EPA
News from the NOS•
South African comedian Trevor Noah is under fire in Britain following statements on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, appointed earlier this week.
Sunak is the first Prime Minister of British Indian descent. His grandparents came from India, when that country was still a British colony. Noah used this fact this week on the American satirical television show The daily showof which he is presenter.
Personality
According to him, not everyone is happy that Sunak now holds the highest political office. “And it’s not his politics or his personality. Some people have problems with something else,” Noah said.
He also says: “You hear a lot of people saying: They are taking control, now the Indians are going to take control of Britain and what will happen?”. According to him, those people actually mean, “We don’t want the people we previously oppressed to rise to power, because they could do the same to us.”
racist country
Noah’s performance drew high-level criticism in Britain. Former finance minister Sajid Javid, whose parents are of Indian descent, called Noah’s statements “very wrong”. presenter Piers Morgan wondered Twitter wonder why the US media “mistakenly portrays Britain as a racist country”.
Noah responded to that tweet with, “I didn’t say the whole UK is racist. I was just talking about racists who don’t want Rishi as prime minister because of his legacy. That’s why I said some people.”
