Everyone spare a thought for Laura Trott, Oxford-educated blonde lady with an MBE who as of 2019 is the Tory MP for middle-class City commuter heaven Sevenoaks, and is married to a parntner at PwC, one of the biggest accounting firms in the world.
As if the world weren't already stacked against her, poor Trott was invited to appear on BBC Politics Live yesterday, alongside Labour MP Dawn Butler. Just IMAGINE how marginalised she must feel!
At least, that's the only logical explanation for her bizarre response to Butler pointing out racism.
Speaking about how the Labour party can win over voters, Butler said:
We don't have to go on the Conservative narrative, which is often racist and...
Before Butler can so much as finish her sentence, Trott starts shaking her head and repeating "No, no, no, no!" over and over again which, to be fair, is a reasonable response to racism. But it turns out her issue isn't actually with the racism existing, but rather with the fact that it's being brought up.
Apparently, she finds it "extremely offensive" that Butler used the words "Conservative" and "racist" in the same sentence.
One wonders why she's not equally personally offended by the fact that she works for a man who described black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”, but there you go.
When asked to offer an example of racism within the Conservative Party, Butler calmly responds: "Your prime minister."
At this point, Trott gets even more upset, saying that calling out Boris Johnson's racism is "outrageous" and "wrong". (It's neither.)
Butler, more poised than ever, throws the question back at Trott, saying: "Do you think he's never said anything racist?" Obviously, Trott is unwilling to respond, but (white) journalist Nick Ferrari jumps in to save the day, calling Johnson's remarks an "unfortunate choice of words" but "not racist".
@DawnButlerBrent Look how calm black women have to be so that they are not looked at as the angry black woman. Even… https://t.co/iyv9eNUK3F— 🇰🇳🇯🇲Daran🇯🇲🇰🇳 (@🇰🇳🇯🇲Daran🇯🇲🇰🇳) 1583395872
When Butler reasonably brings up the aforementioned racist comments, Trott's response is to huff and puff in irritation.
Alexa, show me white fragility at its most disturbing.
Butler – who was the only person of colour on the panel – tweeted the clip this morning, and it has since been viewed almost half a million times.
Sorry to break the news to you. Boris Johnson is racist. https://t.co/UPE0Ixyhro— Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙 (@Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙) 1583395602
People were understandably frustrated at Trott's attitude.
@DawnButlerBrent Jesus Christ. What does someone have to do to be racist if saying Muslim women look like letter bo… https://t.co/m14N3pUOUT— Toni Hargis - Providing words for women (@Toni Hargis - Providing words for women) 1583405450
@DawnButlerBrent @PhillWatson1970 I am a white person, obv from photo. I don't think I get to judge what isn't raci… https://t.co/w3A4KrNvPN— Sarah Calvert🇬🇧🇮🇹 (@Sarah Calvert🇬🇧🇮🇹) 1583396389
@DawnButlerBrent Two white people insisting to Dawn that Boris Johnson is not racist and she's just being supes rud… https://t.co/aUcowdZwDd— Sooz Kempner (@Sooz Kempner) 1583397139
Watch Laura Trott, MP for Sevenoaks, gaslight Dawn Butler on the issue of racism. It is clear from his many writing… https://t.co/Xf5H0K8u2v— Snigdha Sparple (@Snigdha Sparple) 1583403633
Trott has yet to respond but we can only assume her boss is pretty happy with her performance.