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