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1/ I am trying to say less on here but I have seen one too many opinion-pieces asking black and Asian people not to be fiercely critical of the black and Asian members of Boris Johnson's Government.
2/ I think a lot of those authors are being disingenuous. For one thing, I know plenty of black and Asian Conservative voters, and considering some of the regressive policies they support towards other black and Asian people it is amazing how civilly they are treated.
3/ That treatment is largely civil though, in my experience. As I mentioned, I am trying to say less, but the defence of Sajid Javid has been cynical in the extreme, and shows some people have wilfully short memories.
4/ Let's remember that Sajid Javid, just when righteous fury at Windrush was gathering momentum, came out and told Diane Abbott that as an immigrant she didn't have a monopoly on anger at what was happening. That utterly cynical statement killed that momentum. Let's look at why.
5/ Javid's stance worked because he painted himself as a "grateful immigrant" whereas he knew Abbott was reviled by many for critiquing the UK's history of empire. It wasn't exactly an act of genius, but it was highly effective.
6/ Javid calculated that there were many people quietly sick of being hectored - in their view - by ungrateful immigrants like Abbott who had the audacity to complain about racism in the UK. He knew that as a non-white person he would be their firewall.
7/ All these thinkpieces and tweets urging us to give blanket praise to the diversity of Boris Johnson's government can never, ever be close in their cynicism to Javid's behaviour at the height of Windrush. Let's remember that the hostile environment continues in full effect.
8/ Months after Javid enabled a backlash against Abbott, his anger at Windrush is conspicuously absent. Why do I say absent? Because people continue to suffer. The victims say "little has changed". theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/a…
9/ I am not demonising or dehumanising Javid or denying him (or any of his black and Asian Cabinet colleagues agency) in regressive treatment of working-class black people. Far from it. This is his stance and he owns it.
10/ What we are seeing in Britain thanks to Javid and his Cabinet colleagues is the emergence of the deserving immigrant versus the undeserving immigrant. The deserving immigrants, like Javid, can raise themselves up through hard work and native wit. Screw the undeserving ones.
11/ If my tweets read like a personal attack, please reflect that they are not nearly as personal or harmful as Javid's decsion to fly home mid-holiday and effectively police the UK border against a few dozen undeserving immigrants. theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/d…
12/ So no, I am not here to demonise Javid. And, even if I were, his very own policies on #Windrush and immigration have done that far, far better than I ever could. /End
