There has been much talk, and indeed action, of late regarding an improving cultural awareness of the plight/circumstances/experience of certain members of our communities. This is very good and something the residents of Americana-UK Towers would support wholeheartedly. Now given the demographic of those residents its probably not something that most would have direct lived experience of. Couple that with the fact that many are not able to take the knee (since they would have difficulty resuming a standing position) and that we don’t really do statues (except for that nice one of The Editor in the entrance hall) we are still able to express our solidarity with our BAME brothers and sisters (an odd epithet which we’re not sure flies in, y’know, Africa or Asia). In that regard we take a brief look at an inspirational figure to people of all communities.
This week we were reminded that it marks the thirty-third anniversary of the election to The Houses of Parliament of Diane Julie Abbott. She was the first black female to be elected to parliament and remains there now. It’s fair to say that she divides opinion (possibly because she has the temerity to be both black and a woman?) as can be evidenced by the fact that she received almost half of the abusive tweets aimed at women MPs in the 2017 election campaign and ten times more than any other MP (source: Amnesty International). If you are annoying people that much we’d say that she has to be doing something right. Her father was a welder and her mother a nurse. She graduated with a history degree from Cambridge. She represents the constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington and has an ‘absolute majority’ (58.4% of the vote). She is Type 2 diabetic. She sits on the Home Affairs select committee and has been Shadow Public Health Minister, Shadow Health Minister and Shadow Home Secretary.
The utterly disproportionate sexism and racism she has faced means that, to some, she is a dangerous figure. Good. Keep them scared.
No replies to this nonsense ?
My reply: Hurrah for Diane! A role model and a tireless campaigner for justice. Why exactly do you not think she should not be celebrated?