Esther Stanford - Best advert the National Front ever had.

It was my extreme misfortune to see and then hear (on Radio 4’s the Today Program), Esther Stanford talking (read shouting) about how the British government should not only apologise for the slave trade (abolished 200 years ago next year) but should also pay compensation to the descendents of the victims.

You’d have to be some kind of revisionist nutter to try and pretend that the disgusting trade in human beings was anything less than one of the most shameful episodes in human history. I say ‘human history’ because I do not think that white northern Europeans can or should be singled out for the dubious honour of being entirely responsible for the deaths and abuses committed during that period. As the historian who was sitting next to Ms Stanford on Breakfast pointed out, the slave trade would not have been possible without those Africans who were already selling their enemies and fellow countrymen to the Arab traders (who had been operating since the 9th century). This point was refuted by the lawyer, Esther Stanford, who went on to say that a minority of ‘collaborators’ should not be used to damn an entire people. (an irony that must have passed her by, as she was damning the whole of British society by holding it accountable for the 200 year old crime).

I guess the problem I have with Esther is her enormous anger - which she has directed at the white section of our society. I wonder what wrong was done to her to make her so angry at a group of people whose only defining feature is the colour of their skin.

I do not believe that the majority of black people feel that they are owed a debt (either morally of financially) by British people with white skin. I would like to believe that most sensible people who hear her divisive rhetoric would laugh her off as an angry racist nutter, however I think that there are enough disaffected and angry people in this country who will listen to her and agree with her beliefs as to make her a figure with some influence.

She made me feel angry this morning, shouting down reasonable debate on TV and radio - and I’m a left liberal type - what will all those right wing Daily Mail readers ‘think’? Well done Ms Stanford - You have just helped the BNP get another council seat - give yourself a big pat on your back (but be careful not to dislodge that enormous chip…)

Written by exmonkey on November 27th, 2006 with 11 comments.
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Stephen
#1. November 28th, 2006, at 4:44 PM.

I heard her on Radio 4 too. She wasn’t very nice. Make up your own mind

Mandy
#2. November 28th, 2006, at 6:15 PM.

Quite. And another thing - when apologising for something, on my behalf, for which I have no responsibility, I hope that someone can bare in mind the all the ancestors of mine in the Lancashire cotton industry of the time who went on strike in sympathy with the slaves, poor buggers. Of course, poverty wasn’t relative then.

exmonkey
#3. November 28th, 2006, at 10:33 PM.

Just think how much money the government owes you for all that heredity trauma.

Mandy
#4. November 29th, 2006, at 12:09 PM.

Yes. Also Jones is a left -handed welsh man. I ought to get a benefit for that. And the eldest has red hair. O Joy, it might add up to a syndrome. And counselling. My delight has no bounds.

Ross Parker
#5. November 29th, 2006, at 1:18 PM.

I’m not a Daily Mail reader, but I am on the right of British politics. What I think about this vicious woman is pretty similar to what you think, although I shan’t be joining the BNP.

exmonkey
#6. November 29th, 2006, at 1:59 PM.

I used to think I was left wing, right up until the moment when Blair managed to make all of us lefties into totalitarian police state loving fascists…

Whatever your political leanings are though, you have to have a fairly blunt axe in need of grinding to feel anything other than jaw-dropping disbelief and anger when you hear this woman rant.

I am less concerned about

leftists are lurking, ready to pounce, with their demands for compensation

than I am about far-right tossers using people like Esther to hammer yet more nails in the coffin of Britain’s cultural harmony.

And why am I using so many mixed metaphors today?

ditdotdat
#7. November 30th, 2006, at 6:48 PM.

I do think that when we visit places like the Tate Gallery we should tell our kids about the slaves who worked so hard in such terrible conditions to create the fortunes that were spent on them. I was also delighted to see how very irritated the tories were by Blair’s apology.
Slavery hasn’t really gone away though. There are plenty of people all over the world working for virtually nothing. Their working conditions are often little better than slavery and it’s much easier to bang on about the evils of the slave trade than it is to pay a little more for Fairtrade products that alleviate this modern slavery. Just take a look at the people who buy stuff from the Fairtrade aisle at your local supermarket; you’ll notice that they are mostly middle-class and white.

exmonkey
#8. December 1st, 2006, at 10:05 PM.

true, true - she’s still a horrible woman though.

exmonkey
#9. December 8th, 2006, at 7:55 PM.

My response to the now deleted comment purporting to be from a member of the NewZealand national front.
(included here)
I wrote my reply before I saw the email address this racist was using.

Sid Wilson (member of some tin-pot racist organization) wrote:

What the White race hater Esther Stanford has forgotten to mention is that slavery has been historically a normal social condition common to near all nations, races and cultures, whether in benign form, or cruel.

I suggest that slavery in Britain was a more benign form than that which was practiced in Africa.

I also suggest that Ms. Stanford owes a considerable debt to White civilised society for introducing and enforcing for the first time in the history of the world the total outlawing and abolishment of slavery wherever it could be found.

Come on Esther Stanford, face the facts; you owe my people for your current freedom and prosperity, and the time has now come for you to show us your gratitude and pay-up don’t you think?

I think people who use capital letters on the word ‘White’ may have a few issues and frankly I have problems with anyone anyone who takes a stance which includes the phrase “My people” - black or white. We are all human beings - end of discussion.

The historical prevalence of slavery in a wide variety of cultures through history does not make it in any way acceptable.

Whilst I would defend your right to hold your views, I don’t agree with your comments and certainly don’t consider myself to be part of the ‘us‘ you seem to be speaking for.

Nkusotera
#10. March 26th, 2007, at 11:03 AM.

When one talks about slavery one should understand that while the act was passed some 200 years ago slavery did not stop then and when it did it was replaced by colonialism which had a similar effect on the african people. The zealous civilised west dividing the continent of africa for its natural resources in the name of spreading civilisation and christianity. This form of slavery and apparthied continued until 1994 when south africa finally became indepenedent.
I do not think lobbyist like Ms Stanford and those of african ancestry who share the same anger and sometimes hatred of the dehumanising act of slave trade and its twin of colonialism have no point. The legacy of these two continues today and the psychology that promoted it still continues unto this day.
I am not supprused myself when i hear the west talk about the two world wars with anger or utter disdain at the Nazi and what they stand for. It is unfair to ask an aggreaved people to shut up and stick on with it, to forget the past and look at the future. It is quite unrealistic to do so. Isn’t it?

exmonkey
#11. March 26th, 2007, at 2:37 PM.

I would not for one moment suggest that there is no point to answer.

My issue is with Ms Stanford in particular, who I believe is an angry divisive individual who has no interest in moving forward as a planet of equal ‘human beings’, and would rather spout her own form of racism to anyone who’ll listen.