to think that men should not be referred to as 'Asian' when they are not in fact Asian

[PatPig]

Examples (disturbing content warning):

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/14/oxford-child-sex-ring-police-investigation
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324621/Girl-12-branded-hairpin-raped-sold-sex-600-hour.html

According to this:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-22164676

The leaders of the gang are:

'thought to originate from Eritrea, in East Africa, but he grew up in his parents' house on the Cowley Road.'

Since when was Eritrea in Asia?

The Telegraph goes with:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10057543/Asian-grooming-gang-convicted-of-appalling-acts-of-depravity-on-children.html

"Asian grooming gang convicted of appalling acts of depravity on children"

yet in the article concedes:

"Seven men of Asian or North African origin were found guilty of grooming"

It seems like inaccurate and prejudicial language to me, especially when Asia contains 2/3 of the population of the world yet 'Asians' are obviously an ethnic minority in the UK.

patpig, it surely isn't up to volunteers to arrest and charge criminals. there are paid up members of the police force the cps and social services who should know when to prosecute people. they do not spend half their time contemplating diversity issues.

these people shouldn't be allowed to resign with full pensions and consultancy posts waiting for them. they should be sacked and have their pensions removed.

No of course it isn't up to volunteers to arrest and charge criminals, but training materials do give an insight into the culture of an organisation.

This OP wasn't about the police, though. Of course racce is a potential factor whenever it is a potential factor. And indeed race has proven to be an actual factor in ways which have not always reflected well on the police. The original investigation of the murder of S Lawrence, for starters. And in terms of other Equal Opps matters, Sapphire.

WRT to reporting in the press, the fact is that unless we have actual evidence that any perpertrators of any crime made race an issue - by declaring that they acted out of hate for or assumptions about the victims race, then our own assumption that race was an issue and defining the perpertrstors in a way that holds race responsible or partly for what they did is in itself pushing racism into a vicious cricle.

Do we know for sure, do we have evidence or statements that race was an issue, or are people assuming that from perceived generalisations?

That is the point, insofar as the OP's question is concerned.

this kind of crime occurs in all racial/ethnic groups, so the crime does not 'belong' only to a particular group in society, however, in this case it seems clear that race played a huge part in the crime in that a 'close knit' group from one ethnic/religious group viewed girls from another group as accessible and disposable. it may be that they did not use their 'own' girls because they are more closely watched and not allowed out of the house alone, or that they have more respect for 'their own'. race did play a part in this crime and it is reported that asians are overrepresented in the groups that are prosecuted for this type of crime. it unfortunately is correct to point out that the criminals are asian/muslim whatever.

as for 'perpetuating' racism or creating a vicious circle of racism, so what? is it not up to that particular group to report and stop these crimes from being committed if they can and not just turn a blind eye to maintain community cohesion and keep in with the in crowd at the mosque?