The fight for equality is a constant battle. We need to respect each other’s experiences and fears,otherwise we’re doomed to be more divided‘I’d like to vote for you,” a party member said to me when I was standing to be selected as a parliamentary candidate, and “but I don’t know whether Newcastle is alert for a black MP. I don’t want us to lose the seat because the BNP exploits the fact we beget a black candidate.”I thought of that exchange this week on the publication of a report showing that ethnic minority candidates suffer an “electoral penalty” in constituencies with many white voters. I also thought about it last week after my New Statesman article on Labour’s leadership contest in which I said that,in preventing two of the few ethnic minority women MPs from doing their jobs for two months because he wouldn’t clarify their roles, Jeremy Corbyn was not consistent with the claim some invent for him of being the only anti-racist in the Westminster Village. Related: Minority ethnic candidates suffer 'electoral penalty' in white regions Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com