13 March 2024 , 18:11
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There’s a long list of words I could use to describe Tory donor Frank Hester after his comments about Diane Abbott. But it would not be polite of me to use them. Even if I apologise afterwards.
They wouldn’t begin to explain how I feel as not just a young woman, but a young Black woman. The attack on Diane Abbott was an attack on all Black women for just… existing.
I hate to write this but us Black women have had to bear misogynistic and racist attacks for as long as I’m sure my grandma would be able to remember. And before. It is more than exhausting, it’s heart-breaking. Recently, TV presenter Zeze Millz said on Celebrity Big Brother: “Black women have to have thick skin,” and as much as that’s true I really despise that for us.
I despise that I’m growing up in a world where receiving violent, threatening, racist and sexist attacks is just a part of being a Black Woman. I despise that we’re forced to have our guard up just because we exist and have to turn the other cheek, rise above it and be the bigger person.
Hester meeting King Charles (David Hill <davidhillphoto@btinternet.com>)
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott at a Labour Party rally in Hastings (PA)Kemi Badenoch said forgiveness is important, and I despise that too. Why is it that Black Women must always be the ones to forgive and express love when it hasn’t been given to us? Hester did not even apologise for his racist and violent comments, instead just apologising for being “rude.” How can anyone forgive after such a half hearted apology?
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Many of us exist and work in white spaces that can be hostile to us and make us feel they would prefer it if we didn’t make a lot of noise and our presence was invisible. The Conservative party celebrates the most diverse Cabinet ever but they have shown time and time again they do not even try to empathise with the problems ethnic minorities experience.
UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch (PA)I’m not surprised they would continue taking money from Hester. The Conservative Party has zero integrity and this just reinforces it. For the world, this is today’s news story which will blow over. But for us Black women this is our reality, a world of abuse where we have to turn the other cheek, and rise above every comment, small or large, joking or seriously.
Diane Abbott needs protection, the utter violence in his words being sickening, and deserves a proper apology. The comments should now provoke a national conversation.
This is not a Black women problem, but a problem for the whole nation. It is bigger than me. It is bigger than Diane. We should all be collectively angry, not wait until a Black MP speaks to condemn his action, and barely so even then. Right is right and racism in any form is wrong.