Diane Abbott attack: OTT

There have been literally thousands of the most wretched comments imaginable directed towards Diane Abbott MP over her semantic error during a tweeting conversation two days ago. On numerous occasions she has been described as worse than the killers of Stephen Lawrence. Her crime was to casually and clumsily state that ‘white people always try and divide and rule Black people’. Her mortal error was not to qualify her statement with ‘Some white …’

She apologised for her mistake. A mistake that Diane Abbott will know above all that even within the confines of the tweeting framework, she should not have left herself open to such an attack. But the level of attack showed more about a nation still uncomfortable with confronting the persisting inequalities caused by race.

Here are two pieces written by Jyoti Bhojani and myself.

Both in their own way send out a plea not to lose track of the real issue of ensuring our institutions deliver greater race equality.

Simon Woolley

Forget Diane Abbott's tweet – let's talk about the Stephen Lawrence case

Focusing on the clumsy articulations about race of an otherwise good MP detracts from this week's truly momentous event

If only she'd added the word "some". If only Diane Abbott had begun her tweet with this qualifier, this furore would not have happened, and we might still be talking about the significance of this week's truly momentous event – the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen's Lawrence. Equally important over these last few days was the revived conversation about how our democratic and civic institutions can deliver better equality for everyone, black and white; about how far we've come in regards to tackling race inequality, and how far we have to go. It felt good.

Instead, the last few hours have been dominated by claims that Abbott is a racist, with political opportunists piling in to denounce her.

For me, Abbott's comment – "White people love playing divide and rule" – is more clumsy than notorious. I know Abbott, and I know what she meant. Her tweet clumsily condemns all white people, something she clearly never meant to do. I do accept that, even with a more nuanced explanation, she would still have had her detractors – but it would be a crying shame if we lost this Lawrence moment because, despite her explanation and apology – which she was right to give – people choose to make mischief from what she said.

And she does have a point: there are indeed some who still aim to divide and rule black communities. We need look no further than the English Defence League and the British National party. Both groups have at various times tried to court black and minority ethnic individuals who are non-Muslims. The crude narrative is, "you're not the problem – it's those Muslims". BNP leader Nick Griffin has set great store by the fact that he has a Sikh member in his party.

Furthermore, in an attempt to focus the minds of white extremists – particularly American neo-Nazis, who argued he'd gone soft on Jewish people by focusing on Muslims – he said he didn't want to "miss a great political opportunity to surf our message into the public mind on the back of a media tsunami of 'Islamophobia'".

I hope now that Abbott has apologised we can move back to the real discussion about race and equality that the Stephen Lawrence case initiated; about the institutional practices that can lead people to act in a discriminatory way without even knowing it; about why in so many organisations there are so few senior black staff; about why their black staff don't stay; and why they remain the lowest paid.

I suspect some will want to avoid this debate because it raises issues they find difficult to come to terms with. But to be diverted from this path would be a lost opportunity.

I spent many hours this week with civil rights icon the Rev Jesse Jackson. In one of his speeches he again used the football metaphor as a guide for our institutions: "When we all abide by the same rules, when the goals are clear and it is a level playing field, we can all excel – black and white."

This is the conversation a bold progressive nation needs to have in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence convictions, rather than obsessing over a clumsy articulation by an otherwise good MP. We should not be distracted from building a fitting legacy for Lawrence and his family.

Simon Woolley

Instead of talking about race relations, the media are obsessing over Diane Abbott’s tweet

Yesterday, Doreen Lawrence said, ‘the fact is that racism and racist attacks are still happening in the country’; Reverend Jesse Jackson said the black community in the UK were treated ‘as second class citizens – free but not equal, not adequately protected by the law’.

So it saddens me that in a momentous week, where whilst 18 years too late we saw Gary Dobson and David Norris convicted and sentenced for the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, we are not talking about race relations. Instead the media are obsessing over Diane Abbott’s tweet. She’s clarified and apologised what she meant and we need to get back to addressing the real issues which are affecting Britain’s Black and Minority Ethnic Communities (BME), which are all too easily forgotten.

In education we are constantly stereotyping our young black boys which has led to them being held back, we should note here that Diane Abbott has tried to challenge by holding the annual Black Students Award. It is shameful that in September 2010 less than 1 in 100 students beginning courses at Oxbridge were Black.

Looking at crime and policing, racially motivated crime is still all too common with 40,000 race hate crimes reported in 2010. Unfortunately confidence and trust in the police is low within our communities. In 1993, black men were five times more likes to be stopped that figure has now gone up to 10. In addition, 20% of all deaths in custody the last twelve months have been black men. Within the police force itself, which the McPherson report said was institutionally racist there has been a decrease in Black representation, at the end of the Lawrence enquiry there were four BME individuals at the level of Chief constable or chief officer, today there aren’t any.

As a nation we have still have a chronic lack of BME representation at all levels of society. Just 28 of our 650 MPs are from a BME background. We have also seen the rise of the EDL in recent times who seek to create divisions along racial and religious lines.

These are just some of the areas we should be talking about and addressing head on. As the Labour Party, we should stop shying away from having a nuanced and balanced debate about these issues and many more. Race equality and tackling racism need to be put back on the mainstream political agenda and we as a party should be at the forefront of this.

Jyoti Bhojani