This week the media has been full of race issues; Soarez and Liverpool, Stephen Lawrence and now Diane Abbot and her tweets. We celebrate with the Lawrence Family, not just that they are finally getting justice for their son, but their campaign has highlighted massive areas where racism is inherrent. Norris and Dobson have been given long sentances with their racist nature and culture being ousted in the process, whilst Liverpool spend their time defending their player, whilst is has been proven that he continually abused Evra based on his race – what mixed messages are being presented (I wonder if Norris and Dobson were Liverpool fans).

Now Diane Abbot is in trouble for criticising the use of the term ‘black communities’, Abbot tweeted:

‘White people love playing ‘divide & rule’ We should not play their game” in response to criticism of the term “black community leaders.

Whilst I’m not a fan of Diane Abbot, I tend to agree with what she says; it’s important in society to look at the implications of what is not being said. The term black community instantly idenetifies a group of people that are seperate to the rest of the community. This has been an age old battle within the civil rights movement in America in the early 1900’s; Booker T Washington was always subserviant and cooperative to white people (whilst secretly funding other plights) as he didn’t want to upset ‘the ruling classes’, whereas WEB Dubois criticised Washington for his non confrontational discourse. DuBois advocated separate but equal, like five finger on one hand, part of the whole but separate.

He rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta Compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work meekly and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on civil rights and increased political representation, which he felt would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite which he dubbed the talented tenth.

With all politics it’s about taking a pragmatic approach as the end result is what matters. You get used to reading certain papers, watching certain channels and dependant on the language used can have you up in arms or agreeing with everything that they say. If you have ever seen any BNP literature, they are very careful with what they write as not to expose their real views. It’s all just slieght of hand. I think Diane Abbot was just trying to take the blinkers of people’s eyes.