Kemi Badenoch is wilfully misinterpreting David Tennant's words
Opinion
Assistant opinion editor
June 27, 2024 6:00 am(Updated 6:02 am)
If you’ve been following the news, you’ll have seen attempts to remind us that – this week, at least – prejudice really, really matters to the Conservative Party.
In fact, as Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has so fervently reminded us in her public spat with actor David Tennant, it matters so much that its leaders will speak out against any white man who dares to criticise a black woman.
Well, not any black woman. Just her. And not so much in the actual sense of prejudice, wherein the rights of entire groups are intentionally curtailed in favour of dominant groups, and those who align themselves with them. But in the Conservative POC rebrand of the term, where prejudice only matters so long as it can elevate one’s own circumstances.
So, let’s look at the supposed transgression in question. In his acceptance speech for the Celebrity Ally award at the 2024 British LGBT awards, Tennant said: “If I’m honest, I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it… should merit any kind of special award or special mention.
“However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this.”
I mean, sure, it’s not perfect. It certainly could have been worded a little more clearly. For one, the disappearance of Badenoch wouldn’t necessarily see the end of the scourge of transphobia and anti-LGBTQIA prejudice that has, thanks in large part to MPs like Badenoch, overtaken British politics – and not just in the Conservative Party. It certainly would not see an end to bigotry, one of, if not the biggest, of Britain’s few remaining powerful exports. We all know the Conservative Party and British politics more broadly has many a willing enforcer of oppression beyond Badenoch (especially when political power is at stake).
And of course, if it must be said, in the context of MPs’ safety, it isn’t very nice, or wise, to publicly call for the disappearance of one. But – as Conservatives of colour who have spoken out in defence of Badenoch well know, but would never publicly admit – it certainly isn’t inherently racist or sexist.
It is, though, wilful misinterpretation. Tennant’s words, at least to me, speak more to a wish for the disappearance of ideologies like the ones that Badenoch espouses, not her death, or some kind of supernatural vanishing. Or some bizarre wish for genocide that extends to all black women. You can look to people like Frank Hester – who the Prime Minister believes is so “genuinely contrite” for saying Diane Abbott’s existence makes you “want to hate all black women” that his party will not return his donations of over £15m – for that.
Predictably, though, Badenoch responded as if that had been the case. “I will not shut up,” she said. “I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls.
“A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end… Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win.”
The Prime Minister seized on the opportunity to chime in too, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Freedom of speech is the most powerful feature of our democracy. If you’re calling for women to shut up and wishing they didn’t exist, you are the problem.”
This is, of course, coming from a Government that seems to have a stake in the game of silencing entire groups of people, from trans people to immigrants to protesters of the “wrong” cause. A Government that has deliberately presided over assaults on human rights to such a degree that it has faced repeated condemnation from major charities and the UN. A Government that will stop at very little to cling to power, including cynically exploiting and exacerbating real prejudices in order to get ahead. Because it works.
The single greatest weapon in the game of bigotry is insincerity. It is a brutal dagger sheathed in earnestness, designed not just to incapacitate anyone who challenges it, but to create an illusion that, really, the true culprit of the fatal blow was in fact the injured, unarmed party. In other words, weaponising victimisation. It’s what convinces transphobes that protecting the rights of trans people is in fact targeting or curtailing the rights of cisgender women. That fighting against racism and protecting the rights of immigrants somehow amounts to white genocide. That criticising a minister for her stance on trans people, who ordinarily happily excuses racism and other prejudices, is in fact an attempt to let the “bigots” win, as Badenoch has claimed.
Few public figures are as skilled at brandishing that weapon as those who have clawed their way to the top through ruthless sycophancy. Those who, were it not for their own selfish desires and their access to wealth and political power, would find themselves more exposed to those attacks. Contrary to their dramatic claims, Badenoch and figures like her have been anything but silenced. In willingly furthering the inequalities they’re seen to condemn, they’ve become the loudest voices in the country.
This is not a Badenoch problem. It’s not even just a Conservative Party problem. This is a reflection of British society’s bad faith approach to prejudice of all forms. Unfortunately for those of us who do care about the groups that have been silenced in this country and beyond, it’s a tactic that just keeps on working.
