Rupa Huq

[derxa]

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/rupa-huq-jake-berry-keir-starmer-kwasi-kwarteng-labour-b1028459.html
Just when I'm starting to get on board with voting Labour, one of their MPs comes out with something like this.
Ms Huq was said to be sitting next to Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds when she made the remarks.
In the audio, Ms Huq could be heard saying: “Superficially he is a black man.
“He went to Eton, I think, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through, the top schools in the country.
“If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he is black.”

Quite, very cynical timing - but the comments were completely unacceptable. Glad Starmer has stomped and quickly.

It's obviously both. This would have been ignored under Starmer's predecessor.

IMO there is no more or less 'inherent racism' in either of the two main parties. They are both made up of hundreds of MPs and a small number of them are twats.

What about prejudice and discrimination inherent in the Conservative party?

Boris Johnson called gay men 'tank-topped bumboys' and black people 'piccaninnies' with 'watermelon smiles'

They made Boris leader… at least Rupa Huq has been disciplined.

Kemi Badonoch spoke out about about this type of stereotyping...
"that all black people must be on the left or they are race traitors".
I think Rupa Huq's remark is probably in that vein of thought. The left are a bit prone to this way of thinking. It's good that KS has acted quickly.

www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/africa/boris-johnson-africa-intl/index.html
The Tories really dislike racism. Look how they dealt with all of these. Oh wait...

Exactly.

Thank god for the non racist, inclusive Tories!

Glad that was dealt with fast.

When Rupa Huq was 11 the direct grant schools model was still in place along with the 11+ in many areas.

If you passed the 11+ you went to grammar/direct grant depending on the local system. The secondary moderns generally offered education only up to 15/16 and CSE exam courses. Comprehensives were only just rolling out in many areas.

So depending on exactly when Ealing abandoned teh 11+ her parents may have had no choice and in the early years most parents would have stuck with the gramma/direct grant school rather than take a chance on the early comprehensives.

I think her comparing people wearing Niqabs to letterboxes, and calling Africans piccannies (admittedly with charming "watermelon smiles") was much much worse.

Oh , hang on. that was our former PM.

As you were,

She probably thought she could make these kind of comments as she has dark skin herself. I wonder if it would be called racism still if she has been of African heritage herself?

SOrry posted too soon - I know that at least one of Ealing's neighbouring boroughs still retained the scheme well into the 80s, even though technically it was being phased out from the mid 70s.

Bloody hell, she may as well have called him a coconut. How peculiar to think your ethnicity would define your political leaning.

Rupa Huq was 4 when the school became independent.

I can't believe what she said, it's so racist, what was she thinking?!

I agree that this thinking is probably quite common within the party - black people as a homogenous group who always need rescuing and couldn't possibly go to private school or be wealthy or have anything other than left wing views. And if you are outside the stereotype then you are 'superficially black'. I mean WTAF?

Its like the streak of misogyny that runs straight through the party as well. In a way its kind of worse than the Tories because they make out they are sooooooo kind and compassionate and the absolute bestest at being oh so tolerant unlike those awful yukky bigoted Tories. When in reality they are just as bad.

Foolish and ignorant thing to say, glad it was stamped on quickly.

You really don't need to resort to racism to have a go at Kwasi Kwarteng - his tone deaf economic incompetence will do the job quite nicely and would no matter what his ethnicity.

DId you read my follow up comment (posted too soon)?

Direct grant schools already were independent - they were used as alternatives to grammar schools in areas with inadequate grammar school places with the local authorities paying the fees.

They didn't "go independent" when the scheme was scrapped, they stopped accepting pupils on that basis. Where a school had a sizeable number of LA places some opted to go into the state sector but most did not (some closed down)

Rupa Huq has already offered an unreserved apology btw:

twitter.com/RupaHuq/status/1574791834248876038

It was a shit thing to say. Now how about we discuss the endless comments from Boris and chums on race?

Agreed. Anyone who comes on here saying that we must now not vote for Labour because they're more racist than the Tories needs to give their head a wobble.

Don't know what a woman is, and now don't know what to be black is.

What a shambles

🤣🤣

Lefties are the most racist and bigoted. And misogynists to boot. Isn’t it telling that the caring sharing progressives are the most hateful people. Beware, these are the people that will erode your rights, whether you are the wrong kind of ethnic minority, i.e not left enough, or a woman.

Oh a nice bit of whataboutery. So she offers an apology because she got caught, so it doesn’t matter anymore.

Boris is a bigot in so many ways. Rupa, from that comment, I'd say probably not. Stupid thing to say obviously, but I assumed she was having a go at the fact that he's yet another Tory that's done the whole Eton, posh boy routine and that isn't a route for anyone, regardless of colour, to aspire to these days, not with what Eton seems to turn out (like bigoted Boris and his cronies). It's that sense of entitlement. All the worst bits of white privilege, only he's black. I can see her point but she made it really badly.
Equally she might think that it's a black man letting 'the side' down by being a Tory but, given the Eton connection, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.