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.”

Racism between South Asian and Black communities is very common.

Kwarteng has had a more privileged upbringing than the very vast majority of the population have experienced, regardless of colour.

None of the POC that make up the current cabinet are going to improve the standard of life for the average POC in the UK. The drawbridge has been drawn up.

I don't particularly agree with what she said but I've got Indian and Pakistani friends. They hate Priti Patel and claim she's white because of her attitude and racist policies. It's a similar sentiment I guess.

KK's actions are not dissimilar to women who break the glass ceiling and pull the ladder up on other women. Sure you don't have to help other women, minorities etc but it makes you a bit of a dick if you are potentially more in tune with certain issues but do nothing to help.

Lunar270

but there is a big difference between saying that someone isn’t doing anything for black people/Asian people and saying that if they don’t do what they think a person of that race should it makes them white.
why are you friends with such vile racist people?

Its directly relevant to the subject of the thread with the implication that people shouldn't vote Labour because of it so lets compare the behaviour both of individuals and the party.

Rupa Huq made a racist comment - Labour immediately removed the whip, she has apologised directly to Kwarteng and in public for the comments (not how people feel about the comments, the actual comments).

Now lets look at a small selection of comments from the recent leader of the Tory party, all dismissed, excused and laughed off both by Johnson and the party, no penalty incurred at all (not my list incidentally, a commenter elsewhere had grouped them together already):

“tank topped búm boys”
“watermelon smiles”
“ flag-waving piccaninnies,”
“ they chose to “go around looking like letterboxes”
“ the Muslim world being “literally centuries behind”.
“ they have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”
“ I come across that bunch of black kids, shrieking in the spooky corner by the disused gents,”
“ The interesting thing about his half-caste looks, he decided, was that he didn’t look Negroid.”

There is plenty of racism, sexism and classism on the authoritarian left, just as their is on the right. Currently Starmer is putting a lot more effort into dealing with racism whilst the Tories pretend it doesn't exist and perpetuate class based politics.

I think it's incredibly patronising and racist to insist that someone has to think/vote a certain way or they are not a "real" member of a group. Like they don't have agency to have their own views.

Huq's comments were atrocious and she apparently strongly stood by them yesterday afternoon after the news broke so must have had no intention of apologising until she was forced to. I can't believe people are defending them.

PPs have criticised the timing of the story's release and I really don't see why. Expecting a journo to sit on the story until it might not affect Labour as much shows you don't want news, you want political propaganda. The story comes in, the story is immediately published, that's how it must go in a just society. I was deeply uncomfortable with the way Pippa Crearer seemed to have kept the partygate revelations until it was most politically expedient. That's not journalism - that's campaigning.

Rupa Huq initially stands by comments mobile.twitter.com/breeallegretti/status/1574739936540082182

I've just seen she's previously been accused of antisemitism so there's a history of racism.

My DH is black and feels the same as her

Cool story.

I'm black, and her comments are not okay.

More whataboutery. Why is it so hard for a racism apologists to just accept when one of their own has been racist. Why write an essay say ‘but what about’.

Cool story.

I'm black, and her comments are not okay.
His feelings are his feelings, however, it says a lot about your husband that he does not see the issues with what she has said and "feels the same".

This thread is very eye opening. Not only are there racism apologists on here but the fact that some people are more offended and concerned about the word BAME than a racist MP. Perfect example of virtue signalling. Get caught up in appearing to be oh so progressive but minimizing this MP’s actions because she is on the left.

SleeplessInEngland · Yesterday 15:35
Just when I'm starting to get on board with voting Labour, one of their MPs comes out with something like this.

It's a shitty comment but if this was enough to put you off you were never on board with voting labour and it's silly to pretend otherwise.“

this ^
watermelon smiles and women looking like post boxes ring any bells. Did that put you off?

It’s depressingly true

My friends aren't vile racist people. I don't think Rupa should've said what she did but my friends calling out Priti Patel is different IMO as they're South Asian.

I get called a banana by my East Asian mates. Black people use the N word between black people and coconut is used between like races that have dark skin. They can be used in jest or as a put down. Some might disagree and I don't make the rules but the dynamics between races are different.

The problem with Ruq is that she made the comment across races. That'd be like me using the N word. A definite no no.

But on MN, women who are misogynistic are often accused of being or are called men. Not dissimilar IMO.

Totally agree her comment was appalling and delighted KS withdrew the whip.

Let’s turn the debate around - I am white, middle class and privately educated (obviously my parents’ choice not mine!) and I have just joined the Labour Party. Should I not have done so because my profile as set out above sounds classically Tory?

Interesting that you haven't replied to any of the comments pointing out that Keir did stamp on it immediately OP.

He did. Well done Keir

It was a terrible comment but she's had the whip taken away. Labour have done all they can to deal with this. Unfortunately you get racist idiots in all parties.

Boris Johnson made consistent racist comments and was given the leadership.

Lunar270

Just because people use vile slurs to people of their own race doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.

Rio Ferdinand was fined for using a similar term so the rules as you call them have been made and if you are fine with people calling you a ‘banana’ then that’s up to you of course.

perhaps you are correct that racist isn’t the correct term. Bigoted is perhaps more correct in suggesting that people of one race should be a homogenous mass who all think and behave alike.

AGREE.

I do agree with others that Starmer has done well to immediately suspend her as it does shut down a lot of discussion and show that these sort of personal attacks on the other side are unacceptable.

So do you call out other women here for calling other women men for their views? Happens all the time here.

And who are you to criticise black people for owning and using the N word? Or other races for how they use language in jest or as a put down.

I'm not suggesting that everyone thinks or should think the same as I'm not the one that's judging. Not like you seem to be and policing what should be said within racial groups.

I have absolutely no issues with what Rio said about Ashley.

Given Huq's previous history of antisemitic comments, I strongly disagree that Starmer is stamping down on anything because she was still in the Labour Party despite exhibiting racist behaviour. Why did he do it this time? I doubt he's had an attack of conscience because it was too soon for his SPADs to focus-group him one. Probably just because of proximity.

Apparently calling people 'piccaninnies' is fine within the Conservative party and they are quite happy with 'people of a funny tinge', and of course the anti-semitic tropes in Johnson's novel.