Abbot warns Afro-Caribbeans: "They will come for you"

Writing in The Voice,  Diane Abbot has a go at the government and the media for using the war on terror to whip up fear of Muslims and non-white people:

Fear and hatred is being whipped up against Muslims generally. Ever since 9/11 we have had too much press coverage that suggests that all Muslims are terrorists. Newspapers’ front pages plastered with big pictures of menacing, non-white men in beards are designed to scare the ordinary British person out of their wits and carry the subliminal message that all Muslims are a threat.

What this media coverage plays on is fear of the outsider and the “foreigner" and, above all, the oldest racial stereotype in the book: the idea that non-white men are violent.

Then she whips up fear of the police among black people:

And I have no doubt that some of the “anti-terrorist" legislation that Tony Blair is trying to push through parliament, including 90-day detention without trial and arbitrary house arrest, will end up being used on black and Asian people generally.

So beware of Tony Blair and his “war on terror". If they come for the young Muslim man next door in the morning; they will come for you in the afternoon.

Of course, the whole terrorism scare is a ploy to give the police powers to use against non-white people.  And there was me thinking that it had something to do with people planting bombs on the tube. 

Update: Bloggers 4 Labour has noticed that Abbot is spelt with one t,  while the MP's name is spelt with two.  He  reckons this could be a scam by The Voice to claim that the author is an "unemployed agitator from West Norwood and in no way connected to Diane Abbott, the MP of unimpeachable integrity and moral character."

However, he still reckons that Diane Abbott the MP wrote it:  "I'll continue to work on the basis that this nastiness was perpetrated by one of our own MPs, hard as it is to believe."

Comments

[john b]

"Of course, the whole terrorism scare is a ploy to give the police powers to use against non-white people" - Steve, sarcastically summing up Diane Abbot.

Yup, she is indeed mistaken in holding that view. The police want powers against *all of us*, not just non-white people...

[G. Tingey]

That's why ID cards are going to be soooo useful (for the plods, that is)

[Irene Adler]

Isn't she the socialist MP who sends her kids to private schools while campaigning for an end to private schools (for everybody else, that is)?

Time for Steve to haul out the famous Ben and Chloe essay again!

[Steve]

Irene, Diane Abbott is what I call an "uber-Chloe", one who is so rich that she doesn't need to move out of the city. She can afford to go private for things like education, enabling her to insulate herself from the mean streets around her.

[Dave]

She is rich? I didn't know that, how did she get rich? not from being an MP..

[Steve]

OK Dave, it's an assumption based on the fact that she sends her son to a private school.