Diane Abbott - Media & The Labour Party

The letter is completely unjustifiable and inaccurate both historically and factually, to start. We can quantify the various forms of racism that the people she named have faced throughout history and up to the present. Any form of racism or discrimination towards any race, religion, or culture is unacceptable. Not all forms of racism must be identical to be considered racist. There can be conversations about the various ways racism is felt without declaring one way as racism and others not. Abbott made a complete error in judgment. A Black woman is being called racist despite the fact that no British politician has ever experienced the levels of prejudice she has (some of the most heinous and obscene manifestations of racism in modern politics), despite the fact that she has a long history of battling racism. Someone of her caliber ought to know better than to downplay or minimise the experiences of other minorities, one would think. We all hope that whatever happened was just some tragically careless, awkward wording, and when it got out there and she realised how her words were being taken, she immediately felt regret and embarrassment (of course people make mistakes), but there needs to be an investigation that uncovers the truth. If someone has proved that they have matured, shouldn't there be a route back once the whip is taken away? And for Dianne Abbott, who has made some truly remarkable contributions to politics and is a role model for women in black and brown communities nationwide. I certainly hope there is. The Whip needs to be reinstated when Diane demonstrates that she is aware of the racism experienced by Jews, Irish, Gypsies, Travellers, and Roma people. 

What about the moral pretensions of those who practice racism towards migrants, Muslims, refugees, and even travelers? Nauseating. As the first Black woman to be elected to Parliament, Diane Abbott has endured decades of unrelenting racism. White people will never be able to comprehend the pain and suffering brought on by this event, and that context needs to be highlighted. Aside from Diane Abbott's letter, there is something genuinely offensive about a group of white reactionaries who support deportations and expanding police authority and who take twisted joy in being able to label a black lady as a racist. The dialogue isn't sincere. It concerns a twisted political tactic and the peculiar psychology of reactionaries. The truth is, though, that Abbott has heard a drumbeat beneath the criticism that is all too familiar; it is a white, male relief that they can now express their opinions about her in public. We are aware of the level of violent and sexist abuse that other female lawmakers frequently endure. We are aware of, or at the very least ought to be aware of, how much worse it is for black or brown women who also experience racist abuse. 

Since our media and political elites are dripping with overt bigotry towards GRT people, as others have noted, the media has mostly disregarded her comments on Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller people. omitting what she stated about the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller groups, journalists (and even the Labour Party) are demonstrating that there is a hierarchy of racism. The removal of information on the GRT community is taking place because animosity towards them is viewed as socially acceptable, even "common sense." The hierarchy of racism is being observed in real-time. The story journalists are interested in is not whether GRT individuals do suffer racism in society and the Labour Party. So Labour has no concerns about it. So it's okay if it's disregarded. That, in my opinion, is a poor way to handle racism. 

The left has allowed itself to be drawn into a debate about what Diane Abbott said, igniting a media frenzy started by rightwing racists. You don't need to justify Abbott's remarks, in my opinion, to recognise that what's happening to her is a scandal. We're being led about by the nose. The US left would have erupted in fury at the right's weaponization of anti-Semitism if one of the Squad had stated this. The first Black woman MP in the UK who has fought prejudice since before I was born, where is the UK left for Abbott?The left is unable to distinguish between the forest and the trees because we are so engrossed in "the discourse" on racism that we are unable to recognise how, by participating in it, we are enabling ourselves to play a part in one of this country's most prominent anti-racist activists' expulsion from the Labour party. The issue is not whether Abbott was correct in what she said (obviously she wasn't), but rather how a Black lady who makes a mistake is publically burned alive while Steve Reed, Barry Sheerman, Rachel Reeves, and Lisa Nandy get away with nothing. Tell me she isn't being treated differently because she is a black woman after looking at the response to this. Tell me that they haven't been frantically trying to get rid of her. For some, it appears to be a "gotcha" moment.

The Tory politician who said "all white men should have a Black man as a slave or Black woman as a slave" didn't get this media coverage...