The evil of identity politics
Girls were abused in Rochdale because those in charge feared offending the perpetrators
With every passing week, the evil of identity politics becomes increasingly clear, as does the extent to which woke policies and practices disguise the absence of humanity and compassion within institutions and left-wing political movements.
A review into child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester found that girls were left ‘at the mercy’ of grooming gangs. Men of mainly Pakistani-heritage abused vulnerable girls over many years. The report found it likely that at least 74 children had been sexually exploited. Many of these girls were in the care of the local authority. They were horifically abused; many were raped, drugged and beaten. One girl reports being ‘kept in a cage and made to act like a dog’. Another was died after being injected with heroin by an abuser. Yet in 48 of these cases, there were serious failures to protect the child.
The police, social workers and council employees who should have been responsible for the welfare of these children failed them. Rather than taking the girls seriously and treating them with compassion, they were treated with contempt. They were either blamed for putting themselves in risky situations, written off as trouble-makers, or simply disbelieved. One 15 year-old was herself arrested and bailed to live with her abuser. A 13 year-old girl was raped, made pregnant, and given an abortion. The police secretly conducted a DNA test on the fetus without telling the girl or her parents.
When cases did reach court, the police left the young victims to be ‘harassed and intimidated by the men who had previously abused them’, sometimes at gunpoint. The report identifies 96 men still deemed a potential risk to children who have yet to face criminal charges. Maggie Oliver, a former detective who resigned over the poor handling of the abuse cases said: ‘I am telling you that the failures I saw in Rochdale back in 2011 and 2012 are still happening today.’
How could this happen? It seems the police chiefs and council leaders were more worried about the possibility of stirring up racial tensions than they were about the dangers facing young girls. They were more concerned about appearing to be racist than the reality of girls being raped. They chose to protect the sensitivities of Pakistani men over the lives of white working class girls.
This is the evil of identity politics.
In my book, How Woke Won, I describe identity politics as the practice of ‘categorising people according to immutable characteristics such as race or sex, before dividing and ranking according to assumed hierarchies of oppression.’ According to this pernicious logic, not all victims - and not all perpetrators - are equally deserving.
In Rochdale, and towns throughout the UK where Asian grooming gangs have been reported, the police and local authorities have had to confront the fact that a group they have long been encouraged to see as victims - brown, often muslim, men - have carried out horrific acts of abuse. And a group they have come to see as privileged - white girls - were targeted.
In both cases, we see that race trumps sex when it comes to hierarchies of privilege and oppression. The fact that this was men abusing girls seems to have counted for little. Ethnicity trumped all. Those who should have protected the girls were either so fearful of accusations of racism or so convinced that oppressed brown muslim men could not commit such heinous acts that they blamed the girls instead. There was no room for humanity or compassion when it came to their care.
Sadly, we see the inhumane consequences of dividing people into identity groups, and privileging some victims over others, elsewhere too. MPs who, for so long, ignored the complaints of subpostmasters, were quick to be photographed kneeling for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd or filmed throwing rainbow laces for Stonewall. Identity politics makes defending black or transgender people uncomplicated. White or Indian heritage, lower middle class shop keepers are, it seems, a different propsition.
On a larger, more horrific scale we see the same logic playing out in relation to the Middle East. Labeled ‘hyper white’ and ‘privileged’, the Israeli victims of Hamas terrorist attacks are not, it seems, worth defending. Raped Jewish women are disbelieved. Posters of hostages are torn down. Having been exonerated as ‘oppressed’, Hamas is free to commit acts of barbarism against ‘privileged’ Jews without condemnation. Worse, as we see on the streets of our cities every weekend, Hamas is cheered on by left wing activists.
The simplistic nature of identity politics absolves individuals of the need to think for themselves about who is worthy of compassion. It makes society more inhumane and less civilised. It is in the context of this moral vacuum that woke thinking comes into its own.
https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/people/diversity-and-inclusion/pride-at-post-office
The police failed white working class girls in Rochdale. But they are happy to paint rainbow flags on their faces and dance at Pride marches. Social workers similarly let the girls down. But they are taught never to assume a client’s pronouns. The post office prosecuted a pregnant woman and drove some post masters to suicide. But, as its website proclaims, ‘The Post Office has been an active supporter for Pride events across the UK since 2018.’ In each case we see how moral depravity in the treatment of individuals is ‘woke washed’ by grand gestures in support of gender ideology.
Institutions are not engaged in a deliberate attempt to cover up misdemeanours. More, woke displays become a substitute morality. They absolve those in charge from having to think for themselves. They institutionalise ‘compassion’ into rainbow flags, parades, blacked out social media profiles and public kneeling. It is in this context that the reality of the ‘wrong’ kind of victims becomes too complex to compute.
To end on a lighter note, I’d like to share a newly released single from friend of Cieo, Sean Bw Parker. I had a listen to Brown Eyed World and really enjoyed it. The video is great too. See what you think:
I can't usefully add to what you have said so eloquently, but one thing occurs to me. Do many of these evils grow best in already corrupted organisations, such as the BBC, with topical forms of liberalism such as racial preferences replacing earlier forms of corruption? Wasn't it in Rochdale that for many years the perverted and illegal acts of Cyril Smith were ignored?