Diane Abbott’s dangerous logic on racism - Callum Breese
Labour MP Diane Abbott faced overwhelming controversy recently for submitting a letter to The Observer suggesting that only black people can be victims of racism, while white people – throwing in Jewish people, travellers, and bizarrely red-headed people (Irish) – only experience prejudice.
Abbott argued that these groups were not denied the right to vote and were not subject to racist policies such as those implemented under Apartheid in South Africa. Abbott faced huge backlash in equal measure by her critics and her fellow party members and has since had the party whip removed, pending an investigation, with immediate effect. She has since apologised and attempted to distance herself from her written statements, insisting it was crassly worded.
Some have stated that we must accept Diane’s blind spot blunder and move on. For example, Robert Peston’s response on Twitter argues that we should “accept her apology in a spirit of kindness and understanding”. But, Abbot’s comments raise important questions about the extent to which anti-semitism has become a huge blindspot in some anti-racist circles and how ideas about “whiteness” can create a hierarchy of racism.
The letter’s main issue (although there are several others) is of course the disastrous omission of the Holocaust. The fact Diane Abbot unhesitatingly references pre-civil rights America and the South African apartheid as her examples of racism whilst glossing over one of the evilest crimes in human history reveals a dangerous blind spot to antisemitism. How she can claim that Jewish people and Roma travellers only experienced prejudice in the face of the Nazi’s violently racist policies of extermination, and how that is on par with discriminating against someone’s hair colour is ludicrous, historically absurd and shockingly downplays the seriousness of one of the abhorrent racial genocides of the 20th century.
Furthermore, the letter’s eagerness to showcase that black people can only be victims of racism and that white people only face prejudice, xenophobia and bigotry turns the issue of racism into a horrid competition to see who is the most oppressed in Western society. That racism trumps all other forms of hatred and that only black people can experience racism showcases a poisonous identitarian viewpoint that limits the idea of racism to one group in society. This idea negates all other factors which contribute to the oppression faced by certain groups in society; class, ethnicity, and various other economic and cultural factors can no doubt contribute to a group’s oppression in society.
Racism is a form of hatred and its meanings and usage have changed drastically throughout centuries in Western Europe which included social inequality; so, to treat racism as being exclusive in terms of its definition and that it applies to only non-white groups simplifies the entire discussion of race, thus turning it into a competition to see who is the most oppressed.
Another point worth mentioning is the reaction to her apology and what this suggests in terms of how we handle racism today. While it was right for her to apologise, the fact some have suggested we need to understand where her outburst originated risks trivialising this matter further. While it is true Diane Abbot was the first black female MP to be elected and receives some of the highest levels of online abuse for female MPs, we should not let this cloud our judgement. Moreover, those who are suggesting that she and other non-white people suffer from a “specific” kind of racism which can cause some black trauma or racial outbursts risk simplifying racism.
Highlighting the fact she receives such abuse that may include racial undertones lets Diane Abbot off the hook. The suggestion she is a victim of racism herself and that this may have impacted her aloofness to make comments that are in their nature racist and hateful rids Abbot of personal responsibility for her views. A wider conversation regarding antisemitic tropes on the left today is much needed. We need to drill home the idea that racism is a main form of hatred towards someone’s actual or perceived racial or ethnic identity. It should not be viewed as specific nor should racism be viewed as a form of hatred that must be viewed only through the lens of skin colour. There is more to it than it is simplistically portrayed.
Callum Breese is a freelance writer. You can follow him on Twitter here @BreeseCallum.