Is Priti Patel ‘gaslighting’ protesters or leading the way? – Two views from BAME people

Home Secretary Priti Patel has hit back after becoming involved in a row over her response to the Black Lives Matter protests.

The home secretary had condemned protesters for going against social distancing rules and toppling a statue of a slave trader in Bristol.

In a letter from several Labour MPs, she was accused of using her heritage and experience of racism to “gaslight other minority communities”.

Ms Patel later said she was “sad” to have received the letter and that the MPs were dismissing the “contributions of those who don’t conform to their view of how ethnic minorities should behave”.

Here, Sky News has spoken to two people from BAME backgrounds who have differing views on this.

Nimco Ali is an author and activist of Somali heritage who co-founded The Five Foundation, the global partnership to end female genital mutilation.

Last summer before she became the home secretary, I had a meeting with Priti Patel.

I brought my then-12-year-old cousin with me that day because I wanted him to see what I did.

Myself and Priti spent an hour or so talking and she said if she ever went back into the cabinet she would love a role where she could deliver for girls and women.

That meeting and seeing her at the victory rally on the night of the election are moments I think back to when I see people twist her words or dismiss her achievements in the face of so much.

At the rally, I made an off-hand comment about the hate I had been getting on Twitter for supporting the Conservative Party and I said one of the things I had been called.

The smile on her face disappeared for a moment and I could see she was hurt I had to face that.

I just wanted to hug her, so I did.

She told my little cousin that Westminster was waiting for young men like him and he is always welcome to reach out to her for advice on school.

When she said this, I knew she was giving a kid the faith to never dim his light – no matter what anyone says.

Priti has seen and lived racism and hate many of us will never know and yet she has risen to the top and made history.

We should be proud of women like her – not knocking them.

As home secretary she has led from the front to ensure that people have the right to peacefully protest. But if they break the law, they will be dealt with.

So rather than spending their time attacking and harassing a BAME woman doing her job to keep us all safe, some people on the left should be apologising and standing with her to bring the social unrest to an end.

Femi Oluwole is a political activist, law graduate and co-founder of the pro-European Union advocacy group Our Future Our Choice.

I’m a black man. But I’m also financially, academically and professionally privileged, so racial discrimination can never trap me into poverty.

Because I will never experience the full extent of the adversity racism can cause, if I were to ever claim that the government or policies I support are the right thing for racial equality – purely because I have experienced some racism in my life – you should take that with a pinch of salt.

Priti Patel says she won’t take lessons from Labour MPs about racism or social justice.

She implies that her own experience of discrimination would prevent her from discriminating against those who, like her, have foreign ethnic backgrounds.

This is the same Priti Patel who admitted that her immigration policy would have banned her own family from this country.

This is the same Priti Patel who condemned those who tore down a slaver’s statue as “utterly disgraceful” without condemning the fact that we still have monuments of racist mass murderers.

This is the same Priti Patel whose government has repeatedly refused to even criticise Donald Trump after he quoted a racist police chief when threatening to shoot those rioting against racist police.

Nobody is saying you can’t be an Asian Tory.

Nobody is saying she can’t discuss her experiences of racism.

What we are saying is that someone in one of the most privileged positions in the country shouldn’t be using the fact that she has experienced some racism to give herself a get-out-of-jail-free card for the racial oppression both tolerated and facilitated by her government.

(c) Sky News 2020: Is Priti Patel ‘gaslighting’ protesters or leading the way? – Two views from BAME people