At least one black Liberal Democrat has threatened to resign over a race row, Scrapbook understands. Since they welcomed him back to the fold last week, the party’s group on Reading Borough Council have been doing their best to bury the story of an offensive racial remark by their member Warren Swaine, who suggested MP Chuka Umunna would use his race to excuse himself “for being a muppet”:
Anger that the controversial councillor now refuses to apologise for the outburst has been met with apparent indifference by regional officers and local leader Daisy Benson, who has stonewalled all efforts to raise the issue. And it seems some of her colleagues are far from happy.
A failure to take the matter seriously has left senior black party members “absolutely furious”. Lewisham councillor Duwayne Brooks, best friend of the murdered Stephen Lawrence, is rumoured to be so unhappy that he has suggested he may resign.
Speaking to institutional problems within the party, we have reached the point where the handling is as damaging as the original remark.
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I guess as a skinny white man I don’t really understand how angry he is feeling, he shouldn’t resign tho. In order t prove these narrow-minded idiots wrong.
Dear Michael,
I have been involved in challenging racism and other forms of bigotry, both from within and external of public and other bodies. The price I have paid is nothing compared with Duwayne’s experiences, and as such if he chooses to walk from a Party that desperately needs people such as him, it is their loss and not his.
For too long, it seems to have been the duty of individuals from the groups that are targeted by bigots to join and remain in organisations that treat them with little or no respect, in order to change them. This is ludicrous, for the duty of challenging bigotry is not the responsibility of victims and potential victims alone, it is the responsibility of everyone.
I call upon vast majority of Liberal Democrats, who believe in the true meaning of “Building a fairer Britain”, and do not have a twisted version of what “Fairer” means, to establish a ‘zero tolerance’ to bigotry and drive out of their ranks those people who still hold to an outdated and vicious mindset.
I can now though highlight to everyone Cllr Swaine’s offer as an apology. I will not comment on whether I believe this to be genuine or not, and cannot state where it can be found, but this has come from an irrefutable source within the Liberal Democrat Party.
“I would like to take this opportunity apologise for making derogatory comments during the BBC Question Time programme on the 27th January especially those relating to Chuka Umunna MP. I made a lot of comments that were insulting that night and I regret that.
In respect of one particular tweet, no offense was meant but I absolutely acknowledge that it was recklessly worded and liable to an interpretation that was never intended. For that I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Umunna and to anyone else for any offence caused.
I take the values of the Liberal Democrats very seriously and as someone of mixed heritage myself, I can fully understand why it has upset many people. For that I offer an unreserved apology.”
Much as I hate to defend a “Liberal” “Democrat”, that is probably not a racist tweet.
It is more likely to be a satirical attack on people in the Labour Party (and, to be fair, Lib Dems) who claim criticism of a non-white person is racism (not mentioning any
Vaznames). That was the target of Sasha Baron-Cohen’s catch phrase, and of course is as often a tactic of white politicians as it is of the non-white person allegedly offended, so can hardly be a racist point (most obvious in the US at the moment, where any criticism of the President is said to be racist by certain unbiased reporters, some of whom do not work for the BBC).If this is the case then it was very badly worded, probably written in haste; he should have written something like “I’m waiting for Mr Umunna to say “Is it because I is black” next time he is attacked for being a muppet”.
That would be unusual, eh, a Tweet sent in haste, badly worded?
A name is better the “the Labour guy”, although he appears to be tweeting about question time so party affiliation is more obvious than name. The respect of a title and a name would be a huge help, because racism, in fact all bigotry, is reliant on dehumanising the “other”. In the original tweet it looks like Mr Swaine might be saying Mr Umunna is a muppet because he is black; I don’t think that is the case. Given the source of the phrase (Ali G) and his use of it, I can only assume Mr Swaine was suggesting that Mr Umunna might respond witha race card, wrongly given that Mr Umunna was being attacked for being a muppet not for being black.
Mr Umunna is, of course, a Labour MP so almost certainly is a muppet. That he is a member of a racist party that works hard to keep non-white, non-British people isolated in their own groups, and therefore keep them from advancing is also deplorable, as is the fact he is willing to be associated with the party of Ed Balls and Gordon Brown. But some well-meaning folk get fooled into joining Labour, so that does not mean he is himself nasty.
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