Controversial and a funny old bird Diane Abbott
Yesterday Labour MP/Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott caused OUTRAGE (yes it all kicked off folks!) after she tweeted that “white people love playing divide and rule. We should not play their game” during a conversation about the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, and then added that her comments were taken out of context – she was referring to 19th century European colonialism.
Now the Society of Black Lawyers has stepped forward to publicly defend Abbott and sent this open letter to the Evening Standard.
“The Diane Abbott row is a sideshow being used for party political purposes. Generalisations are made every day by all races and nationalities, some complimentary, others not. The apology is inappropriate and unnecessary. White people, in power and authority, especially but not exclusively those with a racist agenda have historically played divide and rule, setting different ethnic minorities against each other to achieve their objectives.
Any political activist would have understood what was meant. Abbott clearly did not have in mind the ordinary white member of society. Ed Miliband’s response itself marches straight from history as the knee jerk reaction of a white man who has to be seen ‘controlling’ this ‘difficult black woman’: two steps forward and one embarrassing step back.
What the row does is divert attention away from the racism of white society and the underlying racial inequalities which in a number of cases have got worse, not better, since the Macpherson report, to the words of one Black MP. Arguably, if we had a strong Black Parliamentary Caucus, this row would never have developed. But the current 30 odd Black MPs have less common cause and identity than the four (Abbott, Vaz, Boateng and Grant) who entered Parliament back in 1987.”
Donald Peter Herbert OBE National Co-Chair, Society of Black Lawyers
[Thanks Ty]
Over to you Miliband!
Your thoughts please….
Categories: UK News
MAD NEWS UK 
Wow!!!!!!!! I am very proud to see that there is some influential / respected people who are taking her defense publicly.
And I definitely agree on the last part of the letter, racism is kinda worst than before.
Yet, a lot of Black people think they live in a country where racism doesn’t exist anymore.
Peter Herbert still kicking then? Honestly, can we move on from this and concentrate on more important matters.
Well God Damn!!! Tell it like it is why dont ya! lol
Refreshing to see a public unified response from a conglomerate of educated individuals. Ondo Lady I get what you mean but because the debate of race has never really happened in the country, it now seems that years in fact decades of issues are being discussed in a few days so makes the subject seem repetitive and tiresome. I knew race was going to be high on the UK’s media agenda ever since the riots, there’s more to come…..
well i think at this point there is nothing more important than talking about the racial disparities. We cannot keep our heads in the sand when it comes to this issue. How do you ever expect there to be any progress if this issue is not dealt with. As someone said here a lot of Black people think they live in a country where racism doesn’t exist anymore. Man these people are so wrong. And it was stated this issue is getting worst.. I’m just glad that group supported her. Because we all know how some Black will take up for the white man… such fools i say. People still believe that most things are not about race…but they are wrong. If it was not so…then we as Black people would be in a much better position.