Diane Abbott MP.... Racist?

[clapham_gull]

whats worse?

dianne abbott and her racist comments or the tory bloke who went to a fancy dress party as hitler?

and he got sacked for it

The Tory MP for sure I'm afraid, although it wasn't him dressed as Hitler it was his friend. I understand he organised the Nazi Knees Up.

Problem is, although it might come across as some Allo Allo style prank over here (or afternoon tea with the Royals) it's illegal in France to dress up as Adolf.

If I walked through a town centre in France or Germany dressed as a Nazi I would expect to get arrested.

Nothing to do with political correctness but everything to with being occupied by the Nazis. We weren't.

 

[Bigbelly]

whats worse?

dianne abbott and her racist comments or the tory bloke who went to a fancy dress party as hitler?

and he got sacked for it

we all know the answer but she'd never get sacked because she's black.

 

[Weststander]

Not a racist, but just can't stop talking without thinking. 'Clever thinking' by whatsisname labour leader to add her to the shadow cabinet.

 

[Race]

The Tory MP for sure I'm afraid, although it wasn't him dressed as Hitler it was his friend. I understand he organised the Nazi Knees Up.

Problem is, although it might come across as some Allo Allo style prank over here (or afternoon tea with the Royals) it's illegal in France to dress up as Adolf.

If I walked through a town centre in France or Germany dressed as a Nazi I would expect to get arrested.

Nothing to do with political correctness but everything to with being occupied by the Nazis. We weren't.

A party spokesman said: "Aidan Burley has behaved in a manner which is OFFENSIVE AND FOOLISH.

"That is why he is being removed from his post as parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Transport.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The Dutch were never in Rwanda.

twas Belgique

The Dutch were in Rwanda during the years of Genocide.

 

[BadFish]

A party spokesman said: "Aidan Burley has behaved in a manner which is OFFENSIVE AND FOOLISH.

"That is why he is being removed from his post as parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Transport.

Politicians behave like this regularly in parliment, maybe we should relieve them all of their positions.

 

[Race]

Politicians behave like this regularly in parliment, maybe we should relieve them all of their positions.

not by saying something that can be deemed as racist they dont

 

[Weststander]

The Dutch were in Rwanda during the years of Genocide.

And in Bosnia @ Srebrenica as Serbs murdered 1,000's in front of them.

 

[clapham_gull]

A party spokesman said: "Aidan Burley has behaved in a manner which is OFFENSIVE AND FOOLISH.

"That is why he is being removed from his post as parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Transport.

I perfectly aware of what happened and I couldn't give a toss what the statement was. Dressing up as a Nazi like that is illegal in France, that's what's important even most of us don't understand the offence it causes.

I basing my opinion on what I think, not what what the party spokesman does. I couldn't care less.

 

[clapham_gull]

we all know the answer but she'd never get sacked because she's black.

Nonsense.

Have I completely imagined it but didn't Baron Taylor of Warwick get imprisoned for fiddling his expenses ?

Hardly as serious but Keith Vaz was also suspended from the House of Commons.

 

[Race]

I perfectly aware of what happened and I couldn't give a toss what the statement was. Dressing up as a Nazi like that is illegal in France, that's what's important even most of us don't understand the offence it causes.

I basing my opinion on what I think, not what what the party spokesman does. I couldn't care less.

but he wasnt sacked because he done something that was deemed illegal in france. he got sacked because it was offensive in a way that could be seen as having a racist element to it. same as abbott

 

[clapham_gull]

but he wasnt sacked because he done something that was deemed illegal in france.

Do you know that.... or are you just going on what the PR department came up with ?

Far be it from me to defend Mrs Abbott, I've clearly made my view know on what she said. But I struggle to equate her words with being associated with a Nazi themed party in a former occupied country. That's really really stupid.

 

[Race]

Do you know that.... or are you just going on what the PR department came up with ?

Far be it from me to defend Mrs Abbott, I've clearly made my view know on what she said. But I struggle to equate her words with being associated with a Nazi themed party in a former occupied country. That's really really stupid.

the PR department? i dont understand that, i was only going by what was reported. i believe that if one should be sacked then so should the other. both as bad as each other

 

[Buzzer]

Do you know that.... or are you just going on what the PR department came up with ?

Far be it from me to defend Mrs Abbott, I've clearly made my view know on what she said. But I struggle to equate her words with being associated with a Nazi themed party in a former occupied country. That's really really stupid.

Stupid maybe but not intentionally racist - and yet you find it more offensive.

 

[clapham_gull]

the PR department? i dont understand that, i was only going by what was reported. i believe that if one should be sacked then so should the other. both as bad as each other

Fair enough but I don't think they are. Organising a Nazi-themed stag party (including toast to Reich and pictures of Nazi salutes) is off the scale

I don't think Abbott is a racist, she just lives in a bubble and doesn't understand the implication of her words. She should probably stand down.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

At its core, racism is the belief that people are inherently superior or inferior because of their membership of a particular race.

Diane Abbott's tweet that 'white people love playing 'divide and rule' We should not play their game #tacticsoldascolonialism' is certainly something that I would count as racial stereotyping, just as 'black guys love fried chicken' or 'Asians love to bootleg western technology' would fall into that category. Although using broad strokes is standard fare with Twitter and its 140 character limit, painting with such a broad brush about any race, or people of a particular ethnicity or skin colour, looks rather unsophisticated and is politically dangerous, as Abbott is very aware of now.

It falls short of being racist, in itself. That's not to say categorically that Diane Abbott is racist or isn't racist. But her tweets in themselves are not racist. For example, there is no sense that she feels black people are inherently superior or white people are inherently inferior.

As with what happened in the Gus Poyet TalkSport interview, it is easy to remove a couple of sentences from their context and have them appear to be much worse than they are in context. In a Twitter conversation with her friend over whether to be open about divisions between black people and the people who claim to represent them, Abbott is saying some people (white folk) have a winning strategy which they will have no qualms about using and black people should not make themselves vulnerable to it. In many ways it can be read as a bit of a backhanded compliment to white people, as shown by her further tweet: "Ethnic communities that show more public solidarity & unity than black people do much better #dontwashdirtylineninpublic." She's trying to get black communities to follow the lead of others and act smarter. Hardly a claim that blacks are superior, is it?

 

[clapham_gull]

Stupid maybe but not intentionally racist - and yet you find it more offensive.

I don't find either offensive. Very little offends me.

The debate was about whether one should be sacked or the other. Probably both. I was simply weighing up the severity of each "offence".

From an English perspective dressing up as a Nazi, well it's just a joke and I haven't suggested it was racist either. Intentionally or not.

The major problem with dressing up as a Nazi in this case was it was done in a country where it is illegal. That's the point.

 

[clapham_gull]

At its core, racism is the belief that people are inherently superior or inferior because of their membership of a particular race.

Diane Abbott's tweet that 'white people love playing 'divide and rule' We should not play their game #tacticsoldascolonialism' is certainly something that I would count as racial stereotyping, just as 'black guys love fried chicken' or 'Asians love to bootleg western technology' would fall into that category. Although using broad strokes is standard fare with Twitter and its 140 character limit, painting with such a broad brush about any race, or people of a particular ethnicity or skin colour, looks rather unsophisticated and is politically dangerous, as Abbott is very aware of now.

It falls short of being racist, in itself. That's not to say categorically that Diane Abbott is racist or isn't racist. But her tweets in themselves are not racist. For example, there is no sense that she feels black people are inherently superior or white people are inherently inferior.

As with what happened in the Gus Poyet TalkSport interview, it is easy to remove a couple of sentences from their context and have them appear to be much worse than they are in context. In a Twitter conversation with her friend over whether to be open about divisions between black people and the people who claim to represent them, Abbott is saying some people (white folk) have a winning strategy which they will have no qualms about using and black people should not make themselves vulnerable to it. In many ways it can be read as a bit of a backhanded compliment to white people, as shown by her further tweet: "Ethnic communities that show more public solidarity & unity than black people do much better #dontwashdirtylineninpublic." She's trying to get black communities to follow the lead of others and act smarter. Hardly a claim that blacks are superior, is it?

Her "tweets" weren't taken out of content, but yes I agree - definitely racial stereotyping. Silly woman. Just goes to show we are all capable of doing it now and then, irrespective of our race.

 

[Captain Sensible]

It all depends in what the context is, with the dressing up as Nazi's stuff.

This is not offensive im my book.

But the Tory MP, it depends in what context they were wearing them. Reports suggested it had a sinister motive behind it but then again since when were newspapers 100% accurate.

Where as what Diane Abbott said, just is racist, full stop.

 

[DerbyGull]

... You post drivel whenever you post anything.

Pot. Kettle. Black.