New Welsh leader 'honored' to be Europe's first Black national leader

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 215 points –
New Welsh leader 'honored' to be Europe's first Black national leader
nbcnews.com

Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labour Party leadership contest on Saturday, and is set to become the first Black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government.

Gething, who is currently Welsh economy minister, narrowly beat Education Minister Jeremy Miles in a race to replace First Minister Mark Drakeford. Drakeford announced late last year he would step down once a replacement was chosen.

Gething, 50, won 51.7% of the votes cast by members of the party and affiliated trade unions, and Miles 48.3%.

Once he is confirmed next week by the Welsh parliament, the Senedd, where Labour is the largest party, Gething will become the fifth first minister since Wales’ national legislature was established in 1999.

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These names are SUPERBLY British-sounding

Yeah, not very Welsh-sounding at all. On the other hand, dude was born in Wales to a Welsh father, so as long as he is focused on helping Wales and the Welsh people, that's what matters.

One day I hope we'll get past focusing on this stuff

I dont think it is focusing, reppresentation and inclusion are important. When we get passed it it will be bacause it isnt a rarity but rather the norm

Someone once asked (I think) Ruth Bader Ginsburg how many women had to be on the SCOTUS in order for it to not be biased towards men. Her answer was "All nine of them. After all, it's been all nine men before and no one thought that was special"

I am, of course, quite heavily paraphrasing.

This is something I dont understand, can someone explain to me: Is Rishi Sunnak not black? Do my eyes deceive me. Is he not a black leader of a european country too? Excuse my apparent ignorance.

Er, no. Rishi Sunak is of Indian heritage, and therefore brown. Likewise, Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, is of Pakistani heritage. Black would be African heritage.

Here’s the thing, Vaughn has a white Welsh father and a black Zambian mother so it’s a bit dishonest to call him black. Rishi has two brown Indian parents. But yes, as a result, they probably do have a similar-ish skin colour.

Maybe this is something lost in translation but given that you appear to be British, did brits think of Barack Obama as being a bit dishonest for being referred to as the first black US president given that he had a white American mother and a black Kenyan father (as you put it)?

Dishonest, no. The vast majority of British people would have happily classed him as black - the same with Vaughn. Whether through racism or ignorance I’m not sure. In South Africa the term coloured/colored is used with zero negative connotations but in the UK “coloured” (and I assume the US too) is viewed very negatively as that is how the older generation categorised anybody who wasn’t white… whether you were Bangladeshi, Nigerian, Chinese etc it didn’t really matter.

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This is the best summary I could come up with:


Vaughan Gething won the Welsh Labour Party leadership contest on Saturday, and is set to become the first Black leader of Wales’ semi-autonomous government.

Once he is confirmed next week by the Welsh parliament, the Senedd, where Labour is the largest party, Gething will become the fifth first minister since Wales’ national legislature was established in 1999.

Gething, son of a Welsh father and a Zambian mother, will be the first Black leader of a government in the U.K. — and, by some definitions, of any European country.

Northern Ireland is led jointly by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, meaning that for the first time there are no white male heads of government in the U.K.

The British government in London is responsible for defense, foreign affairs and other U.K.-wide issues, while administrations in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast control areas such as education and health.

Gething was the front-runner to win the contest, though his campaign was rattled by the revelation he’d accepted 200,000 pounds ($255,000) in donations from a recycling company that was found guilty of environmental offenses and breaching health and safety regulations.


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