I think I first read about ‘agency’ when I was thirteen, but it was only when, aged fifteen, I was stopped and searched for the first time, that I really understood what it meant to lose it.
To be stopped is to suffer a relegation from the law-abiding citizenry to the criminal fraternity. You feel acutely and powerfully aware of the eyes of passers-by, people who you will never meet again but who will always remember you as a ‘suspicious character’.
To be stopped is to become briefly and utterly classless; middle-class vowels and a university education, often my passport to better service in a restaurant, speedy reimbursement on a train, or mutual recognition at a party, don’t mean anything when you are being frisked in a public street by someone who in that moment has absolute authority.
To be stopped is to be incarcerated in the open air. The search ends when it ends. I have been searched in quiet streets at the dead of night and in the middle of the day. I can’t tell you which of the two is worse; the quiet dread that you could be there indefinitely, or the feeling that people who would otherwise respect you will permanently hold your face in their minds as an image of ‘the criminal’ to be recalled whenever there is a murder or a robbery on the news.
I don’t know how many times I have been stopped and searched. But I do know that it is an experience that not one of my university friends has ever undergone and is ever likely to undergo, because they are white, and I am not.
But fortunately, it turns out that this means I can say whatever the hell I like about white people apparently, without any fear of reprisal, because I ‘can’t’ be racist, at least according to the vast edifice of Diane Abbott apologia that has been erected on the Internet today.
Those defending Abbott’s ‘divide and rule’ tweet seem to think racism is only wrong because it is the expression of thinking prejudice from the powerful to the powerless. Actually, racism is wrong because it is the expression of prejudice. The language of generalisation is harmful because it is the language of generalisation. It doesn’t matter if you commit a racist act because you are a racist or because it’s just one more thoughtless remark in a political career defined by thoughtless remarks. You’ve still committed a racist act.
I was stopped and searched once (and so far only once). I am white. And I agree with everything in this post.
On reflection the ‘they won’t experience this’ line was intellectually lazy, sorry. Thanks very much for reading and your comments; hope you’re well.
Thank you for this insight; I would have thought it was obvious but then again Diane Abbott is no longer the political force she used to be. And the qualities that gave her the drive to succeed in politics have proved to be her Achilles heel at times. Please stick to the resolution to post more if you can – I think you have much to say that we should be hearing.
Thanks very much taking the time to read this and leaving the comment; I am hopeful that I will blog more this year. Thanks again, S
My brother was searched on a regular basis in the 70′s because although he was white he had long hair and therefore must have been carrying drugs. Your right though prejudice is prejudice whichever way it flows.
Yeah, on a re-read, not happy with that line, on reflection it’s obviously a bit silly. The bigger point, as you say, is that prejudice is prejudice full stop. Thanks very much for taking the time to read and comment!
Well you’ve completely misunderstood why some people are defending Abbott – it looks like you were too concerned with crafting pretty, hyperbolic phrases such as “vast edifice of apologia” and getting your blog post retweeted by known bloggers on the Left rather than actually looking at and analysing the vast array of reasons given by people for dismissing what is basically a manufactured storm over a bit of bad tweeting for the sole purpose of petty political point-scoring.
The next time Boris Johnson calls Blacks ‘picanninies’ and doesn’t apologise, or Starkey generalises about the poisonous influence of all black culture, no doubt you’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Right declaiming the Left’s calls for apologies as PC gone mad or a suffocation of their right to free speech.
Hi Felix, thanks for taking the time to read and to comment. What might be nice would be if you could take the time to actually explain *why* people are defending Diane Abbot, rather than just resort to name calling.
It seems more than a little rich for you to complain about BoJo’s repeated non-apologies and Starkey’s bigoted comments. My position on these outrages is the same as this one; prejudice is bad and there’s no place for it in public life. Yours has changed. Is bigotry just not as problematic when it comes from Team Left?
Felix
I think you have missed the point of the original post. It was highlighting that prejudice when expressed in this way is wrong regardless of where it originates. I wouldn’t defend BoJo or Starkey on the basis of free speech.
I think the fact that Diane Abbott has apologised without too much persuasion is evidence that she understands that what she said was unacceptable. I do think that should be the end of it though.
John
Dear Felix
I retweeted it and I’m about as far from the ‘Left’ as it’s possible to get without wandering around Rome in a brown shirt. And I think Starkey is a racist who should be kept off our screen until he learns to write decent historical prose and that Boris is constructing an Alan Clark-esque persona to appeal to the Tory fogey right in preparation for a leadership run but should still be excoriated for his unpleasant racial attitudes. Unfortunately, that appears to have blown your preconceptions out of the water; apologies to not conforming to the reality you have constructed for yourself. I hope you can forgive me.
My biggest issue with Abbott’s tweet was the laziness of it all: had she simply apologised, said, “I’m sorry, I said something stupid. What I meant to say was x” she’d have come out of the whole sorry mess with a lot more dignity. But by using the phrase ‘white people’ – indulging in what Stephen would call the ‘language of generalisation’ – she immediately falls into the same trap as the skinhead who says, “They’re all the same, ain’t they?” or the middle class dinner party guest who says, “Oh, those chavs, they’re all on the scrounge.”
When you generalise, you cease to talk about reality and start talking about your perception of reality and I, for one, expect better from our elected leaders.
As it was, an important discussion that could have been had was lost because she made the exact same vague, prejudiced generalised comments as Starkey. The same ones you make, incidentally, when you talk about the ‘Left’ or the ‘Right’ as an organised force.
Free speech is not an excuse for laziness.
I am certainly not on the Left of the political spectrum so I think that it’s a little harsh to suggest that Stephen’s intention was to have his piece re-tweeted by ‘known Left bloggers’. I think that everyone who blogs wants to get feedback and has a reason, explicit or otherwise, to blog, twitter, wrtite, disseminate, promulgate, proselytise. I did indeed pick Stepehen’s piece up on John Rentoul’s twitter but I also follow Boris Johnson, David Aaronovitch, Fergal Keane and Toby Young – I like to make my own mind up and so take soundings from all quarters! I replied to Stephen because I think he had a worthwhile personal perspective on the race issue in Britain today. And I would like to think he would continue to write more.
[...] not to say that what Abbott said was not racist – as has been said most eloquently elsewhere, it was – but a valuable chance for a discussion about the fractionalisation of our society [...]
I’m white and I wasn’t offended at all by DA’s tweet- if anything it’s a novelty to me because I’m from a privileged majority who don’t typically have to face this sort of thing.
But it WAS racist; certainly not venemous, but a stupid, ill-thought, slipped-out-the-mouth sort of thing. I count myself as being of the left, but I can’t help but think that a lot of left-wing commentators have played it safe here, rather than stand up for egalitarianism and the progress we’ve made in the last few decades as a heterogeneous culture.
Let’s face it- Abbott has shown her age. It happens. But the likes of Laurie Penny (someone I usually admire), say, shouldn’t be sitting in the same 80′s trenches.
The right, on the other hand, have been the gits I expected them to be.
(Great post, Mr Bush. I’m a first time visitor but I’m sure I’ll visit again.
I agree completely; it’s a comment that reflects age and thoughtlessness. We should be aware that part of building a better world means that we’ll eventually be out of our time, and we shouldn’t unthinkingly defend other lefties who are out of time. Thanks for reading!
Excellent point, well put. I also thought that Ms. Abbott’s defence was a little disingenuous (which at least suggests she saw that it was hard to defend), since she was clearly comparing the phenomenon to nineteenth-century colonialism, rather than discussing the latter topic directly!
Incidentally, Stephen, I believe you would know me, at least by sight: I chaired the super-injunctions forum at LMH that I think you attended in the late spring.
Hi Josh,
Yes, of course I remember you; it was an excellent forum, and the sort of thing you just don’t get to go to out in the real world. What are you doing post-Oxford? (Thanks also for taking the time to read my blog!)
No problem – I’ve had a flick through, and it looks like an excellent blog! I’m looking to find something enjoyable to do for a year or two, perhaps with an eye to doing further study in the US (American politics was really my thing).
I’m terribly sorry but I have no problem with Dianne Abbot’s tweet. White history is a “House of Horrors” in relation to the black man. I am white, educated and from a working-class background and believe you me I know a lot about prejudice, particularly class prejudice. Dianne Abbot was expressing a fundamental truth about white hegemony and I am quite prepared to accept what she has said as it is FACTUALLY TRUE.
Unfortunately your brain seems to have been “addled” by an apparent white, middle-class education. You probably need a good dose of History and Class Politics.
I’ll finish with a quote from a song by UB40:
“I’m a British subject and I’m proud of it but I carry the burden of shame”
But everyone carries a burden of shame. But it’s what we do about it that is important. I also suspect that Stephen probably needs no lessons in history and class politics and that John is showing his own prejudice – just a little n’est pas?
Hey Steve, saw this on Twitter. Absolutely agree, as per. Sorry to hear about the stop and search thing – must have been horrendous for you! I was especially irritated by Abbott’s bullshit excuse that she was taken out of context while talking about colonialism and that she meant “some” white people – she hadn’t been talking about colonialism until that tweet, she was talking about the present day. Apart from anything else, this is hardly the first time that she has given the unambiguous impression that she believes white people to be uniformly oppressive, whether that’s what she really believes or otherwise, which is somewhat problematic for somebody in the frontbench of what has been a serious political party.
[...] that we are obliged to treat Diane Abbott differently, as a talented young blogger, Stephen K Bush, has pointed out; as if black people were somehow incapable of racism. I don’t know how many times I have been [...]
Another book recommendation for you – ‘Harlem is Nowhere- A Journey To The Mecca Of Black America’ by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.
An observation of change and opportunity in this famous region in which conversations and encounters with locals as the author explores this area produce writing that has been compared with that of Ralph Ellison.
I am a psych nurse with no links to publishing industry but really enjoy sharing my literary adventures with others.
My mantra –
“If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem”.