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Piccaninnies, watermelon smiles and tank-topped bumboys - just another day at the office for Boris Johnson #PoliticsOnTheEdge

Critics have condemned Boris Johnson's writing style as bigotry; in various publications he used the words "piccaninnies" and "watermelon smiles" when referring to Africans, championed European colonialism in Uganda and referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson

 

Piccaninny is a word applied originally by people of the West Indies to their babies and more widely referring to small children, as in Melanesian Pidgin. It is a pidgin word form, derived from the Portuguese pequenino. In contrast to this neutral meaning, the word has been used in North America as a racial slur referring to a dark-skinned child of African descent. In modern sensibility, the term can refer to an archaic depiction or caricature used in a derogatory and racist sense. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickaninny

 

The watermelon stereotype is a stereotype that African Americans have an unusually great appetite for watermelons. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_stereotype

 

Bumboy is a derogatory term for homosexual men en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumboy

 

Open Government Licensed (OGL) portrait of Boris Johnson by Ben Shread / Cabinet Office via Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/5yde

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Uploaded on November 16, 2022
Taken on August 14, 2019