Image subsequently changed, but only after first tweets showed Labour’s first black woman MP. Diane Abbott was born in Paddington
The Murdoch Times has publicised an article about Jamaican ‘murderer, rapists and paedophiles – with a picture of Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP.
The article, about abortive Home Office deportations, used Ms Abbott’s picture as it’s ‘featured image’ that would appear on social media shares. She was born in Paddington, London:
The Times subsequently changed its article, which now features no image of Diane Abbott at all, although she is mentioned as a former Shadow Home Secretary who opposes the Tories’ punitive ‘hostile environment’ deportations that have caused immense suffering to black citizens wrongly deported in the ‘Windrush scandal’ and since.
Racism, casual or otherwise, against black women is not a new phenomenon among the press. Last year, the Evening Standard published an article highlighting the BBC confusing two black women MPs – Dawn Butler and Marsha de Cordova – but published a picture of Bell Ribeiro-Addy with Ms de Cordova’s name:
Now we have the Murdoch press linking Diane Abbott’s face to Jamaican murderers, rapists and paedophiles – presumably on the thin grounds that she has opposed the deportation of innocents and of people convicted of minor offences.
Unless, of course, they thought they were actually printing a picture of Bell Ribeiro-Addy – who is also mentioned just as briefly in the article text.
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