‘Blacks demonised in the UK’ – British MP of Ghanaian descent laments during Accra visit
A British MP of Ghanaian descent has condemned the level of racism and mistreatment of black people in the United Kingdom.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy who is Labour MP for the Streatham constituency in the United Kingdom (UK),
“People think that racism has gone away, it hasn’t. It is institutionalized, as they call it. It is more subtle. It is not that somebody is going to kick you in the head anymore and call you the ‘N’ word but they will treat you in a certain way to downgrade you,” she lamented on Accra-based radio station Joy FM.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy who is in Ghana pointed out that despite the tremendous contributions of blacks and other immigrants to the development of Britain, they still suffer abuse on the account of the color of their skin.
“The UK wouldn’t be the way it is now; it is important that we acknowledge and respect and do not demonize them and that is what is happening at the moment, we are demonizing them,” she complained.
Ms. Ribeiro-Addy won the challenge to represent the Streatham constituency in the House of Commons after she secured 54.8 percent share with 30,976 votes.
She had been the Chief of Staff for Diane Abbott, who was the Shadow Home Secretary and, is the longest-serving black MP in the House of Commons.
Ms. Ribeiro-Addy was of the view that Ms. Abbott is the most abused MP in the UK due to her black heritage.
“They will send her horrible messages on social media. As her Chief of Staff, I had to deal with these things. People sending monkey cards through the post”.
She narrated that “the worst for me was when we had blocked this particular person from sending us emails and they went as far as finding my personal email address to send Diane a death treat through my personal email”.
Ms. Ribeiro-Addy, who is on holiday, revealed that she would “love to come to Ghana every Christmas”.
She was born to Ghanaian parents who lived in Osu and La in the Greater Accra region. She said it felt liberating to be among people who will not judge her because of her skin colour and appearance.
You were born in the UK, right? When you were a child, do you remember growing up with people carrying machetes and large knives on them, or even in the kitchen? Where do you think this increase of knife crime has come from then, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, or African countries? And you think brown (i know a lot of mates prefer being called black, but i believe we’re all coloured, either brown or pink, there is be no clear separation like white and black, that’s just naive) aren’t responsible for bringing this type of weapon to our culture, no? And you call that demonisation? Uhuh…have you been brainwashed or your family threatened for not defending your parent’s ancestry then? I can’t quite understand why a person like you, in power to change people and policies would come out with a very naive statement like this… I’m baffled. And if you think that people from the Caribbean aren’t part African too then you obviously don’t know your history. If you think that brown, or as history terms black, people were the only race to be slaves then you’re sadly mistaken too, do some research on pink, or white as they like to put it, people being slaves, you might be surprised, even enlightened to find out what is the REAL STORY of human history. I don’t defend racist people, I think they’re just not privileged, financially, to be educated enough to speak from a neutral standpoint. Criminals are criminals no matter what race they come from, it just so happens that in the UK there are statistical more brown people who are in criminal gangs than pink people, so please don’t be so ignorant.