THE CRUDE RACISM OF VICTIMOLOGY

Race, Culture and Rotherham 

I.
Anyone working in the field of social care in the 1980’s and 90’s experienced the phenomenon of ‘race awareness’ training. These workshops varied in style and quality from the feel of the mild rebuke of an after school detention class to a Soviet style re-education camp. The underlying assumption was that if you were white you were wholly ignorant of the impact of racism and needed to have your noses rubbed in it. Whilst if you were black this automatically made you an expert on oppression.
 If this is a caricature, it is not much of one. This ‘training’ was at its core fear based, less about enlightenment than detecting and weeding out thought crime. To be accused of being a racist or harbouring racist sentiments was like being accused of being a paedophile, possibly worse. It is the atmosphere created by this ideology that has led directly to the Rotherham abuse scandal.
Joyce Thacker and Shaun Wright who presided over
a social services department that ignored the
 widespread sexual abuse of young girls at the hands of Asian men. 
Let me be clear, racism exists and is widespread in this country. Whilst real progress has been made and Britain is now a much more open and tolerant society racist attitudes still continue to blight the lives of far too many British Citizens. Racist attitudes must be continually challenged and policies implemented to address discrimination from football management to the Metropolitan Police. However the way to shift culture is to facilitate greater empathy and understanding, not bullying and threatening people, which only leads to a climate of fear and resentment.
There is however an added dimension to the race awareness orthodoxy, one that itself is paradoxically rooted in racism and stereotyping. I call this victimology. In this paradigm the victim is not only victimised but by the very fact of being a victim becomes morally superior to the wider society. They also lose some, or all moral responsibility and either are rendered less culpable for their actions or not culpable at all. It is all, you see, the fault of racism.
To see the inherent racism in this position look at the reaction to the Danish Cartoons or the infamous burning of the Quran incident. Across Asia and the Middle East crowds rioted and many people were killed. The rioters though were not held responsible for their actions, it was the cartoonists and book burner who were to blame. Some even described the cartoonists has having ‘blood on their hands!’

Thing is the rioters were black and Asian, victims of colonialism and racism, they couldn’t possibly be held to account for their actions. However had gangs of white Europeans stormed the Saudi Arabian embassies across Europe in protest at the Saudi persecution of Christians and non-believers, does anyone really suppose that those smashing their way into the embassies and consulates would be exculpated of all blame? No of course they don’t, such exculpation belongs to ‘lesser breeds without the law.’
Those on the left who make excuses for Asian Paedophiles or Islamist fanatics are guilty of racist double standards; in truth respecting the crimes committed in Rotherham they are guilty of racist assumptions  every bit as much as your average EDL member.


II.
In all the commentary of the Rotherham case there was some discussion of the cultural factors at play however I heard no mention of similar cultural factors that have led white men to go to Thailand and abuse young children, or of the historical trek by some gay men to Morocco in search of boys.
The link between racism and sexual exploitation is a complex one and would benefit from further enquiry. Surely however there is some element of the permissibility of violating ‘the other,’ white girls, black boys, Asian children don’t count.    
   


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