The Stains Of Multiculturalism
The failure to tackle the root cause of this injustice represents the pinnacle of moral decadence pervading British institutions whose sole existence is ostensibly designed to protect the public.
In any other developed country, the news that specific ethnic-religious communities had not only been systematically raping underage girls but had done so with the implicit consent of the establishment would send vibrations through the fabric of society so large that the only way it could manifest tangibly is through social upheaval. An expected consequence would be mass protests, online petitions, hatred and visceral spewing out of every commentators’ mouth, demanding justice and retribution. Not in the UK, however. Depressingly, the response has been muted, with the jousting of words mostly taking place on social media.
For years, the British establishment sought to stifle any coverage of the extent of major, organised grooming gangs in British cities over fears of stoking secretarian violence. Naz Sha, Labour MP, retweeted and liked a post saying that victims should shut up for the sake of diversity. Sarah Champion (another Labour MP) was bullied and heckled when she named the main demographic involved in the crimes. It was one of the reasons why the story faded from the public’s view. That was quickly reversed by Elon Musk, who tweeted about the scandal over the week. Regardless of one’s opinions of Musk, it cannot be denied that his close relationship with president-elect Donald Trump combined with his ownership of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) now gives him considerable sway and influence in setting the terms of the online debate. Every comment he makes is boosted and amplified by his 200M-strong following, allowing him to bring attention to issues or scandals that would have otherwise been neglected by the mainstream media. Now, thanks to Musk’s recent intervention, the story has reached an international audience and pressure has begun building on the government to act, with the full scale of the barbarity in clearer focus.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Jess Phillips, the Minister for Safeguarding, had formally rejected repeated requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into Oldham’s historic rape gangs scandal. Phillips is ostensibly working under the assumption that it would be in the interests of the public if the inquiry was conducted at the behest of the local council rather than waiting for the government to intervene. A less charitable interpretation might point to self-preservation: despite her vocal opposition to violence against women and girls, Phillips may be worried about opening herself up to allegations of Islamophobia after nearly losing her seat to a pro-Gaza independent candidate last year in the predominantly Muslim constituency of Birmingham Yardley. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s seat of Ashton-under-Lyne previously covered part of Oldham, and Jim McMahon, the Local Government Minister, served as a councillor on the authority from 2003 and as leader between 2011 and 2016.
The case for a centralised inquiry is clear: while this request was for Oldham alone, there has been a rape gang scandal in over 50 British towns and cities. This is a staggering scale of depravity, and most cases are marked by close resemblances in their systematic nature. The demographics of the rapists are often disproportionately men of Pakistani origin and their victims are particularly vulnerable young girls, often in social care. There have been large-scale cover-ups within ethnic communities, social services, police forces and council authorities.
When talking about an issue this multifaceted and still emotionally raw, it’s important to phrase any response delicately, but the discourse that has surrounded this scandal over the past decade or so constitutes just about as dramatic an example as you could want of a particular phenomenon/type of reasoning that I have been consistently exasperated by, and which needs to be reckoned with as much as the crimes themselves do.
Although there are many who will strenuously deny it, it is indisputable that a particular cohort of people in the country feel compelled - whether consciously or unconsciously - to downplay the severity of what has gone on specifically because they cannot allow any claim to be made that a privileged group has been victimised by a marginalised group. While there have also been many Hindu and Sikh girls that have been abused in the same way by these gangs, a disproportionate number of the victims were White, and seemingly not only targeted on that basis, but also racially abused as they were being sexually abused.
To people who base their entire moral framework on the privileged vs. marginalised dichotomy, this cannot be allowed to be widely known or believed. Even if you view this through a charitable lens and say that this compulsion is probably both subconscious and ultimately well-intentioned; but it explains the myriad deflections used (Catholic Church, Jimmy Saville etc), transparently fraudulent statistics proffered ("actually, the majority of grooming gangs are white") and the ultimate and inevitable recourse to accusations of racism. Unfortunately, what we have here seems to be a genuinely massive atrocity perpetrated against the race that these same people consider privileged. Perhaps, it is as simple of a fact that many still find it deeply uncomfortable to acknowledge how widespread the sexual exploitation of children is in the modern day. And the insane contortions people twist themselves into to avoid admitting it as such shows that on some level, they do not consider it possible for White people to suffer.
By that, I do not mean that they do not consider it possible for individual White people to suffer; rather they do not consider any action or event to constitute an affront to the dignity of White people as a demographic, even while they effortlessly consider far less serious events to be an affront to the dignity of other groups. The obvious double standard in this has been causing a terrifying rage to swell over the past twenty years or so, and has only been getting worse in recent years. The reflective instinct to dismiss or gainsay the suffering of one demographic on the basis that they are privileged, or treat those who don't do so as if they are crazy, stupid or wicked, is one of the most morally idiotic things to take place in a civilized society.
It should be blindingly obvious to anyone who thinks about it for more than a few moments, that if you are striving for a state of equality in a diverse society, but also earmark one demographic as being incapable of suffering, then all your efforts are in vain: there is no conceivable scenario (short of eliminating the privileged demographic altogether) that could possibly be considered equal when you adhere to that framework. However benign and intuitive it may seem, the conception of humanity as being divided into privileged and marginalised demographics is starting to look to me like one of the most morally short-sighted and dangerous ideas in the world.
Action is desperately needed, lest it fades into the background once again. Politicians have taken to passing laws named after victims — such as Martyn’s Law, Clare’s Law or Harper’s Law — to ensure the often appalling and nightmarish circumstances of their deaths never happen again. By contrast, it seems like politicians cannot wait to forget the victims of Britain’s grooming gang epidemic. While there have been isolated inquiries, such as the Jay Report and a 2013 report by the Home Affairs Committee, these have not provided sufficient answers. A report solely into the events in Oldham will arguably suffer from the same issue, as will any report provided by a council reporting on its own conduct. Given that many of those involved may still be serving, it will be difficult to name the individuals at fault.
Rather than treating each gang as a separate problem, the Government should launch an inquiry that deals with the disturbing phenomenon as a whole. It should treat this as what it is: a national problem, not a series of isolated incidents. It should provide the resources, authority and backing necessary to deal with the crisis as such and tackle the institutional cover-ups which happened time and time again, regardless of the council area responsible.