Long thread:

The story and treatment of Marieha Hussain is one of the most alarming, ludicrous and unbelievable I’ve ever witnessed. It is a story of eye-wateringly blatant state racism, media complicity in that racism, police manipulation and cultural incompetence. And it is a story that must now end with the resignation of Stephen Parkinson, the current Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). His position is untenable as he has turned the @CPSUK into a free-speech threatening laughing stock. 2🧵

On the 11th of November 2023 Marieha Hussain went on a pro-Palestinian march with her husband, young children and other family members. She carried the now-famous British free speech symbol, the coconut placard. Not seen however, is that on the other side of the placard is a cartoon of Suella Braverman as Cruella de Vil (The Hundred and One Dalmatians cartoon villain). It has the slogan “Cruella Braverman”. The satirical intent was always obvious. Her poster elicited nothing but laughter and fanfare throughout the day.

At one point during the rally, an unidentified male voice shouted out “Can I take a picture of your placard”. Marieha happily obliged and held up the "Cruella Braverman" side of the poster. The man then asked her for the other side of the placard, to wit she happily turned the placard around to reveal the Braverman/Sunak coconuts image. The man then took a picture of Marieha with the coconut image.

We still don’t know who took the picture, however, the picture swiftly ended up on the Twitter account of Harry’s Place, described in court (by Marieha’s barrister) as a “secretive political blog headquartered in Washington DC that has a particular interest in opposing any criticism of the Israeli state”.

Harry’s Place published the picture on Twitter, they labelled it racist and tagged in the Met Police. Within six minutes of Harry’s Place publishing the picture, the Met Police (via "Senior Media and Communications Manager" Chris Humphrys – who said in court that he knew Harry's Place was an "anonymous political blog”) responded. Not long after (and while Marieha was still on the march) they issued the life-destroying tweet below – which quickly racked up over 4 million views on Twitter. It decimated Marieha’s life, ensured she lost her job, opened her up to enormous racist abuse and led to the media harassment of both her and her parents.

Thread on one of the most egregious episodes of the "Emoji Trials": Marieha Mohsin Hussain.

In November 2023 Marieha Hussain went on a peace in Palestine march with a clearly satirical placard depicting the PM and then Home Secretary as coconuts. The placard was a mild intra-communal version of the political satire you’d see in British newspapers on any given day. Nevertheless, responding to clearly offence-hungry politically motivated social media outrage - not the law - the @metpoliceuk: 1. Shared Marieha's image to their 1.3m followers (within minutes and while she was still on the march) indicating that she may have committed a crime. They also conflated Marieha’s placard with that of a woman carrying a Swastika-themed placard. This facilitated Marieha’s sacking from her job.

Imagine thinking it is intelligent & authoritative to separate, say, Nigerians and Jamaicans (both established Black communities in the UK). And then lumping, say, Nigerians & Somalis together into a group, even though only one group is established. Colonial-level analysis.

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1773452501754290248

Of course, Tony Sewell cannot put the plight of African-Caribbean people in historical context, he would have to speak truth to racism if he did. That would be bad for business. So in one breath he makes an implicitly pro-reparations argument and then makes an explicit anti-reparations argument in the next.

Anyway, as opposed to naming the elephant in the room, Sewell chalks performance discrepancies to “single-parent households”…which itself has a dark historical backdrop that he dares not name.

I spent the last three days in court witnessing a brilliant and compassionate young Black man be dragged through the system for using a racoon emoji during an exchange (on Chris Kaba's killing) with a hard right wing Black Tory.

Not murder, assault or rape but an Emoji Trial. The young man lost jobs, his house was raided, was held in a cell for 10 hours, placed in a police car, interviewed under caution, searched, had his electronic communication devices seized, arrested, charged. All over the word 'coons' (from one Black person to another) and 🦝.

The Daily Mail's racism laundering process is now public knowledge. Huge revelation.

They are not alone in this. Goes further than media. Much of the high level political diversity of recent years was/is racism laundering.

H/T: @I_amMukhtar.

https://twitter.com/nelsabbey/status/1698031809404056054

This is not standard practice. Penning racist articles and finding a Black person to be the face of it is extremely unethical.

https://twitter.com/Dominiquetaegon/status/1698373073823543800

Lionel Shriver's piece on reparations is as sloppy and racist as you'd expect:

“I wouldn’t hold present-day Nigerians liable for selling their countrymen into slavery, either.”

Like much of the rest of the article, this is white supremacist propaganda.

archive.vn/ARay3 “Nigeria” like “Africa” or “Black people” is not a monolith. It's a complex white supremacist (colonial) construct consisting of hundreds of ethnic groups. Many/most of them resisted and went to war with each other over slavery.

I expand on this here: politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

Had the delight of joining @VanessaOnAir on her new @TalkTV show to discuss the accession of Liz Truss and her new cabinet.

In this clip, we discuss symbolism vs the substance of the diversity of the cabinet. In this clip, Vanessa and I discuss the effect Margaret Thatcher had on women (or lack thereof) in comparison to the concerns about the appointment of ethnic minority culture warriors such as Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman.