the opposite side to condemn many of the actions we see in this political movement instead of pretending it is a completely wholesome anti-racist organization.”
The MP punctuated her remarks by saying any school that teaches “these elements of Critical Race Theory as fact or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views is breaking the law.”
The Equalities Minister could not have been clearer:
— Calvin Robinson (@calvinrobinson) October 20, 2020
Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory are political and do not belong in schools.
Teaching ideas such as ’white privilege’ as a factual reality is breaking the law! 🚫👨🏫 pic.twitter.com/6VoIDVJxLi
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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