AIBU to wonder if it was Dianne Abbott who banged on about sending your kids to state schools then smugly tried to defend herself when she sent hers to private schools?

[ssd]

it was a while ago, but I remember how she smugly tried to defend her choice, whilst telling us we should send our kids to the local state school

why is she still getting away with talking crap

I don't care if she is the first black woman in the house of commons, she is playing the black/race/feminist card way too much and she should shut up and go

i've always disliked Abbott.There was I thinking Black racism didn't exist.

The trouble is whatmeworry is that she didn't say 'white colonialists' or 'the white establishment' or any other qualification. She said simply 'white people' play divide and rule. So that's everyone white and therefore, whether it's racist or not, it's an offensive generalisation. If Abbott was an ordinary or uneducated person the 'taken out of context' argument might have held water. But she was a lawyer specialising in racial discrimination cases and she is also an MP - a powerful person in our community - and she should therefore be more careful about what she writes for public consumption.

She and Boris Johnson should probably get together and re-release Elton John's 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word'

Mildly ...until the Stephen Lawrence case some people didn't think that WHITE racism didn't exist......

Sorry , some people thought that there was no such thing as WHITE racism.

I doubt it forehead.

She looks like my (classically northern European Caucasian) MiL. Source of endless amusement to me when I point it out to people who know what both look like and see the recognition dawning.

As an MP she should know better. I cant believe she has not been sacked.

Did she not refer to Cameron and some other guy as "two white school boys"?

She is guilty of enormous stereotyping. Why would she use the above generalization? Why "white"? What has their skin colour got to do with anything?

On the news they say she has been fighting for racial "equality". Her own, more like it. She does not seem to realize that she is racist, and that racism is a two edged sword.

You can't have a country where 50 years ago it was totally acceptable to have signs saying 'No blacks, no Irish' in the windows of pubs and guest hpouses and expect that legislation alone will change it. Like sexism, I think a lot of racism is hidden behind a thin veneer of what people know is considered socially acceptable in 2012. Scratch the surface and the same views are there, using modern language, to be shared when someone utters the immortal phrase, 'It's may not be PC but...'

IMHO, she is an idiot and what she said was idiotic. Far too much discussion of it though.

She twisted the truth, and there is truth in 'white' history of divide and rule.. or just crush and rule. But she didn't say it as historical fact, more as an insult.

I wonder if I were an MP (or not) and I said "Oh black people sell their own kind to whities for gold" on twitter whether I'd be strung up? Probably and rightly so, and if I were an MP I should lose my job for it. Yes there is fact in both statements, historically. But us 'whities' (and that alone is bloody offensive) don't all divide and rule NOW, and neither do black people sell off their own to the slave trade for gold.

I don't usually jump on the racism hysteria badwagon (whichever colour its aimed at) but for someone who is so quick to play her own racist/feminist cards to use such an ignorant, obviously offensive comment beggars belief. If she truly believes her statement (apology or not) then she is racist and has no place in parliament.

She didn't make a faux pa, its wasn't a slip, it wasn't a bad choice of words... it was offensive. It was a dig at people with white skin IN GENERAL. If you spin it round and it was a white person saying the same I suspect most of us would be saying that there's no excuse for it at all, and there should be consequences.

I'm so angry about it, because as a white person I am always aware and slightly paranoid about causing offence to people of other colours and cultures than my own, I'm careful with what I say, and mistakes are made sometimes due to ignorance (not being ignorant, just a general 'not knowing)... I'm half her intelligence or less, haven't specialised in racial discrimination law and certainly wouldn't get away with that behaviour.

So you don't usually get upset about racism, aldiwhore.... but you'll make an exception and get on that bandwagon if it's a black person you think is being racist?

I think one of my issues with what she said is the huge generalisation of "white people..."

My husband and sons are white but DH is North African so where does he and my white British arabic speaking half arab muslim children fit into this.

If she had said "divide and rule was a tactic of white colonialism" I would have probably agreed with her.

She didn't say that Elaine

There's a big difference between getting upset about racism and jumping on the hysterical bandwagons...of which there seems to be many. Mostly stirred up by the tabloids.

No, but she will make an exception for someone who is so quick to play her own racist/feminist cards

Oh, playing the playing the racist card argument, are we?

Seems to me everyone jumping on the bash DA bandwagon without bothering to read what she said over a series of tweets - ie In Context - is being far more racist than she has been.

It's not historical. It's current.

I don't even understand what it means to be honest . Divide and rule over what?

Explanation: when a thick celebrity says something obviously stupid, I may tut, roll my eyes and think 'knobhead'. Whether that person is black white or sky blue pink. I don't bay for their blood, they need to be told and then people need to move on. Once is a mistake, twice stupid, any more and if they won't learn I couldn't give a stuff whether the hysterics get their way.

When an educated person, who's career has centred around racial equality, says something so profoundly offensive, it offends me, whether they are black white or sky blue pink. They should know better. They DO know better. Their act is worse. That's a bandwagon I'm happy to jump on, but it doesn't happen as often as the first.

Clearer?

She'd be the first person to shout had someone made an equally offensive remark, she should be the LAST person to cause it.

As a white person I can safely say that I don't divide and rule, thank you very much. Its rude to say so. How would you react if I said that all black people love jerk chicken? I can name 5 who don't at least, therefore the comment is as incorrect as it is offensive.

Racial respect works all ways.

Oh and I always 'get upset' by racism. I don't jump on the racism hysteria bandwagon.

I assume she meant the principle behind unions. When you're an individual you have little chance of being heard by those that have power. When you stand together in solidarity as a group, your voice is much more likely to be heard. You can agree or disagree with it, but it does make sense.

Agree it was a stupid comment. Establishment would have been better.

She's intelligent enough to say what she means without inserting skin colour into the equation.

I need more words than twitter, as I struggle to say exactly what I mean succinctly, therefore I don't do it!

As someone of mixed race I found DAs sweeping generalisation comments an embarrassment.

She should resign....

She'd be the first person to shout had someone made an equally offensive remark, she should be the LAST person to cause it.

Oh absolutely, which is part of the irony and no doubt explains why so many political opponents lined up to have a go.

The double irony is she is right.