Miss Abbott said "White people love playing 'divide & rule' We should not play their game #dontwashdirtylineninpublic". This is hideously racist, though clearly not in the same league as those who committed the murder - let us keep a sense of perspective. Miss Abbott has apologised for any offence that people may have taken from her comments - a polite linguistic device to say in effect "You're all idiots for being offended by my perfectly reasonable comments". Why not apologise for making an offensive comment?
Let's explore this in proper detail.
Those who are racist normally divide their excuses into two catagories:-
1, They are not the racist type.
2, Their remarks have been taken out of context.
1, "I've got plenty of white/black/.... friends which proves that I'm not racist".
Miss Abbott has claimed that her commendable (and it is commendable) work on anti-racism in London proves that she can't possibly be racist. This is clearly a nonsense. I have never been caught speeding, does this prove that I can never drive too fast in the future? A policeman may have caught many criminals in his career, does this prove that he may not commit crime (quite pertinent in this case I would wager)?
2, "My remarks have been taken totally out of context".
Miss Abbott claims that her remarks on twitter were taken out of context, indeed she tells us that the complex ideas that she was trying to convey were a "bit much to get into 140 characters" - which begs that question why do it then? Apparently it was a reference to colonialism in the past - relevance is lost on me.
In the interests of balance, let's include the tweets before & after the offending one shall we:
I note the tweet before the one that offends. "ethnic communities that show more public solidarity & unity than black people do much better #dontwashdirtylineninpublic". In effect saying that minorities that stick together are more successful than black people. Insulting 'other minorities' by lumping together 'other minorities' and suggesting that they are insular. Insulting black people by saying that they are less effective & play into white people's divide & rule agenda.It occurs to me that perhaps she is not racist - as in two tweets she has made offensive comments to all possible different ethnic groups. Well done - clearly not a racist.
Mmmm I think the message should be think before you write!! These people use Twitter to air their views but never think of the consequences of what they are saying!!
ReplyDeleteLet's remember that this is not an isolated incident of tweeting before she thought. She has a history of this. A couple of years age she told us that West Indian mothers care more about their children's education, when justifying het decision to send her child to a private school.
ReplyDeleteJust catching up with the blog. It's very hard to have a debate on racism, because automatically we over-think what we are saying for fear of being considered racist, so all views are moderated.
ReplyDeleteIt's also easy to accuse someone of racism/sexism/classism rather than looking at an argument, actual causes, process, etc.
Bit stupid to say things like that on twitter, though.
adrian (not anonymous...)