Racism - its a 2 way street

by Craig Chapman - Party Leader - 10:37 on 05 January 2012

Quote from Huffington Post blog - MP Diane Abbott has been accused of racism and faces calls to resign from the Labour frontbench after claiming white people love playing "divide and rule".

In a controversial message to a freelance journalist on the social networking site Twitter, Abbott wrote: "White people love playing 'divide and rule' we should not play their game."

The Hackney MP used a hashtag which spelt "tactics as old as colonialism."

When asked for a comment in response, Abbott told Huffington Post UK: "I'm going to have to get back to you on that."

She later wrote her tweet had been "taken out of context".

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi has called for Abbott to quit her front bench job as shadow public health minister, of for her to be sacked by Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Former Tory MP and commentator Paul Goodman has also called for her to quit saying her comments were "racist" and "even the most clear-cut apology won't do."

OK, firstly Popular Alliance is a party that is not that happy that we have an out of control immigration situation in this country. We don't agree that the EU allows uncounted numbers of EU citizens into our country and ignores the asylum laws to shunt countless Asian and African refugees, benefit seekers and (yes) some job hunters in our direction, mainly because our country cannot afford them and its unfair to burden our tax payers with their constant claims and ever increasing cultural demands. That's not racist - its economics and basic politeness towards this host nation that bends over backwards to be helpful !!

That said, we do not hate any particular race and take each individual person at face value. Personally my wife is Chinese, my son is mixed race and I like a lot of the people of different race that I have met, likewise, some have been horrible, as have plenty of white English that I have met.

We do abhor being dictated to by politicians over their London/urban take on race representation.

We do abhor the fact that we cannot call a (eg) person from Pakistan by an abbreviated version of their country name and yet countless Pakistanis use numerous derogatory Urdu terms for white English with no similar course for reproach. Not that I personally have any wish to insult someone, its just a very annoying inconsistency.

Racism exists and is not nice, but too many people use it as a tool for trying to feel as offended as they possibly can. Ms Abbott has been a tireless campaigning leader of the "I'll be as offended as I possibly can muster brigade" and its people like her who have given the open book to the race equivalent of ambulance chasing lawyers.

I know of such interferring busybodies who have had good workers sacked for (i) timing the extended prayer breaks that fellow Muslim staff were taking each day and (ii) writing a fire safety report to remove prayer mats from a 4-storey Midlands office block fire escape steps. Absolutely ridiculous !!

Inconsistency is a poison in such issues (read Liberal Democrats and their grey areas) and too many people are more than happy to point the finger, whilst they freely reverse the situation at will and arrogantly feel no remorse.

We certainly do not approve of race card MPs like Ms Abbott ranting and raving about how racist all us white English are and then squirming the "taken out of context rubbish" when she herself is caught - in writing - making such statements.

On the back of the Stephen Lawrence case, her opportunism shows very bad taste. That case involved vile racism that grows and festers when inconsistencies are allowed to prosper.

The number of pitfalls we can all fall into over supposed racist remarks are ever-growing. Away from some sick people being intentionally insulting, there are so many different eggshells to stumble through and the endless queue of professional insultees who are almost falling over themselves to be bothered about this and that. In some cases, perhaps we should perhaps thicken up our skin and look at ourselves in the mirror before stalking the rest of society looking for issues to take offence-by-association over, Ms Abbott has a history of this. I've worked in many countries and I have to say, no other country tries to improve race relatations like the UK.

Of course, the Labour front bench is the frontline for getting its knickers in a twist over the slightest issue, mainly to take the spotlight off their own lack of substance and responsibility. The issue here is that Ms Abbott is in a position of public responsibility and her words are made in an effort to keep people/races apart, suggesting that black people are the we and white are the them - not helpful !

Pots and kettles and certain badly advised references to colour (in this instance) come to mind. Steve Biko said we're pink and brown, colours which share many similar pigments and Stevie Wonder said there's good and bad in everyone. Ms Abbott however often thinks she's a superior pigment, above us minions and has been caught red handed - (even she can't argue that colour reference !!)

We say, kick her considerable ass out of there and to hell with her scheming efforts to backtrack, there is a calculated, pre-determined effort on her behalf to racially divide on this occasion.

Whites are not the exclusive dividers of culture. Just look at the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, Sunis and Kurds in Iraq, Serbs and Croats/Bosnians, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland etc, for recent examples that it happens in all cultures, religions and races. In fact, I recall whites (or pinks as Steve Biko suggests - and I take no offence whatsoever) being the main forces behind trying to solve the many of the above situations - and we even get criticised for that !!

Update - she has apologised following a swift bollocking from Milliband (we guess that's like being licked by a tortoise), but is still making excuses. Kick her out if she won't go voluntarily - if a white Tory had made these comments, he'd be in court already. That is not a racist statement, its the truth - simple as that !!

We accept that Ms Abbott fights her corner with spirit, but biting the hand that feeds and being caught out racially critcising the host nation that bends over backwards to be as helpful as possible just isn't acceptable. Also noting her previous hypocritical inconsistencies (posh Tory white boys, her son's private school and suggesting West Indian mothers love their sons more than other nations, etc) she has been shown up as someone who throws lots of stones in glass houses.

Popular Alliance see the citizens of the UK as "we," not as "us & them," although it has to be said that the term "English" is more and more being hoovered from officially existing - now that IS racist and it is tolerated by all these holier-than-thou, town-hall-lettuce-wrists.

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