Diane Abbott and The Grotesque Vilification of Black Women In The UK
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Malcolm X wasn’t high on cheap crack when he said that the most unprotected and disrespected woman in America was the Black woman.
Those words revealed the extraordinary breathtaking perspicacity of the man, who was singularly committed to solving the immense and profoundly complex structural problems confronting Black folks in white society.
And those words remain powerfully true, sixty years since the assassination of our hero.
So why have I written these words?
Diane Abbott.
For those who know nothing about British politics, Diane Abbott was the very first Black woman to be elected to the House of Commons.
She’s the Black British version of Shirley Chisholm.
Ms. Abbott is the rarest of species — a Cambridge graduate — at a time when very few of the British public —Black, White or Brown — attended university.
Her election to parliament to represent the people of Hackney and Stoke Newington (area in which I was born) took place in 1987, alongside other trailblazers such as Paul Boateng, who currently sits in the upper chamber, known as the house of lords, Keith Vaz and the late Bernie Grant, who died in 2000.