Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
GET A GRIP Profile picture
@docrussjackson
Oct 11, 2022 • 26 tweets • 14 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
#THREAD

On 7th October, 2022, news broke that Westminster student union has been accused of “racial segregation” after banning white students from #BlackHistoryMonth.

This thread is about truth, the culture war, the UK's broken news media, & the amplification of hate.
On 7th October, the non-dom billionaire-owned Telegraph broke the story, followed the next day by the same story appearing in the non-dom billionaire-owned Mail.

Both newspapers quoted Dr Neil Thin, a social anthropology lecturer at Edinburgh University.
Dr Neil Thin said it was “tragic” to see a UK university “copying the racial segregationism that we have previously seen in South African & USA education systems”, adding: “It is bitterly ironic to see the rhetoric of ‘safe spaces’ abused to justify racial segregation.”
The Free Speech Union's Toby Young was quoted in the Mail & Telegraph: “You’d think it would be clear to these zealots that you’re not going to reduce racial discrimination by discriminating against people on the basis of their race.” He also wrote a piece in his "Daily Sceptic".
Anti-abortion #TuftonStreet mouthpiece & ERG Tory MP, Sir John Hayes, said he was concerned about “how sinister it is that such ideas can be propagated in a free and open society”, & called for an investigation into any potential discrimination.

On the 8th October, the right-wing Express amplified the story by pretty much copying & pasting the telegraph story word for word, including the same quotes from the same people.
The story went viral, both on & offline, with tens of thousands of hateful (almost invariably anonymous) tweets amplifying the story, denouncing the 'madness' of the 'woke terrorist lefties' for reintroducing dangerous "anti-white" "racial segregation" & introducing apartheid2.0.
By the 8th October, Nigel Farage was claiming Britain now had "apartheid", & by the 10th, many GB "News" presenters were discussing how white students were BANNED from #BlackHistoryMonth emphasising the idea that this would lead to a Britain characterised by "racial segregation".
Pretty much every GB "News" presenter framed the story in the same way, despite recent denials that GB "News" was a "right-wing" channel following the announcement that John Cleese was joining them. LBC joined in, again quoting the same handful of people.
The far-right hate group, 'Save Britain', quoted GB News' "Anglican Deacon Calvin Robinson" (who has opposed #BLM for years): he was “sorry to see [the Westminster Student Union] implementing racial segregation at [the University of Westminster]"

Far-right US "news" site Breitbart: "While the British education system has imported many tenets of the far-left 0n issues surrounding race & gender from the United States, instances of racial segregation have not been a prominent feature of the ‘decolonise the curriculum’ push."
Rather than gathering a range of views from academics the UK's 160+ HE institutions, every "news" publication quoted just ONE academic - Dr Neil Thin, who in 2020 was accused by many of his students of spouting ‘racist & sexist’ comments, becoming a cause célèbre for the Right.
Eventually, the investigation into Thin didn't uphold the complaint made by his students, leaving at least one “bothered by Dr Thin’s complete lack of accountability throughout the process, for the negative impacts he has caused through derogatory marking, teaching, & tutoring.”
Thin was in the news again in July this year, when the University of Edinburgh saw a decrease in cash donations following its renaming of its David Hume Tower because of Hulme's slavery links. Thin called those calling for a name change "censorious idiots" & an "extremist mob".
So after the divisive hateful media furore, what's the truth of the original claim that Westminster University was introducing "racial segregation" & had "banned" white students from attending #BlackHistoryMonth events?

The reality, as you might imagine, is somewhat different...
There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that news stories using divisive culture war rhetoric provoke outrage & produce the demonisation of Others, which are the most shared posts on social media, & thus drive the most clicks, & thus ad revenue & data harvesting/resale.
I've written elsewhere about the culture war; about the discursive demonisation of Others; about the importance of how the framing of issues guides political debate; & about the UK Govt's & national news media's embrace of Steve Bannon's strategy of 'flooding the zone with shit'.
The fact is that the story was triggered (no pun) by just a single email from Westminster Students union, which said *some* events would be reserved for black students in a bid to encourage a space for debate & "honest conversations".

Most events were open to *everyone*.
The manufactured outrage hinges on a principle: whether it is EVER acceptable for some groups, defined in some contexts by largely immutable human characteristics (eg sex, age, or ethnicity), to EVER hold ANY meetings/events that are open only to members of that particular group.
Let's start with an extreme example: would it be acceptable for female rape survivors to have a women-only event/meeting?

We can only speculate, but imho, pretty much everyone in Britain - including every single person objecting to the Westminster situation - would support this.
Some people might object that 'comparing black people to rape survivors is unfair' - a strawman argument. Well OK, how about non-rape victim women holding a women only event? I guess some of the people objecting to the Westminster situation would say this is "sexism against men".
And let's not forget the female Tory councillor who defended the disgraced *men-only* dinner at the Presidents Club & accused the FT of exaggerating the behaviour of its guests, saying on #Vine that “real harassment” took place at women-only functions.

theguardian.com/politics/2018/…
Another example: given that 75% of Tory MPs are male (94% are white btw) how about if a campaign to elect more Tory women into parliament were to hold "women only" events?

Would that be "sexist"? Would that be introducing "sex segregation"? Would that be an example of apartheid?
Because that's exactly what the @Conservatives' Women's Organisation, in conjunction with the Parliament Project & the @Conservatives did in 2020.

Strangely enough, the Mail, Telegraph, GB "News", Breitbart & tens of thousands of largely anonymous @Twitter trolls didn't mind.
Perhaps those objecting to Westminster Uni holding a few events just for black students would also insist that men should be able to attend ALL women-only events: they could offer their views on eg coping with menopause, or share tips on how to avoid lactating through clothes...
Here's another example of the same process from April. Right-wing extremist politicians & "news" media are intent on deflecting from the multiple crises we face after 12 catastrophic years of Tory misrule by focusing on dividing voters on cultural issues.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with GET A GRIP

GET A GRIP Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @docrussjackson

GET A GRIP Profile picture
Sep 15
🧵

Tommy Robinson claimed his protest drew “three million patriots”. The Met Police reported 110,000.

Prof Milad Haghani, an actual world-leading expert on estimating crowd sizes, estimates “about 56,000... However I run the numbers, it’s very difficult to make it to 100,000.” Image
Unlike shameless liar and multiply-convicted violent far-right coke-snorting thug Tommeh, Prof Haghani is a world-leading expert on estimating crowd sizes. He leads geospatial transport planning initiatives, and is an expert in crowd dynamics.

Tommeh is a world-leading grifter. Image
Compulsive shameless liar Tommy Robinson made the laughable claim that his 'Unite (Divide) The Kingdom' rally was “officially the biggest protest in British history.” 🤥

In reality, as only about 56,000 people attended, it struggled to scrape the top TWENTY. 😂 Image
Read 7 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Sep 13
🧵

OK, I'll bite.

The word Fascism isn't 'meaningless'.

To spell out why, we need to unpack both the underlying implication of Andrew Doyle's argument and the reasons why it fails to adequately account for contemporary political dangers. Image
Andrew Doyle asserts that the term "fascism" is misused to the point of recklessness, echoing George Orwell’s 1944 observation that the word had been rendered meaningless. Doyle’s concern is not uncommon—but imho, it’s ultimately misplaced, especially in today’s context.
While it’s true that “fascism” is sometimes deployed rhetorically or hyperbolically (eg by Trump), Doyle’s framing dangerously downplays the genuine resurgence of fascist-adjacent movements across the Western world and undermines the analytical clarity necessary to confront them. Image
Read 23 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Sep 8
🧵

Boris Johnson appears to have had a secret meeting with billionaire Peter Thiel - perhaps the most fanatical of the libertarian Oligarchs and co-founder of the controversial US data firm Palantir, the year before it was given a role at the heart of the UK’s pandemic response. Image
A month after entering No 10, Johnson and his senior adviser Dominic Cummings had a meeting with Thiel, leaked files suggest.

Johnson is now likely to face questions about whether the non-disclosure amounts to a breach of the ministerial code.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/s…
The hour-long afternoon meeting on 28 August 2019 was marked “private” in a log of Johnson’s activities that day and was not subsequently disclosed on the government’s public log of meetings.

Read 12 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Aug 31
🧵

Elon Musk has been amplifying far-right accounts again, including Tommy Robinson, Rupert Lowe, and numerous anonynmous known #disinformation superspreader accounts like 'End Wokeness'.

Let's examine the context for yesterday's march in Richard Tice's constituency, #Skegness. Image
After decades of neglect, Skegness (pop 20K), stands out on key socio-economic markers on national averages: residents are older; whiter; lower full-time employment; higher rates of few/no qualifications; and concentrated deprivation - it's far-more deprived than most of England. Image
History repeatedly teaches us that burdening already struggling communities is a recipe for disaster.

These communities have been crying out for help for DECADES, but successive UK Govts have largely ignored their pleas, and continued to increase inequality, which harms us all. Image
Read 60 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Aug 28
🧵 @Rylan Asylum seekers coming here aren’t technically "illegal." International law (the 1951 Refugee Convention) allows people to seek asylum in any country regardless of how they arrive or how many countries they pass through, as long as they're fleeing persecution or danger.
Allow me to explain why asylum seekers aren’t “illegal”, and how misinformation and nasty demonising and scapegoating rhetoric by certain politicians and media, including news media, has made some British people less welcoming of asylum seeekers.

@Rylan
People fleeing war, torture, or persecution have the legal right to seek asylum.

The 1951 Refugee Convention, which the UK helped write, says anyone escaping danger can apply for asylum in another country no matter how they arrive: claiming asylum isn't a crime.

@Rylan
Read 23 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Aug 27
Farage's illiberal, immoral, & unworkable authoritarian plan involves ripping up human rights laws forged after WWII, which protect British people, & wasting £billions of UK taxpayers' money, giving some of it to corrupt misogynistic totalitarian regimes.
theguardian.com/politics/2025/…Image
Image
Leaving the #ECHR, repealing the Human Rights Act and disapplying international conventions

The UK would be an outlier among European democracies, in the company of only Russia and Belarus, if it were to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Opting out of treaties such as the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the UN Convention against torture and the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention would also be likely to do serious harm to the UK’s international reputation.

It could also undermine current return deals, including with France, and other cooperation agreements on people-smuggling with European nations such as Germany.

The Society of Labour Lawyers said the plan would “in all likelihood preclude further cooperation and law enforcement in dealing with small boats coming from the continent and so increase, rather than reduce, the numbers reaching our shores”. 

Farage said he would legislate to remove the “Hardial Singh” safeguards – a reference to a legal precedent that sets limits on the Home Office’s immigration detention powers – to allow indefinite detention for immigration purposes. This would be highly vulnerable to legal challenge.

Many of the rights protected by the ECHR and the Human Rights Act are rooted in British case law, so judges would still be able to prevent deportations, even without international conventions.

x.com/docrussjackson…
Reform UK’s grotesque far-right mass deportation plan is not just economically and socially illiterate (Britain an ageing population and low birth rate) rely on striking “returns agreements” with countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea and Sudan, offering financial incentives to secure these deals, alongside visa restrictions and potential sanctions on countries that refuse.

These are countries where the Home Office’s risk reports warn of widespread torture and persecution.

It would risk the scenario of making payments to countries such as Iran, whose regime the UK government has accused of plotting terror attacks on British soil.

The Liberal Democrats called the payments “a Taliban tax”, saying the plan would entail sending billions “to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat”. They said: “Not a penny of taxpayers’ money should go to a group so closely linked to terrorist organisations proscribed by the UK.”
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(