Rishi Sunak is the first British Asian Hindu to become Prime Minister and only the second from an ethnic minority to hold the post since Benjamin Disraeli, who was Jewish.
As a British Asian myself, I see his appointment as symbolic – at last the bar to the highest power in the land has been lifted for people of colour.
Whether or not you like the man, or agree with his policies, having a non-white prime minister is something we should all feel proud of. Even when Barack Obama became the first Black president of the USA in 2008, I couldn’t imagine a Black or Asian person being elected to lead our nation in my lifetime.
While Rishi has not yet been elected by the public, I acknowledge I’m living at a time when the Prime Minister and I share the same skin colour and can also relate to some specific cultural experiences.
His appointment will have a positive impact on ethnic minority kids up and down this land. If this brown man can, then it gives hope that others can too.
Now that Rishi is PM, he has already been subjected to a myriad of memes – and he can look forward to many more.
We all enjoyed those relating to Liz Truss and her shortest premiership in history, and those targeting Boris during Partygate, and Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock during the pandemic.
These cleverly created online pieces of comedy make me laugh on a daily basis. They are a constant source of entertainment and light relief.
As soon as Rishi was appointed PM, memes flooded into my feed.
One showed him arriving at No 10 on a bike with 10 other people hanging off it, and another depicted his new home with lots of shoes stacked outside.
I belly-laughed at all of them until one of my followers on social media said: “I find all these very uncomfortable to see – I think they are racist.”
But I don’t see them this way at all. If I as an Asian person can laugh at white politicians, why can’t white people laugh at an Asian one? For many ethnic minorities, we have been so used to every aspect of our lives being taken the mickey out of that it has now become water off a duck’s back.
I have grown older and wiser and understand that no one can offend me unless I choose to be offended.
I’m sure that if Rishi sees these memes, he would laugh too – because one of the most significant things that has happened to my generation of British Asians has been learning not take ourselves too seriously. My friends, whether Black, White, Asian or Chinese, are constantly taking the mickey out of each other’s cultures, accents and religions – and boy do we laugh.
Of course we still have to explore what is acceptable and what is not.
But it’s safe to say that if you see an Asian person laughing at a Rishi Sunak meme, it means it’s funny, so chill out and have a giggle too.
