From ... in Literature — Oct 25, 2022

Rishi Sunak is the UK’s “first Prime Minister of color”…but does that really matter?

It’s official, Rishi Sunak is the UK’s new Prime Minister.

That’s the fourth in less than three years, for those keeping score at home.

And in a monument to the UK’s unique brand of “democracy”, Sunak is the second in a row who comes to the office without a general election win to their name.

In fact, it’s even less democratic than you’d usually expect, since he literally lost a vote for this position less than two months ago, and has only “won” it now because he was essentially standing unopposed.

Given Truss’s absurdly brief stay in office, it’s not hard to reason maybe she was never supposed to win at all, and Sunak was the intended winner the whole time…only they misjudged just how oily and off-putting even Tory members find the man.

The messaging since the win has been somewhat predictable.

“Rishi Sunak becomes the UK’s first Prime-Minister of color”

That’s the headline of the New York Times. And the Washington Post. And the Los Angeles Times. And The Guardian. And USA today. And CNN.

Joe Biden even hailed the “ground-breaking milestone” in his congratulatory message to Sunak.

Yes, there’s a lot of talk about the one superficial way Sunak is different from all the previous prime ministers, and almost no discussion at all of all the ways he’s very much the same.

Column inches gleefully talk up the Prime Minister being a “minority” in terms of race, but ignore that’s he’s a member of a much, much smaller minority – the 0.1%.

He’s privately educated and enormously rich. A multi-millionaire former Goldman-Sachs employee married to a billionaire heiress. A man who clearly has no idea how to actually buy ordinary things.

All that is shunted to the side in favour of discussing the least important facets of any individual – what he looks like.

Even the few outlets who even mention Sunak’s wealth fall short of rejecting identity politics, instead talking about Sunak as if he’s some kind of Uncle Tom, the wrong kind of ethnic minority doing damage to the progressive cause by taking part in a system which “promotes white supremacy”.

Either accidentally or (more likely) deliberately, these article miss the point. Arguing the case for identity politics despite having evidence of its irrelevence flashed in their faces.

The truth is quite clear – the system as it currently exists does not care what colour you are, it does not care what gender you are, it does not care what you do to whom in the privacy of your bedroom.

All that matters is that you express the approved opinions and further the narrative myths which keep the wheels of the system turning.

Questions of identity within that system may appear to be hotly contested, but that is just a collection of fake binaries designed to distract from major issues whilst camouflaging the regression of our very way of life behind the “progress” of a few token individuals.

If Barack Obama didn’t teach you this lesson, you weren’t paying attention.

We’ve said it before and we’ll doubtless say it again here at OffG – but this is the entire point of identity politics.

While the “ground breaking milestone” is being celebrated, Sunak has already warned his administration will be forced to make “difficult economic decisions”.

That means things are about to get worse for ordinary people all over the country, regardless of the colour of their skin.

We’ve got Rishi, whether we’re ready or not.

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Rishi Sunak is the UK’s “first Prime Minister of color”…but does that really matter?

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