Diane Abbott, at the center of a racism row. Photocredit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcr1GeGaFsc
Diane Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, (and Britain’s first black woman MP) has been labelled “racist” for writing that white people “love playing ‘divide & rule.’”
In a Twitter conversation (naturally), she was responding to a comment by Bim Adewunmi, a freelance journalist, who wrote that she believed black leaders were not in touch with the people they were meant to represent; Adewunmi also said that she disliked the use of the term “black community” during coverage of the Stephen Lawrence trial, in which two white men have received sentences for murdering a black man.
“White people love playing ‘divide & rule’. We should not play their game. #tacticasoldascolonialism.” Diane Abbott’s tweet.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has, according to The Daily Telegraph, called Abbott’s comments “stupid and crass” and demanded an apology; a Conservative MP, Nadhim Zahawi, has called for her to resign. The Labour party has issued a statement saying that they disagree with her: “It is wrong to make sweeping generalisations about any race, creed, or culture.”
Abott has since apologised: “I understand people have interpreted my comments as making generalisations about white people. I do not believe in doing that. I apologize for any offense caused.” She claims her comments concerned the behavior of colonials. The internet is alive with chatter. Some call for her to be sacked immediately; others point out that her comments are intellectually valid. George Galloway, the maverick Labour politician, has come out in support of her.
“A healthy society should not tolerate any form of racism. DAbbott should apologize and resign or Ed M must sack her,” wrote Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi on Twitter, quoted on The Daily Telegraph.
She’s not racist. The Though Cowards Flinch socialist blog said that it wasn’t wrong of Abbott to talk about divide and rule tactics; she was simply saying that black people “have been the subject of racism”, and that “such tactics” were used by whites. Whilst her “we must not play their game” phraseology is wrong, she can still say this as “a deeply held commitment and a valid intellectual position in the context of both colonial history and post-colonial immigration.”
She’s really not racist. The 33 Revolutions blog said that it could think of a world in which Abbott’s tweet would be racist – one in which Britain was dominated by black people. “But in this world? Not really.” This is an “absurd flap” which only shows “the desperate longing of some privileged people to wear the rags of victimhood.” There’s no “level playing field” for bigotry. In the context, especially, of the Lawrence trial: “A black man gets knifed to death by a white mob; a black MP writes a carelessly worded tweet about white people.” Her comment was reasonable. When white people say that blacks are racist, “they give themselves permissino to pretend that privilege and power and the kind of deep-seated racism that ruins people’s lives are things that don’t exist anymore.”
At least, she’s committed an offense. Abbott’s “never far from controversy,” said Guido Fawkes on his blog. Just as the media’s having a “long overdue conversation about racism”, she seems to think it’s OK to slam “an entire group of people based on the color of their skin.” Her own constituency is 61 per cent white. It’s clearly an offense under sections 17-29 of the Public Order Act 1986, which covers “inflammatory rumours about an ethnic group.”
She should be sacked. Paul Goodman on the Conservative Home blog said that Abbott’s behavior is worse than Aiden Burley, the personal private secretary recently sacked for wearing a Nazi costume at a stag party. Imagine if a Conservative MP said “black people love playing ‘divide and rule’”. And her apology is hardly an apology – she did make generalisations.
She is racist. And, according to the Oxford English dictionary definition, said Toby Young in his Daily Telegraph blog, Abbott was being racist, by “attributing a characteristic … to a race,” intending “to distinguish the race in question as morally inferior.” Abbott should be defusing tensions between white and black, not encouraging it. And as for her apology that her comment was meant about the past – well, she said “love”, not “loved,” didn’t she?
Watch Diane Abbott’s defence of her tweet below
