Three Green Party councilors in the United Kingdom who are members of black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) communities have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday asking what steps he will take to curb politicians' divisive language after a Conservative councilor called a former slave trader a "hero."
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2020) Three Green Party councilors in the United Kingdom who are members of black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) communities have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday asking what steps he will take to curb politicians' divisive language after a Conservative councilor called a former slave trader a "hero."
"As anti-racism protests gain strength around the world, people look to politicians to show moral leadership on the defining issues of the day. Sadly in Britain, our leaders are falling short. We are writing today to ask you what action you will take to curb divisive language from politicians, and better protect politicians of colour," councilors Cleo Lake, Kaltum Rivers, and Nannette Youssef said in the letter.
The three BAME Green Party councilors criticized the use of the term "thuggery" by Johnson and other leading ministers and also cited comments made by Conservative councilor Richard Eddy, who told the Bristol Live website that 18th-century slave trader Edward Colston was a "hero."
"It is unhelpful and unfair for the Prime Minister and other members of the cabinet to label protests as 'thuggery', while in Bristol, it was upsetting to see a Conservative councillor describe an enslaver as a 'hero' and the recent protest as 'frenzied thug violence,'" the three councilors wrote.
A statue of Colston in the city of Bristol was toppled by protesters on June 7 amid a wave of demonstrations against racial inequality in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in the custody of US police officers on May 25.
