#I'm more frustrated by the obvious antisemitism. deny it all you want but it SO is because you dont know at all what you're talking about

[autistrix]

I didn't leave the server willingly. Hawk accused me of being pro-genocide, he wouldn't take no for answer, and he decided he needs to "protect" the server from me, in his words. I havent been super pursuing the conversation because (1) i have a job, i am very tired when i get home (2) this is a kangaroo court, he has already decided I'm guilty. if he is accusing me in the first place, then the bridge is already burning. my dms on tumblr and discord remain open, I'll edit my pinned post later

[ladymazzy]

@ukfrislandembassy this is an interesting insight, but I think it becomes more complex when you consider the history and dynamics of cities like London, and the toxicity of the construct of race

London has an incredibly rich tradition of GRT culture which I think actually permeates working class London identity alongside 'English' (and alongside many other contributing cultures including Jewish, Afro-Caribbean, African, South Asian, East Asian, Greek and Turkish...). In places like Tottenham & Edmonton (where I grew up) and Hackney (Abbott's constituency), GRT influences and experiences are evident wherever you care to look. For me, this just adds to my sense of bewilderment and dismay at the contents of Abbott's letter given that she's one of the few explicitly anti-racist MPs out there. To say she should have known better is an understatement

(Abbott was responding to an opinion piece by Tomiwa Owolade where he chose to downplay anti-Black racism rather than just highlight the need to acknowledge anti-GRT and antisemitic racism. I can only guess that it went all kinds of wrong [omitting the entire Holocaust ffs!] because she was so frustrated by the apparent erasure - which would be bitterly ironic if true. As an MP who, as the UK's first Black woman MP, has received more abuse than all the other women MPs combined and, amongst other things, works for a constituency where school children - a disproportionately high number of whom have been Black - have been strip-searched by police, and residents have had their citizenship wrongly denied and have been deported to countries they left as babies, Owolade's piece was pretty insulting. As was her response)

Off the top of my head, I definitely remember a shady looking pub in Wood Green with a bold as brass 'no Travellers' sign on the front (and, for what it's worth, I never got the vibe that I'd be welcome there either... it eventually closed down because 'white flight' has an impact on racist pubs' takings I guess). There was a Travellers' site down the road from where I lived in Tottenham, and to my knowlege it's still there. Many of my white peers at school had Romani heritage, which is probably pretty typical of most parts of London. The Cockney dialect borrows heavily from the Romani language (again, just as Cockney has always borrowed from every community that settles there, which is how it has evolved into Multicultural London English). There's a whole neighbourhood in South London called G* Hill named for the Romani community that had settled there around the 17thC (I've censored the term here despite using the acronym 'GRT', because I'm fully aware of its offensiveness for many, regardless of its use as a self-identifier by many UK Romani - and it's certainly not for me as a Black woman to be saying if it's cool or not. But it's definitely very telling that it still has that name)

A key thing here is *visibility*. London in particular is incredibly diverse and populous which has an impact on visibility. Anyone who is deemed 'other' will be way more visible in a rural community. In London though, most people from the GRT communities will likely (but not always) immediately be read as simply 'white', which, for better or worse will have a significant impact on their visibility and superficial perceptions of their experiences. It might be useful if you want to keep a low profile and just live your life in peace without being scrutinised, but will be a disaster if you want to have your heritage and experiences acknowledged and respected.

Other UK minorities, particularly Black and Asian people, are hypervisible - which is a pain if you just want to live your life in peace without being scrutinised. I would like to be able to say that hypervisibility at least means our heritages and experiences are acknowledged and respected, but it should be patently obvious that's not true for us either. If it were true, no-one would be using 'woke' as a pejorative, and that's just for starters

@lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers, as far as the police, crime and sentencing bill is concerned, from what I know Diane Abbott was firmly against it, and the Socialist Campaign Group (of which she is a part) explicitly called out section 4 for it's discriminatory impact on the GRT community. Again, this would suggest that Abbott should have known a lot better than that letter (regardless of Centrist Keith's equivocations...)

I think it's reasonable and important to understand the disctinct forms of discrimination that all marginalised people can experience in order to address the issues properly. There are particular forms of discrimination and hate that GRT communities experience that Black people do not, there are particular forms of discrimination and hate that Jewish communities experience that the GRT does not etc. This is not the same as saying this or that group does not experience racism, or this or that form of discrimination matters more than another. It's not a zero sum game, and ultimately all of it exists because of the white supremacist capitalist status quo which invented this cursed racial hierarchy in the first place

I want to write a little bit about structural racism in the UK against Travellers, and the Labour Party's complicity with this because I think it might help explain why that letter from Diane Abbott disturbed me so much.

Romani and Irish Travellers in the UK experience discrimination all the time. They'll be barred from shops and pubs, they experience discrimination from the police, they experience racial abuse. If they are living a nomadic lifestyle, they struggle to access schools and hospitals. Educational outcomes for Romani students are the worst in England by a large margin, followed by Irish Travellers. They're also over represented in the prison population compared to the proportion of the general population they make up.

Irish Travellers are generally "white/white passing" although they are a distinct ethnic group from the settled Irish. However, not all Romani people are "white passing" and some see themselves as PoC. Both groups have fought for a long time to be recognised officially as ethnic minorities and to gain legal protections.

In 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts act was passed. This is the "bill" that was the focus of the "kill the bill" protests, and lots was written about the restrictions it placed on protestors. However, part 4 of the bill related to unauthorised encampments. Although the law does not specifically name any ethnic groups, it effectively criminalises the traditional nomadic traveller lifestyle.

It creates an offence of residing in a vehicle (this would include a caravan) on land without permission. It allows the police to seize the vehicle, even prior to the offence being committed. It allows the police to impose fines and prison sentences.

Although the bill itself does not name any particular ethnic group, much of the advice and communication around the bill does. This is because it's clearly designed to target certain groups who live a traditional nomadic lifestyle. It's designed to make them homeless, and force them into housing- essentially forced assimilation. The British have been trying to do this to Romani and Irish Travellers for centuries.

This law was passed by the Tories, but one thing people don't know is that Starmer whipped the Labour party against most sections of the bill. He allowed a free vote on Section 4- the section that specifically related to "unauthorised encampments".

Around the same time, in 2021, his party produced local election leaflets which mentioned "traveller incursions"- eventually they admitted the leaflets were racist and destroyed them. It's not the first time, and won't be the last, that Labour use racism against these groups to win points with the electorate.

In this context, Abbott is part of a system which is systematically discriminating against Romani and Irish Travellers- yes, Labour aren't the party in power, but they are a part of the system enabling this to happen.

So, I read her letter in that context. I read her minimisation of the struggles of the most marginalised ethnic groups in our society in that context (I don't want to make this "who has things worst" but it's nonetheless true). At best, she's throwing them under the bus to make a point she thinks will be popular with her supporters. At worst, she's actively affirming her own party's racist policies.

"It doesn't matter if we criminalise their way of life, because it's not "real" racism".

She is someone seen to be on the left, seen to be anti-racist, and she's effectively saying this prejudice is acceptable.