Prof Gus John says the diversity being lauded in the Tory leadership contenders was meaningless as their campaigns did not feature the important issues of race and inequality. Plus letters from Robin Richardson and Deirdre Burrell
In his interesting piece, Jonathan Freedland argues that “while class barriers remain as high as ever, the fact that some of the barriers of race and sex are lowering in the party of the establishment is significant” (The next PM may well be from an ethnic minority. That’s a big deal – and a challenge for Labour, 15 July).
That may be so, but significant in what respect? Biological diversity, whether on the axis of race or sex, is meaningless unless it makes a difference to the historically oppressed target groups to which those “diverse” individuals belong. In my Gleaner column from which Freedland quoted, I gave evidence of Sajid Javid’s and Priti Patel’s operation of racist immigration law and practice, and the suffering inflicted upon law-abiding black citizens. “Race traitor” is a cheap and meaningless jibe.
