Diane Abbott....racist comment or not?

[festi]

I think If you look and consider what she said in the context of the discussuion she was having. I believe she has a very valid point, she did make a generalised remark and by definition that was racist, but, it was in my opinion acceptable for her to generate discussion and break down the barriers that exist (the fear of counter accusations of racism) in discussuing the exposure openly.

link please?

it was a twitter discussion, Ill look for a link.

twitter.com/hackneyabbott it was the "white people love to play divide and rule" converstaion about black youth leaders.

I was listening to the disscussion surrounding this on 5 live.

The Daily Mail has something about it

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082527/Diane-Abbott-racist-tweets-MP-faces-calls-resign-divide-rule-comment.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Here's a clip of Andrew Neill interviewing Diane Abbott about similar comments. Might give a more balanced view than the DM article!

that is an interesting clip, she could have redeemed herself but did not. I think also because she knew that in its self was not a racist remark about west indi mums and in doing so she would have admitted he it was. it had been misconsrude by him, Andrew neill attempted to compare it to some one saying "White mums", that was wrong of him, I think it is more comparable to british mums, or American mums and Not at all unacceptable.

This is the problem with Twitter.
No-one should attempt to debate important things in 140 characters.
It spawns unintelligible, unintelligent soundbites, which then evolve into spurious debate.

I'm surprised at Diane making such a stupid gaffe. What IndieSkies said too.

Another agreeing with IndieSkies. Blimey, that's twice I've done that! You cannot make a coherent point about such a complex argument given the restraint of space. Unless you write it off Twitter and link to it.

I've just seen this on SKY.

The comments were beyond crass, and her smugness in explaining herself absolutely breathtaking.

If it's "too complex" for 140 characters, she should have known better than to use that medium.

Diane Abbot is a gasping twat.

I don't think Dianne Abbott is a racist and I suppose her comment was made in relation to the dominant group of a society which has discriminated against and oppressed her group. (I can similarly imagine a feminist talking about "men" being -insert negative characteristic here - when in the fact they mean the patriarchal system).
However, there is very little wriggle room in that comment and as such she'll have to face the consequences. Why on earth would you post such a thing and then decry that it's been taken out of context? It's twitter for goodness sake, it is by its nature a soundbite medium.

I think Graham Linehan got it right

Subsitute 'black' for 'white' and it's easier to see why it's offensive.

Im quite disapointed at her attempt to explain this, again on twitter and not making an apperance today to open the lines of debate and explain what she did mean, I think she has bailed out with her explination. Im agreeing with indieskies now with the lack of abbotts justification now.

Of her 140 characters she only needed 34 to be offensive. Think we've seen a glimpse of the way the real Diane thinks, unfortuately.

This is not first time she had said something like this.
Some comments last year (maybe one before) about how West Indian mothers will go to the wall for their children. Taken into context as part of the what she was discussing, it was a direct implication that white mothers would not.

And now this.

She is smug and in my opinion not too bright (don't give a shit that she's Oxbridge educated).

She thinks she can do no wrong and I don't have much time for her.

If a white MP had said something similar, they would be sacked or very heavily disciplined at the very least.

Her explanation is very poor too.

If she had said:
The dominant identity group in a society, whoever they may be, love to play "divide and rule" with the other minor social groups

then I would have no truck with it; it would just be a statement of sociological fact. Twitter really doesn't lend itself to that nuance, hence she just called the dominant group by who they actually are in Britain.

That's a pathetic excuse. Making an offensive remark about any racial group is unacceptable. Doesn't matter whether that racial group is in the majority or not. We now know that Abbot has a dim view of white people and I don't think that's a particular good thing to admit for a politican.

I have always been of the opinion that Abbot is racist and bigoted. Nothing she has ever said has changed that opinion. I find her irritating in the extreme.

There are a lot of things that you think but just don't say. It was racist but when you really look at what she has said it is hard to disagree with her but is probably not for the public domain.

Quite a few people I know have met her, on more than one occasion and in a working context, and on the basis of what they said about her these comments do not suprise me at all.

Why is her comment any different to that ild bnp favourat "blacks just love to play the race card"

It was indeed a racist comment.

But then dianne Abbott really is about as ignorant and self absorbed as they come.
I would hope that this latest proof of her stupidity would lead to het dissapearing back up her own arsehole so that I no longer have to see or hear her ridiculous rantings. But I doubt it.

Racism works both ways, why should she escape punishment? Iz it coz she is black?