Tomiwa Owolade claims that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from “racism” (“Racism in Britain is not a black and white issue. It’s far more complicated”, Comment). They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.
It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships. Diane Abbott
House of Commons, London SW1
I would say it is factually incorrect to compare ginger prejudice to anti-Semitism in some sort of effort to reserve a higher class of martyrdom called ‘racism’ for oneself. By her apparent standard, she has not personally experienced racism, and it would be difficult to interpret how British South Asians have done so.
Popcorn because the Labour Party took action the second one of their MP’s stepped out of line instead of seeing whether the media will allow them to get away with it as the Tories would try to do?
Swift action. That’s what I want to see from the Labour party. Abbott’s opinions have been a stain on the party for a while now so nothing lost here.
I really need a wash after linking a Tory Kuenssberg article, but the entire education system in the UK is a mess. Anybody who understands how schools hire ‘Ofsted-busting’ headmasters to artificially improve Ofsted scores for the short term (that method of school rating absolutely must be binned), to the number of teachers on stress leave right now, to the number of student suicides from students who have effectively alerted the school of their intentions but nothing is done due to a lack of capacity.
It’s reasonable to say that people experience racism differently, but downplaying Traveller and Roma prejudice? They are actively targeted by state bodies. If people think they don’t experience institutional racism it’s because they essentially agree with it.
Her statement of retraction is so absolutely craven. The ‘errors arose in an initial draft being sent’ so obviously tries to duck responsibility. Not a draft she sent, no, ‘being sent’ dangles the question of whom, suggesting someone made an error as she was trying to frame her pure thoughts.
This firmly falls in the category of ‘when someone tells you who there are, believe them’. She absolutely does not believe that Jews/Romani/whatever should be allowed to compare what they experience to racism she has experienced.
So she is merely rejecting the internationally accepted definition of racism as being more than just racial prejudice based on skin colour. In her defence, you are advocating the position she is backpedalling from furiously.
FFS, she equated the experience of Jews to the experience of redheads…
“They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable. It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism.”
in a rebuttal to the idea that Jews, Travellers, and Irish had experienced racism. Seems like a common category to me, and it is not, why is she now disavowing it?
