If we fight racism in silos, we just can’t win
JVL Introduction
Aditya Chakrabortty points out that the real error of Diane Abbotts’s letter was that it separated the subjects of racist attacks into silos when the necessity is for unity.
He discusses how, whatever the scale of her error, the reaction to it was grossly disproportionate and frequently hypocritical. Many, with records of similar or greater errors than Abbott, spoke from positions of white privilege. Abbott’s own experience of constant abuse does not excuse the letter but it is an important factor in deciding a proportionate response to it.
Abbott has been accused by many of inventing a ‘hierarchy of racism’. This exposes the casual negligence of her critics. She was reacting imperfectly to the hierarchy of racism identified by Martin Forde in his report commissioned by, and sidelined by, Keir Starmer.
Many of the critics, and defenders, of Abbott can be categorised as ‘the usual suspects’ but it is telling to note some unexpected defenders who include core Blair operative John McTernan and mainstream Jewish commentator Robert Peston
Chakrabortty urges us to rise above competitive racisms and enjoins us to remember what those of us old enough to be there chanted in the 70s: “We are black, we are white, together we are dynamite”.
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 27 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
The lesson from the Diane Abbott row: if we fight racism in silos, we just can’t win
The row caused by her dreadful letter was depressing, but just as sad was what the furore revealed about modern racial politics
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I take issue with this article not because of what it says but because it omits the entire context of the article and the research it cherry picked that Diane was replying to and to which a much better constructive response could and should have been made.
The article by Tomiwa Owolade takes unfiltered stats from the research that Jews and Travellers face more racism than black people in Britain. Now with the row about the letter we see distractions about ‘treating all racism equally’ etc. rather than looking at which groups really do face the most systemic and enduring discrimination and racism in Britain.
And of course the GRT communities have been ignored by Labour and we see the further ratcheting up of the antisemitism weaponisation based on the ludicrous and now received wisdom that British Jews are among the minorities suffering the most racism when the opposite is true.
This isn’t about history but the here and now in Britain.
This is a dreadful article. Chakrabortty attempts to give Diane Abbot some leaway whilst slinging mud at her. He appears to be one of those ‘leftish’ commentators who likes to ride two horses. Nothing that Diane Abbot said was racist or antiSemitic yet Chakrabortty, looking over his shoulder at Guardian gatekeepers Viner and Freedland, still manages to squeeze a mention of antiSemitism into his diatribe.
In my experience racism is practised by all nations all races. So it would seem racism is a human condition, a condition that arises out of ignorance, fear and most importantly unfamiliarity. When we witness the advantage racism offers to people in positions of power who use racism as a tool for their endeavours it must be obvious that it is going to be a supreme task to get the peoples of the Earth to jettison it. As long as we tolerate the essential worker getting paid less than the comedian and any other more serious comparison any of us could add here as examples of inequality we have little prospect of confining racism to the dark ages.
Diane Abbott has been criticised for comparing different racisms. It has been suggested that she has described a “hierarchy of racism” by stating that prejudice experienced by Black people is worse than that experienced by Jews, Irish or Travellers.
Keir Starmer has stated that she has been suspended for “Anti-Semitism”. Why not for anti-Irish and anti-Traveller racism as well? Does that make Keir Starmer guilty of arguing for a “hierarchy of racism” too? Just asking.
Several apposite comments above in my view.
I agree strongly with Dave re ‘the here and now in Britain’ and with Jack T re ‘Guardian gatekeepers’.
Chakrabortty is usually quite lucid but he seems to have got himself into a pitiful state of confusion over Diane Abbott’s letter
It is an indisputable fact that at some times and in some places Jews have been the main or among the main victims of racism. It is equally clear that at other times and places they have not. There is now a convention, to which Chakrabortty subscribes, that it is always appropriate and sometimes obligatory to refer to the former fact but unacceptable and even antisemitic to refer to the latter one. The reality is, however, that either both propositions invoke a ‘hierarchy of racism’ or neither does.
Different groups experience prejudice and oppression in different ways and with different intensities, and these factors change over time. A careful analysis is needed to see where the interests of different oppressed groups coincide and where they may appear to conflict. Chakraborty apparently rejects this approach and prefers to see the oppressed as a single undifferentiated mass. If he were to read Diane Abbott’s letter more carefully he might learn something from it.
Diane Abbott’s lifetime obsession with skin colour has made her blind. I was at college in South Wales during the miner’s strike and regularly attended picket- line duty and saw nothing of this ‘working class ‘ bigotry. It was a time when whole communities came together to fight the common enemy, although the battle was predominantly fought by the white working class, there was great comaraderie among the Black; White and Asian Communities in Pillgwenlly.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 criminalises the ‘lifestyle’ of one minority group at a stroke; Gypsies. Any form of trespass can now be a criminal offence, no other demographic faces such hostile laws. Gypsies are the most persecuted people and this continues to this day. Diane Abbott needs to get a grip of her limited perceptions and understanding.
Incidentally, I once held Nina Simone in great esteem until I read an article in which she described Dusty Springfield as a white woman wanting to ‘sound’ black’ as the only reason why she was favoured by Burt Bacharach & Hal David. A certain Dionne Warwick appears to contradict this assertion.