The Islamophobia and Racism of Frances Barber
This is a piece that I feel I needed to write to ‘get something off my chest’ or to speak my truth. A good Jewish friend of mine wrote a long piece on what he felt was the weaponisation of antisemitism by some elements of the Jewish community including some well-known British celebrities to (he felt wrongly) demonise and vilify Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
I have had an online presence for some years, and I have to say to date I never witnessed anything like the response I saw to his article. It clearly struck a powerful chord and a good few weeks later it was still being retweeted. My friends twitter following went up from a few hundred to thousands. It was obvious there were many in the Labour movement and on the left that were desperate for Jewish voices to challenge the ‘Corbyn is an anti-Semite’ narrative that had been widely propagated.
Inevitably the subjects of the piece-the likes of Rachel Riley and actress Tracey Oberman-got wind of it as did their followers. Tracy Oberman then threatened my friend with legal action on Twitter. He didn’t take kindly to her threat and followed up with another long and strongly evidenced piece-which detailed how Tracy and Rachel, amongst others, had been dog-piling, harassing and slandering a 16-year-old Labour activist with mental health issues.This article also went viral. The reaction to both pieces was nothing short of amazing.
At this point, all hell broke loose; threats of legal action, accusations and counter-accusations, bile, bitterness and a twitter war mirroring in some ways the one that was going on between centrists and Corbynites in the Labour party. Noting the horrible slander against my friend, I entered the fray to defend his honour; as I know him to be a person of the utmost integrity, kindness, a committed socialist and proud of his Jewish heritage.
I engaged in several debates in what I felt was good faith with many people including Tracey Oberman and one occasion for a good couple of hours with the actress Frances Barber-who was clearly in their ‘camp’. Although we disagreed for much of this Frances was civil, but then almost out of nowhere and much to my jaw-dropping surprise she racially abused me:
Now let me just provide some context here. I didn’t abuse or provoke Frances in any way; she doesn’t know me, she has never met me, hell she doesn’t even know what I look like (as I don’t have a picture on my twitter profile). Based on my name alone she is urging me to be ‘thrilled with your ISIS destruction’ and accuses me of ‘hating Britain’. If this isn’t Islamophobic abuse and tropes; I’m not sure what is. Note the irony here; she or at least those she is defending are the ones who loudly proclaim that Corbyn is an anti-Semite; i.e. a racist.
As I was upset and dismayed at the behaviour of a high-profile public figure, I retweeted her comments to my small number of followers. There were demands for Frances to apologise. Had she done so I might have let the matter rest and moved on but instead of apologising she doubled down:
If that wasn’t enough, her hate and ignorance towards Muslims appears to be so strong; she didn’t even feel she had done anything wrong (!):
Alas, on digging deeper, I discovered that she has previous. Muslim journalist and commentator Mo Ansar told me that she had also abused him too in a similar vein (although he provided no further context). Discovering this I raised it with TellMAMA; an organisation that monitors Anti-Muslim hate. They said they would follow up but didn’t.
There is more;. Here she relates a story where apparently ‘a Sharia uber driver’ admonishes what she is wearing. Is the reference to ‘Sharia’ not somewhat presumptuous and stereotypical? Remember we only have her account of this incident. Given a clear pattern what, one might ask, was her real issue with the driver? Either way, whatever the truth of the story due to her high profile and the story going public it is most likely that an Uber driver lost his job.
But alas it doesn’t stop there or just with Muslims. As this write up shows she is on record calling Dianne Abbot a ‘hapless creature’. Last I checked Abbot received approximately 45% (i.e. nearly half) of all abuse directed at female parliamentarians; why? because she is a black woman. Not only are the words ‘hapless creature’ dehumanising but remember Barber claims to be a Labour voter yet here she is defending a Tory while abusing a black Labour politician. So, what one might ask is Barber’s real issue with Dianne Abbot?
I could go on, but my purpose in writing this piece is simple: it is about accountability. Wealth and fame are not a licence to do as you please, say what you like, abuse who you want or exercise brazen hypocrisy.
