Diane Abbott 'white people' tweet causes Twitter race row

AS THE DUST settles on the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, a new race row has blown up involving a tweet from black Labour politician Diane Abbott in the aftermath of the verdict.
 
In the message posted on Twitter yesterday the Hackney MP declared: "White people love playing 'divide & rule'. We should not play their game."
 
The remark has prompted outrage and accusations of racism from some quarters. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was even dragged into the row and called her comment "stupid and crass" while the Labour party distanced itself from her remarks, saying it was wrong to make sweeping generalisations.
 
Political blogger Guido Fawkes was one who took her to task, writing: "At a time when the media is having a long overdue conversation about racism, Abbott is refusing to see that there is anything wrong with slamming an entire group of people based on the colour of their skin."
 
Daily Telegraph blogger Toby Young joined in. "Abbott was being racist," he raged. "She was attributing a characteristic – loving to play divide and rule – to a race – white people – and it's plainly an unattractive quality, i.e. intended to distinguish the race in question as morally inferior to the people they're guilty of oppressing."
 
Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi weighed into the twitter storm created by Abbott's comments. He wrote: "A healthy society should not tolerate any form of racism. DAbbott should apologise and resign or EdM must sack her."
 
Abbott herself sought to calm the furore, claiming her comment had been taken out of context, and that she was actually talking about European colonialism.
 
She made it during a Twitter conversation with freelance journalist Bim Adewunmi after the sentencing of Norris and Dobson on Wednesday. Adewumni said she was annoyed by constant references to a single "black community". That prompted Abbott's remark about white people.
 
Unsurprisingly Twitter immediately fractured on political lines. Abbott's opponents went on the attack but her defenders fought back as her comment was retweeted hundreds of times.
 
Other observers, like Bigshirtlescol, made light of the situation. He wrote: "Diane Abbott is typical... Coming over here, stealing our racism." ·