Is Diane Abbott right that only Black people experience racism and other ethnic groups experience prejudice?

[IwantToRetire]

Diane Abbott has been suspended as a Labour MP pending an investigation into a letter she wrote about racism to the Observer, the party has said.

The politician said "many types of white people with points of difference" can experience prejudice, in a letter published on Sunday.

But they are not subject to racism "all their lives", she said.

She later tweeted to say she was withdrawing her remarks and apologised "for any anguish caused".

Labour said the comments were "deeply offensive and wrong".

Suspending the whip means Ms Abbott will not be allowed to represent Labour in the House of Commons, where she will now sit as an independent MP.

In the letter, she wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people "undoubtedly experience prejudice", which she said is "similar to racism".

She continued: "It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

"But they are not all their lives subject to racism.

"In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.

"In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote.

"And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships."

She had been responding to a comment piece in the Guardian questioning the view that racism "only affects people of colour".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65365978

Nah she just reveals her own startling lack of knowledge, once again.

There must be a synagogue in her North London constituency.

My strong expectation is that if she were to ask the rabbi there, regardless of whether it is reform, orthodox or something else, and he would be able to tell some quite chilling tales of threats, fear, and...well ...racism.

It's not a game of Top Trumps, whose discrimination is worse, though is it? And Dianne Abbott should know this.

All discrimination matters, and in the end, diminishes each and every one of us.

To attempt to apply some sort of hierarchy to discrimination should be beneath her. It wasnt, she was wrong, the whips been removed. End of.

She compared Jews to red heads.

She is wrong. Racism is more complex than what she is saying.

Racism is where you are treated unfavourably due to your perceived race, Jewish, romany and Irish travellers are all classed as races under British equality legislation therefore also suffer racism, her comments are ignorant at best.

Her lack of recognition of the Holocaust (in which travellers were murdered as well as Jews) is staggering.

If she'd just talked about "passing" in modern society, I could have had some sympathy with her position, but it's entirely right that she's lost the whip based on her letter.

Comparing the anti semitism that Jewish people face, to the prejudice redheads face is mind blowing stupid. I'm sure the racism faced by black people is different to other people's experiences but she completely dismisses and disregards the impact anti semitism has.

The Holocaust genocide of Jewish people wasn’t different “types of white people” being prejudiced against each other just like how people with red hair may be teased a bit.

Imagine how Ms Abbot would have felt if a white politician in Africa had commented that the Tutsi had only experienced “prejudice” from the Hutu in Rwanda because they’re “different types of black people.”

Technically there are only 3 ‘races’ so Caucasians being prejudiced about other Caucasians isn’t technically racism.

Also, people look visibly different at first glance if they are black among Caucasians so they will be vulnerable to racism based on that first glance, it’s difference from prejudice rooted in information about a person’s ethnicity which you can’t know by just looking.

I can’t believe a so called intelligent person could make those comments. The red hair comment is just astonishing.

She deserves to have the whip removed.

I used to enjoy listening to her when she appeared on that weekly politics discussion programme with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo. (Sorry can’t remember the name) what the heck has happened to her?!

I'm a redhead, I've faced far more abuse about this than I'd like to describe. It's also seen as acceptable to a lot of people.

I've never considered it anything like the abuse people face for being Jewish, or black, or even Irish. I'm staggered by her ignorance of the history of abuse others face.

“Technically there are only 3 ‘races’ so Caucasians being prejudiced about other Caucasians isn’t technically racism.”

There was never any scientific or “technical” consensus on the number of races.

She is ignorant. Not saying she hasn't been unfairly targeted due to her race and sex - the amount of abuse she gets is phenomenal - but she really should know better.

Please expand. I thought the only point of contention was whether Aboriginal Australians would qualify as a fourth.

Apart from the issue itself, to try and say that wasn't what she meant to say, as the draft version of the letter got sent by mistake, is really bad.

Because even if it was the draft, it said what she must have been thinking, even if she might have wanted to change a few words here and there.

Also, I think in some horrible way a lot of people who are racist probably think that way as well. ie they dont accept Black people as having the same rights because they are Black, but dislike and dont want other groups of people with a shared heritage that isn't theirs, because they dont respect their cultures.

Stupid woman has forgotten that there are more than two races, not just black and white.

OP you say Diane Abbott has been suspended as an MP. Has she? I heard she's had the whip withdrawn but thought she was still MP.

She really is stupid

Some Caucasians are black e.g. people in Ethiopia and Somalia. Caucasian refers to bone structure, not colour.

She has had the whip removed and therefore is suspended as a Labour MP. She can still stand as an independent

Caucasians also include Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs, etc.

No. The article she was responding to is well worth reading https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/15/racism-in-britain-is-not-a-black-and-white-issue-it-is-far-more-complicated

I think it’s undeniably true that black and brown people experience a particular type of prejudice that Jews/Irish/ Romani don’t. But she shouldn’t have written the article in the way she did (maybe it was a 1st draft ). Comparing historical events was foolish for a start as obviously it’s going to seem as if she was minimising the holocaust by drawing a comparison to slavery. Really sorry to see her go in this way though. As a woman who has experienced the most awful racist abuse.