Gary Younge
@garyyounge
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Sociology Professor University of Manchester. Journalist. Author. Broadcaster. Type Media Fellow. Insta garyyounge. Order Dispatches @ https://t.co/Ok9JUSOG2m
Joined May 2010
Covering the Mandela & Obama elections, Katrina, #BLM, guns, knives, riots & statues. Drinking with Maya Angelou in her limo, talking politics with Stormzy on his couch & seeing Archbishop Desmond Tutu nod off mid-interview. It's all there. pre-order@
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The brassneck. She only dedicated her last years to fighting injustice because you treated her unjustly. I'm sure she had better plans for her sixties than fighting deportation from her own country.
Deeply saddened by the passing of Paulette Wilson who dedicated her last years to highlight the terrible injustices faced by the #Windrush generation. Together we must continue on her mission to right the wrongs.
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Martin Luther King in the season premier of Game of Thrones (For those not fully up to speed with the crass ignorance of our government here's an explainer.
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My 7-year-old daughter says she prefers the Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the Gene Wilder one. I have failed as a parent. No amount of homeschool can fix this.
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My mum had epilepsy and died when I was 19. I had free school meals and a full grant for university. I’m voting Labour because I wouldn’t be where I am without the NHS or the welfare state and I'd like to pay my share so others can have the kind of chances I had. #ToriesOut.
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I trust the teachers, who take care of our kids, so much more than the Tories, who had to be shamed into feeding our kids when they are hungry.
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So the bottom line is, the richest person in parliament is set to become prime minister and force the poorest people in the country, who are already struggling, to pay the price for his party's mistakes. Because all they care about is the bottom line. #EnoughisEnough.
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@BorisJohnson this is my daughter, all dressed up, celebrating her birthday, with her mates, on zoom. She’s 8 and felt less entitled, acted more responsibly and exercised more self control than you. You’re literally less impressive than an 8 year old
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Look, we’ve all been there. Show up for a meeting at work, having been asked to bring booze, only to find hundreds of people there getting pissed up, just to figure out, 25 minutes later, that you’re actually at a party in your own garden.
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What is all this talk about Black Friday. All Fridays Matter!.
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People celebrating a return to normal should understand that ‘normal’ is what got us here.
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It’s as though they think we won’t notice we’re dying in disproportionate numbers if they don’t tell us.
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ATTENTION NEWS EDITORS & CAPTION WRITERS: I’m the one in red. @stormzy is in black. Neither of us are @DavidLammy @DawnButlerBrent or Steve McQueen
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The outrageous treatment of @BBCNaga exemplifies a media that wants Black faces but not black experiences. That ultimately fails both as an effort in diversity - they want to look different and act that same - and journalism - she's been reprimanded for telling the truth. Shame.
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I hate the fact that I have to produce id to vote. Between 2019 and 2013 there were just 11 convictions and 4 cautions for voter fraud. It's not a problem. Yet here we are - demanding proof the young and poor are less likely to have. It's Windrush at the polls.
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First "grab them by the pussy" Then get rid of their reproductive rights. The Oval office: the world's most powerful locker room.
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So if you came to the country as a child and sold class A drugs you could be deported by the person you sold them to, who also came to the country as a child. Seems fair.
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"Those who claim the manifesto will wreck the economy must consider who, ultimately, this economy is for. When the fifth-richest country in the world cannot feed its children, house its working poor or treat its sick, its economy is already wrecked."
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This is what a culture war looks like. Where are those freedom of speech advocates when you need them?
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"The Guardian was my first full time job. Leaving after 26 years will be a wrench. I won't be giving up journalism altogether. But teaching and researching at Manchester will provide a welcome shift of emphasis."
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I expected the Tories to be this mendacious, elitist and corrupt. I genuinely did not expect them to be this incompetent.
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Hey @realDonaldTrump . This is what classy looks like
I stand with the City of Orlando against hate and bigotry. My thoughts are with all the victims of this horrific attack #lovewins.
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"People say “we won the war”, even if they didn’t fight and weren’t born. They say “we won the World Cup”, even if they didn’t play. But when you mention slavery, they say: “ It wasn't me. I wasn’t alive.” This contradiction is clearly unsustainable."
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The man who bought and sold human beings for profit is put on a pedestal. The man who removes his likeness from that pedestal arrested. Justice in black and white.
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British foreign policy: invite the guy on the left to tea with the Queen. Keep the kid on the right out of the country at all costs.
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Eton, Bullingdon, Oxbridge, Westminster. There is a group of people who have struggled to integrate into British society and fuelled the far right. They're not migrants.
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"Imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it." My last column for The Guardian.
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“Sunak speaks of ‘hurt and anger’ at daughters having to hear Reform activist’s racist slur”.Imagine how they’ll feel when they hear what his main financial backer said about Diane Abbott! And that their dad’s still taking his money.
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The next time someone asks me why I have a chip on my shoulder,I can say, with all sincerity: “Because there may well be an Oscar-nominated actor out there who wants to kill me, so I have to be alert at all times.”
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I'm 51 and it's my 1st GQ cover. What a joy it was to meet @stormzy - so smart, grounded and generous.
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If Jean Charles Menezes were alive he’d tell you why that’s a bad idea. But he’s not. Because they shot him dead before he could them he wasn’t a terrorist.
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Bravo @DawnButlerBrent We live in a world with racism but apparently no racists, where to point racism out is clearly more offensive to some than racism itself.
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When I see Boris Johnson's response to @paulasheriff 's intervention I'm reminded of Maya Angelou's quote. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." #JoCox.
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Tanks on the streets; camps on the border; kids in cages. Happy July 4th.
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20 years after the disastrous Iraq War, as the UK plan to send refugees to Rwanda and stop small boats with desperate people crossing the Channel, little account is taken of the role we played in creating this crisis in the first place.
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“Black women don’t get to make light of their gaffe-making, impulsive remarks or off-colour comments. They don’t get to have bad days. Anything short of exemplary personal behaviour would result in public retribution & humiliation.” And here we are.
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Reasonable people may disagree on the causes of child poverty, that would leave some kids hungry in a society as wealthy as ours. But there is no reasonable case for not feeding them.
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"Race is a construct. But racism is real. It’s not the virus that discriminates; it is society. Inequality is killing us: racism is a pre-existing condition." My piece on what the disproportionate number of black deaths from COVID tell us about racism.
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"Those in the west who insist we cannot take in “the world’s misery” must, at the very least, acknowledge how much of that misery we are responsible for. This is not a question of guilt, but responsibility." 5 years old; sadly still relevant.
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Took my daughter to Stevenage, my home town, for the first time. She bumped into me on the way.
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Those on the right pursue policies that put poor people in death traps & laugh when freezing the wages of those on the left who save them
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"The 'mistake' they made wasn't depriving British citizens of their jobs, healthcare, benefits, pensions, housing & liberty: that was deliberate. It was assuming the fate of a few elderly Caribbean-born black people couldn't prick the nation’s conscience."
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The fact that Boris Johnson got and remains in his job, clearly illustrates how the privileges of gender, race & class consciously accrued, fiercely protected & gratefully inherited, can promote incompetence, elevate arrogance and exclude alternatives."
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Chuffed.
The Orwell Prize for Journalism 2023 is awarded to Gary Younge (@garyyounge) for an entry including essays and a podcast on race, inequality and the history and legacy of slavery in Britain. Congratulations, Gary!
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I am utterly ashamed of you. Your actions and pronouncements as Home Secretary make the day when such an atrocity might occur in Britain far more likely. You do not represent me.
At a time for grieving and reflection, this Australian senator @fraser_anning fans the flames of violence & extremism. Australians will be utterly ashamed of this racist man. In no way does he represent our Australian friends
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@realDonaldTrump paid $3million for a recount in Wisconsin only to find out that he lost by even more than we thought.
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"It’s as though the act of journalism is limited to getting the quote and distributing it, and does not extend to verifying it, contextualising it and making sense of it."
Happy to apologiSe for earlier confusion about the punch that wasn’t a punch outside Leeds General - 2 sources suggested it had happened but clear from video that was wrong.
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"Selective amnesia about their own imperial legacy leads ineluctably to a false sense of superiority around racism among many white Europeans toward the US. Worse is the toxic nostalgia that to this day taints their misunderstanding of that history."
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A scholarship (tuition fees & stipend) for Black Britons has been set up at Edinburgh University in the name of my late, great friend, the novelist Andrea Levy. Please share. Good luck. 1/2
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A scholarship (including tuition fees and stipend) for Black Britons to study any course at Edinburgh University has been set up in the name of my late, great friend, the novelist Andrea Levy. More information in the link Please share. Good luck
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"Stormzy’s is the voice of a generation raised through war, austerity, capitalist collapse, left realignment & racist revival. This isn't the story of a musician who's getting into politics but of politics coming out of a musician." My GQ cover on Stormzy.
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“The media treat #Farage like he’s a garrulous drunk uncle at a bbq. But he’s dangerous. Fascism is once again a mainstream ideology in Europe and he comes through that tradition.But they just don’t hold him to account.” Listen to @over_under_pod_ and subscribe
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@UKLabour message to the black community: those who work tirelessly in your interests over decades, representing the party at a local level, should not apply for parliament. We want your votes but not your voice.
Last night, I was blocked from standing to be the next Labour MP for Camberwell & Peckham. I'm gutted. The Party is saying it has no place for an anti-racist socialist like me in Parliament. Thank you so much to all those who supported & worked on my campaign. My statement:
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A man who drove two miles out of his way to call another man a "nigger" only to see his business failing after footage of the incident went viral says: "I don't understand intensity of the hate."
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"If it were women slaying people at this rate, feminism would be in the dock. The fact they are male is both accepted and expected. Boys will be boys; mass murderers will be men."
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When May says “Now is the time to come together and put the national interest first,” you have to wonder what she’s been doing for the last 2.5 years.
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“I live in @HackneyAbbott constituency. And if she chooses to stand down and they don’t replace her with someone with similar politics - and there are lots of black women with similar politics - I won’t just not vote Labour. I’ll work hard to defeat whoever they impose.”
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1/ Shocked to hear that award-winning writer and British citizen Jennifer Makumbi has been barred from boarding a @Ryanair flight to Manchester from Brussels without any explanation.
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I think I’m going to have a nap while America figures out if it wants a narcissistic fascist or a milquetoast neo-liberal to command the biggest army on earth. Someone wake me up in 20 years.
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I love this robust culture of journalism that calls out the powerful when they lie. I just wish it had been here for the Iraq war - it could have saved a lot of lives - and hope it outlives Trump because it could save a lot more.
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Nesrine Malik and I have withdrawn from the Comment Awards' Society and Diversity shortlist.
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"My mother came to Britain from Barbados on a British passport to work as a nurse. The NHS has been sustained by immigrants like her. On the 70th anniversary of Windrush and the NHS we should acknowledge their contribution."
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But to take the statue down would be like pretending it never happened. You can't just photoshop history. Jen Reid' stance is an important part of our past.
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"The notion that Britain could not handle her, could not show her a better future, could not try her, convict her, reorient her or support her, is worse than pathetic." #shamimabegum.
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"I was the only kid of colour on the track. And I’d be getting pushed around. But then I could always turn their energy against them. I’d outsmart them and beat them, and that, for me, was more powerful than any words.” @LewisHamilton in his own words.
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Journalists of colour respond to @EditorsUK denial. "The blanket refusal to accept there is any bigotry in the British press is laughable, does a disservice to journalists of colour & shows an institution & an industry in denial." Proud to be a signatory.
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I love to see the Tories in such a terrible mess; much less comfortable with the ‘markets’ becoming the official opposition.
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“Thoughts and prayers for the victims…” The Tory response for drowning migrants eerily echoes the Republican response following school shootings. And matches both the sincerity and efficacy.
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"I held out and held out, and it was a question of who blinked first. And they blinked first. You don’t become Britain’s first Black woman MP because you give in to being pushed around like that. I know my worth." My interview with @HackneyAbbott .
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Morally this is clearly reprehensible. But journalistically, what is the point here. That blond people can't become terrorists? That backpackers can't also be mass murderers? I mean all terrorists were kids once and they weren't all ginners or brunettes.
Front page top story of the Mail Online after a massacre of 49 Muslims at two mosques.
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"Labour's opportunistic sanctimony is difficult to stomach. This is the definition of instrumentalisation. Racism is not a game. When a party exploits it for its own political advantage, it cheapens the accusation and deepens the cynicism."
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Saying “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is a bit like saying “toasters don’t make toast, people make toast.” It’s literally true and actually stupid. Toasters exist to make toast; guns exist to kill.
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Spotted in Hackney (just a few doors apart); true the world over.
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“Braverman says she was offended by Lineker’s Nazi comparison because her husband is Jewish” .He wasn’t talking about your husband. Take some responsibility for your vile immorality.
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"There would be something deeply perverse about celebrating the defeat of the extreme right on the battlefield on VE Day while ignoring the fact that much of the West is currently voting for its ideological descendants at the ballot box."
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I've never been a fan. But he was better than this. And, apparently, knows better than this.
"We welcome migrants, we don't scapegoat them. Low wages, poor housing, poor public services, are not the fault of migrants. we have to make the case for the benefits of migration". The most duplicitous politician in my lifetime.
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If a vote couldn't make any difference they wouldn't have tried so hard, for so long, to stop so many of us from using it. Some fought for centuries to get it. It'll take you just 5 minutes to register. Just click on the link. Today is your last chance.
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For someone who thinks racism is no longer an issue and the Left is obsessed with it, @KemiBadenoch spends an awful lot of her time and energy talking about it. It’s almost as though it really is an issue that she’s pretty obsessed with.
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“Imagine Martin Luther King never had a dream but announced a 10 point plan from the Lincoln Memorial! We have to imagine the world we want and fight for it, even when we can’t see it.”
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It really is scandalous. @HackneyAbbott was absolutely right. As I wrote in my article yesterday of the last 10 polls Labour & Tory have each been ahead in four while two have been tied. Here's the proof. Apology Fiona Bruce?.
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So the 117 Tory MP's who had no confidence in Theresa May to lead her party last month will express confidence in her to lead the country today now that 432 MP's, including most of them, have emphatically rejected her deal. Sounds like a plan.
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Take a break Steve McQueen - the 'other black guy' I've occasionally been mistaken for. This morning I was greeted as @DavidLammy . #WhendoIgettobeIdrisElba?.
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Thanks so much for all the generous and encouraging messages about my decision take up a job as professor of Sociology at Manchester University in the new year. It's an exciting transition for me even if I won't be giving up journalism altogether.
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So @UKLabour you'll raise money on the back of the racism directed at @HackneyAbbott even though your party has constantly disparaged and undermined her . But you won't reinstate the whip. Just how cynical can you get? #reinstatethewhip
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Look we've all been there: you walk into a room of 30 colleagues, friends and family, all singing happy birthday. You're presented with a cake, check the calendar, realise it is your birthday, only to discover 2 years later that you were 'allegedly' at your own birthday party.
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With @DawnButlerBrent being ejected from the Commons for telling the truth and calling @BorisJohnson a liar it seems like an appropriate day to repost this: "Imagine if Boris Johnson were a black woman."
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“But that was before racism was bad” defence. Most famously used by David Brent.
If we start to judge historical figures by 21st century standards, we'll find that quiet a few folks weren't that nice. Almost as if they didn't know any better 🤔.
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"You are a ridiculous. you just keep saying ignorant things." The day I met white supremacist Richard Spencer.
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"When people show you who they are, believe them the first time." Maya Angelou.
Tried to show @BorisJohnson the picture of Jack Williment-Barr. The 4-year-old with suspected pneumonia forced to lie on a pile of coats on the floor of a Leeds hospital. The PM grabbed my phone and put it in his pocket: . @itvcalendar | #GE19
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