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Dave has shared comments made by Boris Johnson about African people, to back up his claim that the prime minister is a “real racist.”
The rapper took aim at Johnson during his performance of ‘Black’ at this year’s BRIT Awards, adding lyrics to state: “The truth is our prime minister is a real racist.”
His claims were then shot down by Home secretary Priti Patel, who told Sky News: “That’s utter nonsense, it really is. I don’t know what those comments are based on … He is not a racist at all. I just think those comments are highly inappropriate.”
She added on BBC Breakfast: “He’s absolutely not a racist and I’m afraid that is very much a generalisation that has been made by rapper Dave, and I just disagree with it.”
Posting on Twitter, Dave shared a clip of Patel’s denial and added footage of him scrolling through an article which details all of Johnson’s controversial remarks about Africa.
— SANTAN (@Santandave1) February 19, 2020
The CNN article mentions Johnson’s Spectator column from 2002, which was titled “Africa is a mess, but we can’t blame colonialism” and another one in which he described young Ugandan children who had sang for him as “Aids-ridden choristers.”
Other examples include Johnson’s use of the racist word “piccaninnies” in a Daily Telegraph column, and another article for the publication which referred to the “watermelon smiles” of black people.
He wrote: “No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
Dave won Mastercard Album of the Year at the ceremony, and during his speech he paid tribute to London and all the “kings and queens that are chasing their dreams.”
“Everyone that comes from the place that I come from, all my people from South London, East London, West London, all my young kings and queens that are chasing their dreams – I am no different to you. I am just a guy,” he said.
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