What’s wrong with the picture above?

Nothing, as far as This Writer can see. It’s a shot of a healthy young lady enjoying an ice lolly after exercising on a bicycle – posted on her personal Twitter feed.

It might be considered a little risque as, if she’s wearing shorts, they appear to be very short indeed. But that’s the worst of it.

So why, then, did this happen?

Apparently Ms Sarkar was being accused of using the orange emojis as symbols celebrating the three deaths.

When have orange emojis ever been said to symbolise that?

They don’t. But that’s what the lunatics have been saying.

Is it because the BBC initially associated the killings with a Black Lives Matter protest in Reading and, besides being a political commentator, Ms Sarkar happens to have darker skin than some of us?

If so, it is beyond reason (that’s why I suggest that those saying it are lunatics). And who are the racists in this situation – the young lady posting a summery pic on her timeline, or the foam-at-the-mouth individuals perversely accusing her?

Sane Twitter users have made their choice:

 

Of course the nutcases aren’t backing down – but I’m glad to see that Ms Sarkar isn’t, either.

Can you believe they wanted her to apologise for the offence that they have chosen to take against her?

That’s a good response – sharp, and to the point.

Then it became clear that Ms Sarkar’s critics were, in fact, just another gang of racists. They made it clear themselves.

In the next exchange, Ms Sarkar is replying to that classic racist trope: “go back to where you came from”. The tweeter appears to have deleted their message, which is a clear indication of guilt, and I would appreciated it if anybody who may have taken a screenshot could send me a copy.

Akala’s book Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire has this to say about the “go back to where you came from” trope: “Their assumption is that anyone who is not racialised as white is not really a citizen, echoing the old white-supremacist adage ‘Race and Nation are one’ and the ‘blood and soil’ logic of the Nazis.”

Ms Sarkar, being a citizen of the UK, comes from Enfield.

And of course, I’m giving her the last word because it is far more mature than anything her detractors had to say:

“Three families are grieving… and I feel really angry that there are people out there who are appropriating that grief, that shock, and that horror, and then using that to take down someone on Twitter.

“I don’t know how you live with yourself if you’re doing that.

“Beyond the racism and beyond the threats, I just feel that’s completely immoral.”

Agreed.