Our Guest Reflection this month comes from our very own Andra Alexander. She shares some important thoughts on the original piece written by Guilaine Kinouani: Diana Abbott, Black women, Justice, which you can still freely access here.
Trans Atlantic Slavery/colonialism gave Europeans access to black women’s bodies. Africans were treated like chattel, dehumanised and degraded in brutal violent ways, on an industrial scale. For centuries. Imprisoned in African ports along the coastline of the continent, women and girls were subjected to sexual violence even before boarding the slaveships.
Kinouani (2021)’s childhood memory comes four hundred years later. We are horrified by the scene she describes. By the nature of its deep misogynoir violence against a young child and her mother, by a white neighbour, with murderous intent in or around Paris. In London, less than 20 years later, the sibling who witnessed the violent racist assaults on her sister and mother seeks redress against a white neighbour’s contemptible aggression.
When I first read this account of the racial hate campaign by the white neighbours, in London, I accepted the neighbour’s admission, that her son had been leaving rubbish on the doorstep.
Reading the extract again, I suspect it was the actions of the white mother. She would possibly have been a teenager when Diane Abbott’s parents migrated to the UK. This elderly neighbour may have been aware of the “No Black’s No Irish No Dogs” signs in her neighbourhood and why these signs were put there. These notices the Windrush Generation frequently encountered, were posted on front doors of houses to rent, upon arrival to the ‘Mother Country’.
Did this hostile climate in the 1950’s shape and inform this neighbour’s actions towards a young black woman neighbour? Had this hostility been firmly cemented in her mind? If not, how did it come to the point of her son feeling he had the licence to harass and denigrate a black female neighbour? Were her white tears for her son, testament to her complicity in his racist action? Or were her tears an act of self-defence? Stemming from fear? A preemptive attempt to deflect from the potential public shame, had the police become involved and prosecution been recommended? A consequence she would have brought upon herself.
Diane Abbott has campaigned her entire political life for anti-racism and improved equalities within British society. It comes from a place of positioning herself firmly within the African diaspora. Abbott’s anti-racism conviction, reflects her Caribbean heritage. A descendent of enslaved Africans, she is acutely aware of what her ancestors endured and the harsh intergenerational journey for survival.
Part of this route towards liberating themselves from slavery in Jamaica encompasses uprisings, rebellion, fighting oppression. Jamaican Maroons fought for their own settlements/state within Jamaica, which was guaranteed because Maroons were instrumental in helping the British banish the Spanish from Jamaica.
What stems from this collective white psyche? The white terror employed when they seek the public crucifixion of Diane Abbott again and again? The televised lynching of Diane Abbott is a reminder of the way the bodies of African women have been hung posthumously, exposed to the elements, as a warning for black people to stay in their lane, to not rebel. Yet Diane Abbott rebels.
She was vocal in her objection to Tony Blair’s stance on the Iraq war. Diane Abbott is forthright in calling out racism. In addressing intergenerational trauma, Diane Abbott seeks justice for past crimes against humanity and the legacy of racism she is continuously exposed to. People wonder how can she be still standing, how does she find the strength to fight back?
“Sometimes the wounds we seek to repair are not ours alone”(Kinouani, 2024)
Diane Abbott stands tall and defiant. Does she stand on the shoulders of Maroons who succeeded in their guerilla warfare against British colonial forces, going on to sign a treaty which gave Maroons freedom and protection in a slavery colony? It was a part victory whilst many were still enslaved in Jamaica. So whilst Diane Abbott has been a trailblazing black MP, she also states that her fight goes on and beyond her own peak in political success. Does she draw strength from this legacy, knowing;
“…justice seeks those to carry out its work, until it is done.”(Kinouani, 2024)
Black women know what it is to stand tall in the face of abuse. We know where society wishes to place us, why we cannot capitulate to such oppression. Black women are resolute in their support for Diane Abbott as are her multi-cultural constituents. Black women will not abandon Diane Abbott. We recognise she is not the embodiment of political perfection, but a living breathing black woman with a trailblazing career. A champion of fighting against injustices, refusing to tow the party line on memorable occasions. We afford her dignity and respect she deserves, placing errors in rightful contexts, not in an hysterical echo chamber the media is inclined to push for.
After standing on the steps of Hackney Council building to deliver her somewhat grateful, humble speech to her large crown of supporters, residents who not only got her elected but kept her as MP for almost 40 years Diane Abbott gave her first interview since the Hester comments about her were made public.
In her Channel 4 interview with Simeon Brown Diane Abbott responded to questions about what she would do next, she replied
“I not goin’ a place! I not goin’ a place!” (Diane Abbott, 2024)
Reverting to patois, her face was a picture of resoluteness. Defiance. We knew Diane Abbott’s spirit was not broken.
We also saw it in an expression on her face as she looked at Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s disgraceful treatment of her in the House, we all knew what Dianne was thinking and feeling in that moment. The ancestors seemed to speak through her, outrage. Her mother who came to the UK to nurse and was denied equal access to professional status afforded to white nurses, ensured her daughter grasped educational opportunities from grammar school to Cambridge University…eventually to the Parliament.
“Sometimes, I say, we seek through our actions the dignity our mothers were deprived of. Sometimes the wounds we seek to repair are not ours alone.” (Kinouani, 2024)
The direction of those seeking to destroy Diane Abbott and those who fight for her liberty and equality are like tectonic plates. They cannot coexist without friction. Thus we continue to see earthquakes that shift in public opinion. When we are confronted with the malicious levels of violence orchestrated against Diane Abbott.
Andra Alexander
Community Development Strategic Lead
Race Reflections
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