Boris Johnson Under Fire For Racist Comment

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has come under fire for an article he published where he made a reference to Nigerians, saying that the young Brits "have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”

This article was published when Johnson was an editor at a paper, the Spectator. He also referred to black people as "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles," according to The Guardian.

This story is coming into the spotlight as the PM's Conservative Party seeks votes in the upcoming December elections. The article was written in a bid to criticize the then sitting Prime Minister, Tony Blair in the year 1999. In it, he said,  “All the young people I know — i.e. those under 30 — are just as avaricious as we flinty Thatcherite yuppies of the 1980s… In fact, they have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”

The Stand Up to Racism movement organizer, Weyman Bennett, says that Johnson's words could be described as "deeply racist and offensive."

“Boris Johnson is unfit to be a prime minister that represents the entire United Kingdom.

“He had demonstrated this by lying and falsely representing black, Asian and different communities inside this country.

“This is deeply offensive and unforgivable and should not be ignored and he should be held to account.” He said.