THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE OF RACE!
I worked with young people in the care system for years and covered the period of time that the Rotherham abuse happened.
Vulnerable young people have been groomed, coerced, controlled, raped and abused since the dawn of time. There have been disgusting, predatory men, willing to take advantage of vulnerability, since the dawn of time. They come in all skin tones.
I saw men of ALL skin tones and different heritages committing this kind of heinous abuse.
The fact that SOME are brown skinned and from areas of the world in which women’s rights are not so well developed, is being used as a far right dog whistle.
If the police felt less able to do something for fear of being labelled racist then that needs addressing. My understanding is that this has been flagged and is now part of training. The more diverse the police force is, the easier this will become.
My direct experience of discussions in multi-agency meetings around this issue, was that the police wanted to arrest the perpetrators but it was hard to know what for, when the young people were saying they were willing participants or denying anything happened. It was also a lack of understanding of the impact of trauma and a labelling the young people as bad because they too committed crimes and behaved in anti social ways (because of their traumatic upbringing). They were the two key barriers to protection and justice that I witnessed.
Lessons were learned. There is now much better understanding of coercion, control and grooming and much more trauma informed practice.
There is a long way to go and male to female violence, coercion, control and sexual abuse/assault/violence are a massive problem.
Were/are some of these sexually exploitive gangs brown skinned and originally from countries with under evolved women’s rights? Yes.
Were/are some of them white and born in the UK? Yes.
Is country of origin sometimes a part of the picture for those gangs from countries with under evolved women’s rights? Yes.
Is it always part of the picture? No.
Was it better for vulnerable women pre immigration? No. And we have always had immigration going back as far as the Beaker people in the stone age. Women have always been victims of male sexual control and violence.
It was only in the 1970s that it became illegal for a man to beat his wife in the UK and only 1991 that marital rape became a crime. There is no golden age we can go back to where women were safe from sexual exploitation, abuse and violence.
The vulnerability of traumatised, neglected and abused children and young people remains. The threat of exploitative, sexually predatory monsters remains. Both victims and perpetrators come in all colours, religious backgrounds and cultural heritage.
If this debate continues in this divisive way we will head down a very dangerous path and this is what the far right and Russia/China want. They want division and instability.
We have to stand together against violence, exploitation, coercion, control, grooming, sexual abuse and violence as behaviours, not allow it to be tied up and confused with race.