All it took just one word!

I am in doubt that Baroness Warsi knew what she was talking about when she claimed; in her New Stateman’s interview to Mehdi Hasan that the Tories “lost” at least three seats in this May’s elections due to electoral fraud. Just as I am in little doubt that there is an element of electoral fraud in the current system and that some of it happened to take place in a predominately ethnic community.

Any one who knows Sayeeda knows that she is blunt and shoots form the hip; she is a woman who knows her mind and is not scared to speak it. It is those traits that make her stand out from most. But they are also what make her a target for journalist and reporters.

Earlier today, on The Politics Show she was cornered by three journalists, who even though they came from different ends of the political spectrum were united in attacking her and pushing her to specify and qualify her claims. That was their way of objecting to her using the word Asian and using what some would consider a racial remark so flippantly. And although I am not a big fan of journos, I can see clearly where they were coming from.

As a black person, most of the time I have little, almost no need to modify what I say about black people in public, as long as it is not incriminating, or rudely offensive, yet I do. Although an advantage but it can cut both ways, you can’t expect to be at one with everybody yet at the same time allowing yourself a leeway which you deny others. If a word or a phrase is offensive then its use should be considered offensive by everybody regardless.

And that’s what was irking the three journalist today, Baroness Warsi using the word “Asian” while being Asian herself, no one can call her racist, but had that been any of the three reports on the show, who all happened to be white, all hell would have broke lose. Had that remark been made by someone like me, a black African, all hell would have broke lose too.

However, that same statement with the words “inner city seats” inserted in place of “Asian” (most Asians are concentrated in inner cities) would have had very little media attention beyond the customary twenty four hours cycle.

Is this political correctness, maybe, does it make sense to be safe than sorry, definitely!