The UK Labour Party has suspended Diane Abbott as an MP over a row about a letter she wrote to the Observer newspaper on racism.
The letter appeared to compare the prejudice faced by Jewish people to that faced by people with red hair, and sought to set apart “prejudice” against Irish people and Travellers from the “racism” experienced by black people.
A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party completely condemns these comments, which are deeply offensive and wrong. The chief whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott, pending an investigation.”
Ms Abbott has already tweeted to say she withdraws the remarks, saying: “I wish to wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them. The errors arose in an initial draft being sent. But there is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused.
“Racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers and many others. Once again, I would like to apologise publicly for the remarks and any distress caused as a result of them.”
In the letter, published in the Observer and on the website today, Ms Abbott had written: “Tomiwa Owolade [a contributing writer at the New Statesman] claims that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from ‘racism’. They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable. 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.”
Her comments have provoked a furious response, in particular from the Jewish community, which has have pointed out the racism inherent in millenniums of anti-Semitism culminating in the Holocaust.
Ms Abbot appeared to suggest that Irish people have over the centuries been exposed only to prejudice, not racism, though she did not define the difference.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines racism as “prejudice, discrimination or antagonism by an individual, community or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalised”.
It is true that white Irish people did not have to sit at the back of the bus, unlike black people in the Deep South of America. Nor were Irish people subjected to slavery, despite what some white supremacists in the United States have claimed.
Since the 1990s, some campaigners have suggested that white Irish were sent to the Americas by the British government in the 17th century and were therefore the first slaves.
The suggestion was therefore made that the Irish had overcome historical wrongs that had been perpetuated against them and that black people needed to move on from the legacy of slavery.
Historians have pointed out there is world of difference between being an indentured servant, as many Irish people were in the New World in the 17th century, and slavery. Indentured Irish servants, who were often convicts, had to work for nothing for up to seven years, but they were then granted their freedom.
The system was harsh and unfair, but it was not the same as slavery. A slave was the property of his or her owner, as were successive generations.
It could be argued that Irish indentured servants, who were first sent to the Caribbean by Oliver Cromwell, were the victims of a notorious anti-Irish racist, but it is not the same as the centuries-long Atlantic slave trade.
Irish people undoubtedly experienced racism in the US in the 19th century. No Irish Need Apply (NINA) signs were common, especially in New England. The Irish were regarded by many nativists as feckless and untrusty papists. They were depicted in cartoon as simian, a prejudice inherited from the Victorians, yet by the end of the 19th century the Irish had overcome many of the prejudices against them. As the Black Lives Matter movement shows, racism against African-Americans remains a huge issue in the US.
Ms Abbot’s original letter was provoked by an article written by Tomiwa Owolade in the Guardian on April 15th. Mr Owolade commented on the Evidence for Equality National Survey in the UK about racism. He said the survey demonstrated that being white did not make you immune to racism. The groups that experienced racism the most in the UK were gypsy and Irish Traveller people (60 per cent) followed by Jews (55 per cent).
Some 40 per cent of white Irish people experienced racism in their lives in the UK, a figure Mr Owolade described as “remarkable” as it was more than British-Asian people, black African or Chinese people living in the UK.
He concluded: “Morally speaking, racism is a black-and-white issue. But when it comes to how it manifests itself, it is multidimensional. The most comprehensive survey on racial inequality for nearly 30 years needs to be examined comprehensively.” – Additional reporting: Guardian
