How much more successful would Rishi Sunak have been if he had been born white?

by philg

The UK has a new prime minister. Because they could not find anyone 78-86, which Science proves is the age range in which a human exhibits optimum decision-making skills, they’ve chosen 42-year-old Rishi Sunak.

“Rishi Sunak to become first British PM of colour and also first Hindu at No 10” (Guardian):

Rishi Sunak is about to become the UK’s first prime minister of colour and the first Hindu prime minister, both milestones in Britain’s evolution as a multicultural and multi-faith society. … the UK has never had a black or brown prime minister before.

Neema Begum, assistant professor in British politics at the University of Nottingham, said Sunak’s appointment “shows how far ethnic minority representation has come in politics”. “Sunak as prime minister is not necessarily a cause for celebration for all ethnic minorities. It shouldn’t be used to refute the ongoing existence of racism or obscure the fact that there are well-documented systemic racial and ethnic inequalities in housing, health and education.”

“New British PM Rishi Sunak is richer than King Charles III. How wealthy is he and where did it come from?” (Forbes):

Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, have a combined net worth of around £730 million ($826 million), … That’s around twice the estimated wealth of King Charles III.

So… this guy overcame racism and, as a “brown” person navigated a society in which white privilege is a huge advantage. This leads to the question How much more successful would Rishi Sunak have been if he had been born white? Instead of having to wait to age 42, at what age would he have become prime minister? Instead of being worth $826 million, how much would he be worth if he’d enjoyed white privilege?

Here’s a recent sunny Saturday near the Palace of Westminster. Almost impossible to walk on the bridge because nobody can decide whether to walk on the left or on the right.

And a young Heroine of Faucism who is wearing a non-N95 mask as defense against an aerosol virus while on a 30-minute nearby London Eye ride in close proximity to the unmasked:

Just for fun, a photo at the top:

On the subject of systemic racism, a newspaper that I picked up on my way into a multi-million-dollar electric vehicle:

29 thoughts on “How much more successful would Rishi Sunak have been if he had been born white?”

  1. UK has a knack for making all non native english speaking foreigners very unwelcome from the moment they get in front of the customs officer. I have to say I’ve never felt completely relaxed while visiting, not even in the middle of nowhere in the scottish highlands or welsh hills. It’s just a constant feeling of being restricted and monitored. They don’t want you there. Your standard racism just adds to all that.

    • That certainly explains why the invasion by the global South was stopped dead in its tracks decades ago.

    • The UK is famous for invasive CCTV monitoring of *everyone*. And many EU white countries discriminate against whites from other EU countries, should they exhibit the audacity of making use of the Schengen Agreement.

  2. The tiny minority of former Goldman Sachs employees finally gets their adequate representation in politics!

    Sunak of course has triggered the current economic crisis by massive COVID-19 spending (2020):

    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-spending-idUSKBN2801HO

    But creating and then fixing a crisis should be well-known by Goldman Sachs due to the expertise gained in the subprime lending endeavors of 2007:

    Goldman Sachs Finally Admits it Defrauded Investors During the Financial Crisis

    https://fortune.com/2016/04/11/goldman-sachs-doj-settlement/

    Regarding the WhatsApp informant article in the Evening Standard: Just another day in Europe, online surveillance is alive and well!

  3. Sunak got rich by marrying the daughter of an Indian who made billions$ outsourcing IT jobs from white countries (founder of Infosys). Its very unlikely that opportunity was available to a non-Indian.

  5. Strange but Benjamin Disraeli, queen Victoria’s favored, son of converted to Christianity family of Sephardi Jews of Spain is considered white by modern color-obsessed woke society.

    • The designation “white” refers to whether a group is considered to be competent and successful not skin tone — so Jews, Indians and Chinese are all “white.”

  6. I noticed that one of the local store owners where I live in Deplorable Land has ditched her Western garb and for the past two days is dressed very traditionally. Whenever I visit the store, she has wireless earbuds in her ears and is speaking to someone on the phone, deeply engaged in a conversation while speaking language that I, of course, cannot understand. It does not bother her if the conversation becomes so involved that her customers have to wait. She does not care about that, but she is very careful about money and how products for the store are arranged and delivered.

    She also refuses to touch anything that I have touched. I tried handing her some cash once, and she winced and looked as though I might transmit to her some horrible infinite disease. After that I decided to use a card, to spare her the distress.

    She’s not racist, though.

    https://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/hinducalendar.php?year=2022&mon=october&sb=1#festival-list

    https://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/10/gujarati-new-year-2009-hindu-vikram.html

  7. The most interesting question to me is why he, almost a billionaire, chose to be a PM at all? At 42, with his wealth he can have very rewarding and interesting life. Instead he chose stress and ingratitude of serving country with failing policies and economy.

  8. The long-haired humanoid who appears to be a woman wearing the mask and the blue fleece looks like she’s had enough and is about to jump. You can see the joy and vigor on her face up there on a nice sunny day. She looks pretty malnourished, though. I hope she survives the winter.

    • To me she looks like a very healthy child that is either deep in thought or afraid of heights.

    • OK, but if she’s afraid of heights, why get on the London Eye Ride in the first place? It’s a tourist attraction. Everybody knows from looking at it that they’re going to be up high in the air. If she’s afraid of heights and wants to spend her time deep in thought, she should just go visit a basement library somewhere.

      Why pay the money? She looks like she’s about to puke either from bulimia or her own fear of heights, or both. Maybe she should take up skydiving.

      https://www.londoneye.com/tickets-and-prices/

    • She was not afraid of heights. She had turned away from being at the edge of the cabin and looking out, which is how I was able to get a photo of her virtuously masked face.

    • @philg: Thank you for the supplemental information. Shows how much I can tell from a single photograph.

    • Alex: this exchange shows how easily people jump to conclusions. There is a bench in the middle of the cabin and I think she was looking down to talk to a younger brother who was sitting on the bench.

      (Nobody on the ride seemed to be afraid of heights to the point that he/she/ze/they was shying away from the edges. Because it is enclosed, people who might be afraid of standing on the edge of a canyon or building were not afraid.)

    • Yup. I admit it: I jumped to the conclusion without actually being there to know what was going on. It happens a lot, but that’s sloppy thinking on my part, and I know better, too. Sorry to the blue fleece girl in the mask. I still hope she survives the winter and enjoyed the ride. I still don’t see the point of her wearing that mask, but I took it too far.

      The Fetterman vs. Oz debate ended and is now beginning all over again.

      It was interesting because I drove through PA just a few days ago, to Pittsburgh, and saw all the lawn signs, and where they were placed. “Oz Country” is very, very, very deeply MAGA but you can drive a few miles and then it becomes very strongly “Fetterman Land.”

      This country is more divided than I have ever seen, imagined or experienced in my lifetime. I expect it to get worse. I just don’t know how much worse it can get without erupting into real civil war.

    • Nay, vandal-men signs are only on visible public places that belongs to department of motor vehicles, placed by democrat election committees that are financed by big out – of state and out – of – country financiers. I am pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Oz sign on some front lawns of middle class ranch and two story houses and in-towns. For some reason Dr. Oz reminds me of an Eastern Roman Empire general who came to its ally Rome defense.
      Even Biden-town spots only local Democrats signs.
      If it makes any difference in remote bulk voting age.

  9. 1. According to https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9309/, the UK has spent £400bn, say $300bn, on CV19, while in no-lockdown Sweden the figure was $50bn. The UK:Sweden population ratio is ~ 6; the GDP ratio is ~ 5 (land area ~ 0.5!). By that benchmark the UK pan…ic spending was at most $50bn too much, say 20%. Indeed Sen. Dirksen’s attributed saying (see https://dirksencenter.org/research-collections/everett-m-dirksen/dirksen-record/billion-here-billion-there) applies.

    2. The “vile texts” were probably out-of-place at work (like WhatsApp), but devotees of black humour might have enjoyed one reported message, on these lines: “I had someone at the door asking for help with the floods in Pakistan, but I said, sorry mate, my hose isn’t that long”. Had the story been told more recently, it might have included the London hosepipe ban too.

    3. Sunak, who started out doing the accounts for his parents’ pharmacy, made quite enough money in finance, even though that substantial amount is dwarfed by his wife’s inheritance. At least a GS PM means McKinsey is out.

    4. @Itj: “UK has a knack for making all non native english speaking foreigners very unwelcome from the moment they get in front of the customs officer.”

    According to GB Shaw’s observation “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him”, that would mean you’ve been completely accepted. Shaw used the word “Englishman” to cover Scots and Welsh “men” and failed to mention Irish “men” like himself, to all of whom the aphorism might equally have applied.

    However, just as French people, in Paris too, no longer refuse to understand foreigners speaking French, so the folk of the British Isles have mellowed, even to the extent of electing a guy with an incipient lisp to Parliament, and thence to lead the UK, so that the government now includes a Hindu (and a Buddhist, though no known Scientologists).

    As to the friendly face of *US* Immigration …

    • Lol, GS likes to hire McKinsey consultants. McKinsey is a max 2 years step on the ladder towards GS for new MBAs.

    • I once witnessed a US ICE immigration officer speaking to someone unlucky enough to get into secondary screening, and who had the audacity to inquire as to how much longer it would take. If you looked at a transcript of the words he used, he was unfailingly polite, but the actual tone was anything but.

      The immigration process at Heathrow is completely automated for most Western countries, with e-passport gates. It’s only if you have kids or are from a third-world country that you would face a bored Border Force official who will just scan your passport the exact same way the e-passport gate would have, then wave you through.

      As for Sunak, The Economist (pretty much the City of London’s version of Pravda) had a particularly scathing take on him:

      https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/10/25/rishi-sunaks-first-job-clearing-up-his-own-mess

    • Economist is paywalled, Fazal, so maybe you can cut and paste some of the better parts. I’m assuming they’re talking about his profligate spending and borrowing during coronapanic. It is a curious phenomenon. Let’s assume that the elites sincerely believed that COVID-19 was a once-in-a-lifetime bad event. Even given that belief, I don’t see how it made sense for governments to spend like alimony plaintiffs and make future generations incur the financial pain (plus a ton of interest) rather than incur the pain as SARS-CoV-2 was spreading. Perhaps it is as simple as “the proles won’t vote out the elites if the pain comes a few years later”.

    • Saving the page and then opening the saved page shows the full article (Linux/Firefox). The article has so many complaints that it’s hard to summarize; COVID-19 spending is just one of them.

    • The initial advice to Govt was pretty terrifying, especially when the NHS religion means that people dying in an epidemic must be Govt’s fault. The resulting measures and health advice, based on inadequate knowledge of the virus and the innumeracy of policy-makers, were such effective propaganda that the cowed public wouldn’t accept any relaxation, the Govt not having reckoned on the snowflakisation of the populace. When you force businesses to close you have to compensate them. But which country operated a CV19 policy that didn’t involve damage to the economy, or citizens’ rights, or both? As the figures seem to show, even Sweden had to stump up at about the same rate. From the start the UK operated one successful value-for-money policy that was widely derided by woke doom-scrollers: the accelerated vaccine procurement.

  11. It is interesting to see the media and world leaders including President Biden praising Sunak (a non-white, born in UK) accomplishment historic because he is a person of color in a country of white. But yet, the media and world leaders do not do the same for Musk (a white, born in South Africa) even though Musk was born and raised in South Africa till the age of 17.

    The question the media and world leaders need to ask is this: what did Sunak contribute to UK / World that makes him a better person for society vs Musk?

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