Diane Abbott apologises over Twitter racism row

[siobhanc92]

Diane Abbott apologises over Twitter racism row

MP said tweet saying 'white people love playing "divide & rule"' was taken out of context before Ed Miliband ordered apology

Diane Abbott, the shadow health minister, has apologised after posting a Twitter comment about white people that led to her being accused of racism.

"I understand people have

Comments

[ladypolitik]

Mod Note: Whoa...that large gap at the bottom wasnt in the submission -- any way you can eliminate that from your html?

[siobhanc92]

Oops, sorry! I'm out of practice with LJ so I probably did something wrong, I'll try and fix it.

[ladypolitik]

Looks great, thanks!

[atomic_joe2]

Hmm. This is on the heels of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial and verdict, Liverpool striker Luis Suarez's racist comments to Manchester United's Patrice Evra and Chelsea's John Terry being charged by the Met Police for allegedly racist language towards QPR's Anton Ferdinand so it's not a great time for this to happen.

Unfortunately racism and alleged racism is in the news a fair bit in the UK right now. The only time I want racism in the news is when they say 'racism is over. Forever'.

[polietics]

So surprised this has been blown up as much as it has tbh. Diane Abbott's known to be controversial and to tweet her mind (not saying this is 'controversial' at all, just saying that usually she can tweet much more offensive and derisive things without it hitting the news) but I can't believe Labour were stupid enough to actually get involved here.

[siobhanc92]

I love Diane Abbott, and I'm on her side here. It was a generalisation against white people, but people are so willing to play the victim. I can guess that they don't care nearly as much about actual racism?

[polietics]

I like her speaking her mind and I appreciated her standing in the Leadership election for that well needed diversity between the white men (though the fact she was described as the joke candidate, even though she never had a chance, really didn't help anything - why didn't you run, Harriet??? .__.). This was clearly Nadim Zahawi trying to pitch one for the Tories and get himself a promotion.

But Labour, ugh. If they had just kept quiet then this wouldn't have been anything. They're really just opening doors for the impending Tory majority in 2015.

[siobhanc92]

I wished Yvette Cooper had run, I saw her speak and she is pretty great, imo. And much better than her husband (who I do actually like) but Harriet would have been great too. Diane is pretty awesome too, but as a lefty she would never have had a chance.

It was so frustrating being on twitter last night with all these Labourites were freaking out about her comments. We really are just feeding political points to the Tories. argh. And Ed should of stood up for her or not got involved.

[siobhanc92]

I'm really annoyed at this whole thing, and the first time I have been ashamed to be a Labour memeber.
I wish all these people who were so offended by a generalisation on white people (assuming she meant the ruling class, which are generally white) were as offended by the actual racism in this country ... oh, wait. :/

[moonlightblack]

typical white privilege...as soon as some white people get called out for being racist and are forced to be accountable for their actions, there's a knee-jerk reaction and they want to play the victim.

[myrana]

the first time I have been ashamed to be a Labour memeber

Yeah, it makes me beyond disappointed in Ed Miliband. :/

[siobhanc92]

I'm a defender of Ed M, I don't think a lot Labours problems are his fault and generally the things he has done 'wrong' (reaction to strikes, etc) wouldn't be anything another Labour leader wouldn't do but he fucked up here.

[fimh]

this reminds me of this article i saw on yahoo the other day
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Buckeye-linebacker-calls-foul-on-race-baiting-Ga?urn=ncaaf-wp12427

because you know, 'cracker' is obviously a racial slur