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Friday 10 July 2020

Bianca Williams And Tory Racism

Athlete Bianca Williams, who has represented Team GB, her partner Ricardo dos Santos, who has represented his native Portugal, and their three-month-old son were driving around the Maida Vale area of north-west London recently when they were apprehended by the Met’s finest, allegedly for driving on the wrong side of the road.
Bianca Williams

What followed was captured on video: both dos Santos and Ms Williams were hauled out of their car and handcuffed. The car was searched; nothing illegal was found. Ms Williams was not happy about being stopped for the highly creative offence of Driving A Dark Coloured Mercedes-Benz While Being Black. The cops have now apologised.

As the BBC has reported, “British sprinter Bianca Williams has received an apology from the Met Police after she and her partner were pulled over in their car in a stop-and-search … Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick told a committee of MPs officers had visited Ms Williams to apologise for ‘distress’ caused by the stop”. However, “Ms Williams said police had apologised for the distress but not their actions”.

Given the amount of publicity surrounding the incident, and its sensitivity, one might expect those holding elective office to be informed, and not indulge in clumsy racism. But for one councillor on Merseyside, that thought would have been misplaced: Denise Dutton, who is deputy leader of Sefton Conservatives, went in with both feet.
Cllr Denise Dutton

As the Liverpool Echo has reported, Cllr Dutton decided to conduct a Twitter poll on Ms William’s suitability as a Team GB athlete (and, as Theresa May once put it, I am not making this up): “She asked: ‘Should Bianca Williams now be banned from representing TeamGB at all future events?’ The question was met with shock and consternation from many, who asked what her reasoning was for the suggestion”. There was more.

Cllr Dutton was then the subject of severely adverse comment. But as the Echo notes, she carried right along. “Responding, Cllr Dutton added: ‘If she thinks the UK is so racist why would ppl want to her to represent TeamGB?’ Attempting to defend her comments, she added: ‘I haven't got a racist bone in my body (as anyone who knows me will attest to) but to say the country she represents is racist is just wrong - end of.’

Councillor who does not have a racist bone in her body wants an athlete sacked from Team GB after experiencing what looks very much like racial profiling and calling it out. The Echo added “Hundreds of people criticised the councillor's comments … Several suggested she should resign over them … The councillor now appears to have deleted the comments regarding Ms Williams”. Some Tweeters reported her for hate speech.

As far as is known, the Tories have not so much as reprimanded Cllr Dutton. Figures.
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14 comments:

Jez Box said...

Surprised she didn't tell her to go back to Africa at the same time.

Arnold said...

"I haven't got a racist bone in my body".
Why is it always bones? The brain is all that can be ra ist.

John@leeds said...

Even racists don't have racist bones in their bodies. They must keep mentioning it just as a distraction.

iMatt said...

I wonder if Cllr Dutton would take the same attitude regarding Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi who has exposed and challenged blatant Islamophobia within her own party? Should Ms. Warsi leave the Tory Party as a result?

Anonymous said...

If you were acquainted with the mentality of those who put her in place you wouldn't be in the least surprised.

The aptly named Nuttall of UKIP notoriety is just down the road from her too......

Dr Syn said...

Bones are white,

Anonymous said...

Whatever one thinks of the Councillors remarks, anyone who thinks they constitute hate speech and reported it as such should themselves be investigated for pernicious reporting. This isn't East Germany - not yet

Anonymous said...

"Pernicious reporting".

Sounds like something Orange Face or Bozo would blurt in one of their Newspeak sessions.

RodJ said...

Anonymous @19:29. Nobody in the former GDR would have denounced racist comments by a local politician, and not only because criticising the authorities for any reason was dangerous. The GDR was also quite racist; Vietnamese workers and African students were kept apart from the general public whose attitudes often hadn't changed much from the (brief and nasty) German attempt to build an overseas empire and the (briefer but much nastier) Nazi regime.
And if the councillor Dutton isn't racist why make insinuations about Bianca William's fitness to represent TeamGB?

grim northerner said...

Dis is de autobahn!

Jonathan said...

You should read some of the knuckleheads comments on her timeline, rather demonstrates how far into the Far right Cummings & Bozo have reached..

I won't repeat the comments as some of them are deeply racist and require the universe to be turned upside down to understand the logic of your average Gammon male.

N said...

Grow up. Hateful speech is hateful, and also speech. Thereby hate speech.

Bigots - all the same. Can never take responsibility.

Go and sign some self important open letter or something.

Anonymous said...

Thank you gentlemen, rather proved my point. When will you start dressing up in uniform and start knocking on doors? But say The Polite Force calling, sounds better than Thought Police.

Anonymous said...

@ 12:07.

What IS your point?

You seem a bit confused.