That doctored picture of Corbyn doesn't erase black history. Wow.
If black and South African people say it does, or that they're upset or offended by it, who are you or Riley to tell them otherwise?
As I said earlier, nobody cared about the image until it was used to prove Corbyn's antiracist credentials. That's all I am going to say. You can all go back to slagging off Rachel Riley now.
It was a quasi known about photo (hence why it was chosen) but no, no one
really cared about the image of Jeremy Corbyn protesting Apartheid, until Rachel Riley wore a T-shirt that for some reason photoshopped the Apartheid context out and replaced it with a made up sentence calling him a racist, in order to centre a blonde haired, blue eyed, attractive Western woman as the victim, who despite the undoubted terrible online abuse she's faced, has still likely significantly less of a grasp on actual, systemic, institutional, day-to-day racism than even most Jewish people, let alone black Africans.
But even then, the whole kerfuffle could
still likely have been avoided if once confronted with the genuine first hand offence many people took, she had magnanimously apologised, or at the very least done one of those half assed apologies that acknowledged it's offence, but insisted the point was right anyway... And yet instead, she decided to stubbornly double down on it, using Daily Mail, Telegraph and other right wing think pieces as justification for why Corbyn really hated South Africa, or something, which didn't
remotely address the actual problematic nature of the photoshop!
I can completely understand why the fiercely entrenched anti-Corbyn lot feel like they're having to aggressively fight their way out of an ever decreasing corner. But trust me, you're on the wrong side of this one. When the largest demographic on your side are middle aged middle class white women with cats in their avatar, you're almost never in the right.
This thread by a (admittedly lefty) Jewish lecturer explains it much better than I can...
Riley and Obermann have been terrible figure heads for the anti-Corbyn movement IMO. They’ve allowed swathes of the left to dismiss genuine criticisms and real concerns by being self propellingly over-fanatical. Not to mention the frankly terrible optics of a pair of rich blonde media luvvies managing to aggressively center themselves in an argument about systematic racial discrimination.
Amazing.
