Don’t let Diane Abbott’s experience shut down the conversation on racism

Hackney MP Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Labour party for comments about racism. Rt Rev Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon, says we need to talk about how racism impacts different groups, even if Abbott’s words – for which she has since apologised –should have been wiser 

Let’s have the conversation about some of the names we use for discrimination and what they mean. I think we need to name things as they are.

The word ‘racism’ came into being at the time of historic transatlantic slavery, when we started to get these concepts of ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’, which were not there previously. And – though it’s used in many ways now, slavery and colour remain at the heart of what racism describes.