I have a question for supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. It’s quite a simple one, but there will be harder follow-up questions. Let’s start with the simple one…
Is Nigel Farage a racist?
I believe you’d struggle to find him saying something that’s overtly and unequivocally racist and, indeed, you’d find many example of him denying being a racist. There is, however, a certain amount of circumstantial evidence that he’s racist. Let’s just run through some of it and, just for fun, I’m going to slip on my devil’s advocate hat and argue that it proves nothing.
Farage sang Hitler-youth songs at school – This is a baseless smear, without a shred of evidence to support it.
He supported Tommy ‘Founder of the EDL’ Robinson – Nigel is a life-long supporter of free-speech and defended Mr Robinson on those grounds. It doesn’t mean he agrees with everything he says.
And he supports Donald Trump – So? The Queen’s met Donald Trump, does that mean she’s a racist as well?
He spoke at a rally for a far-right political group in Germany – Nigel is a politician who believes in speaking to people right across the political spectrum, and he is saddened that narrow-minded people, interested only in speaking to their own echo-chamber, would use his willingness to engage others in debate against him.
How about the time he posed in front of that poster with all the migrants on – Nige only glanced at the poster before the shoot, and utterly condemns any racist connotations it might have (although the artist who created it said it’s not racist, so that’s OK)
We could do this all day, but are you convinced? Do you still think Farage is a racist? Yes? OK, it’s time for the difficult questions.
First of all, if you can spot this is all bluff when it’s applied to Nigel Farage, why the hell can’t you spot the same when it’s applied to Jeremy Corbyn? Why this huge gap in your political senses?
How about a hypothetical question; if you were black or a Muslim, living in Britain, and Farage was leading a political party polling within a few points either way of the government, and was pushing for a snap general election then how would you feel? Safe? Comfortable?
And suppose further that if you cast any doubt on those deflections that I just pulled out of my arse – perhaps said that Farage was well aware of what the poster said, and fully supported it, or that he spoke to a far-right rally because he’s fully aligned with their interests, or that he supports Trump because Trump represents the pinnacle of his aspiration – that if you voiced any of that on-line then hundreds of people would pile on you, throw racial stereotypes at you, insult you, accuse you of disloyalty to your country, tell you that if you didn’t support Farage it was because you wanted more Tory government, accused you of playing the race card…and if it was all approvingly shared by senior figures in Farage’s party, then how would you feel?
You know how you’d feel. You know how the people affected would feel. That’s why you’d do everything to stop Farage ever being in that position.
And yet, when it’s Corbyn, you time after time accept the weak deflections. You believe that case after case of being on the side of Antisemites can each be explained away on their own, and refuse to see them as part of a larger picture. You give Corbyn extraordinary leeway, that you’d (rightly) never afford Farage. Which means that the last question, for you to ask yourself, is the hardest one of all.
Why?
Excel Pope 
Question : “What’s Gold and has two Arseholes Answer : Trump and Farage in a Trump Tower lift .. Well done I do believe you just won this year’s Edinburgh Festival Comedy Perrier Award.
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OK, I’ll raise my hand in the air and say “I am confused as to what is anti-Semitic about all the anti-Semitic comments/remarks that have been (or supposed to have been) made.
This may just be my ignorance showing, but I can not see the connection between “Rivers of blood” and “they don’t get irony”.
I’d appreciate some explanation of why some of the comments are considered racist/anti-Semitic.
If I say that I disagree with how Israel deals with the Palestinians, am I anti-Semitic ?
Please note, I am *not* defending anyone here, I just don’t understand how the remarks are being interpreted.
Examples and explanations please ? (Privately if you wish)
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Pages and pages have been written on this topic by authors, Jewish and non-Jewish, over the past weeks. I’d advise you to read some of them.
But, in a nutshell, it’s the splitting of the world into Us and Them. If Corbyn had said that oriental people have no sense of humour or that black people don’t like jokes then you’d see immediately that they were racist. Yet, when it comes to Jewish people, the left have the blind spot that I referred to.
Nobody is saying that not liking what the Israeli government does is Antisemitic. Complain about it all you like. Just don’t hold all Jewish people responsible for what the Israeli government does, don’t hold Israel to a higher standard than any other country and don’t compare them with Nazis and you’re on the right side of the IHRA definition. It’s not rocket science.
That said, do consider this: there are a lot of people who *really* care about Palestinians being killed by Israel, who have absolutely nothing to say about Palestinians killed by Assad, just like there are a lot of people who support Farage who *really* care about crime…when it’s being committed by Muslims. Watch out for those who use indefensible acts as cover for their own indefensible stance, they are tempting you down a rabbit hole that leads to really dark places.
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But here is where there is a problem. He didn’t say Jewish people don’t get (English) irony, he said Zionists. That (to me) is like saying Catholics don’t get irony. And that would not be seen as racist.
Zionist (to me) does not equal Jew. As Catholic does not equal Irish 🙂
There may be reams and reams of stuff written, but mostly what I have read says “blah blah blah was a racist comment”, but no explanation of why it was racist.
It may be that I can be condemned for not recognizing racism when I see it, but I am not the only person that is confused by this.
There are some many things that get construed as racism these days, it gets a bit confusing. Who would have thought we cant say gypo/pikey etc any more without upsetting someone ?
All I am asking for is some prime examples of what was said, or not said, that made it racism.
For example, I don’t understand why leaving a statement out of the Labour definition of antisemitism was seen as racist (as per Hodge).
There is loads written about it, but (to me) it still does not make sense.
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