Press release from the LRC about Jack Straw
The LRC condemns the statement made by Labour MP Jack Straw that “there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men… who target vulnerable young white girls … who they think are easy meat”.
We call on the Labour leadership and the whole labour movement to disown Straw’s disgraceful comments. We also call on the NEC to open an inquiry into whether Straw should be allowed to continue as a Labour MP and party member.
It is obvious that the crimes committed by these men were heinous, but the fact is there is no statistical evidence to support Jack Straw’s statements.
Straw has clearly failed to examine all the evidence, which would contradict his assertions. He also used incredibly provocative language in doing so, which made his statement all the more inflammatory.
To make matters worse, his comments were made in the run-up to the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, following the despatching of Phil Woolas – whose own racist comments brought shame upon the Labour Party, and which were condemned by the LRC and many others.
It is deeply problematic that there appears to be an acceptance of casual racism in the Parliamentary Labour Party – where Woolas was defended. There has also been little condemnation by the PLP of Jack Straw’s comments.
While it is important that politicians are able to address controversial issues, this should be based on facts and rational debate, not prejudice and hyperbole.
There is of course a more important need to tackle the underlying issue of violence against women. This requires significant cultural and political change in all communities.
We call on all labour movement bodies to support our call for the NEC to investigate Jack Straw’s comments to determine whether he has brought the Party into disrepute.
Absolutely right. I sent a letter to Jasmin Aliba-Brown when she defended Straw, and then to the newspaper:
Dear Independent,
I sent this letter to one of your journalists some days ago, but have had no reply, so I’ll send it to your letters page.
Dear Yasmin,
I was very angry with the article in the Independent, which I saw as an attack on members of my community.
Such journalism has consequences.
The headline and subheading will not be cancelled out by the honest admission in the body of the article that the story spun by most papers and defended by Straw was based on a misuse of statistics.
According to the Guardian:
But Brayley and Cockbaine, whose six-month study was cited as evidence, said they were worried that limited data had been extended “to characterise an entire crime type, in particular of race and gender”. They challenged claims that white girls were deliberately sought out by offenders. “Though the majority … were white so too were the majority of local inhabitants.” Comparing the percentage of white people in the areas with black and ethnic minorities, their data, they said, showed “black and ethnic minority girls over-represented among the victims… http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/…
Its not unusual for Journalists to misreport research since, like most of us, they don’t understand statistics. But this is ideological.
Just when I thought Jack Straw could not sink any lower in my estimation. I long for Ed Milliband to tell some of these Blairite has-beens to get lost..
Of course we might feel a need to help sort out our own communities but, to paraphrase a great Rabbi” who is my community?” My neighbours, my workmates, my political comrades, the parents at my local school. my daughters’ lovers, are English, Scots, Jews, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Albanians, Iranians… and I am incensed that headlines like yours put some of them in danger.
My two daughters are incensed by Straw’s remarks, having very much appreciated the respect to women and girls shown by young people from the subcontinent.
Here too we have had to do some sorting out sometimes. A decade ago there was much tension between young Albanians and young Bengalis due to perceived different attitudes to girls. And yes escalation was averted by honest discussion and meetings organised by my son-in-law, who is Albanian.
Perhaps we have much to learn from each other.
But I refuse, a la Aaronovitch or Burchill, to tell just so stories based on few facts to “explain” why Muslims, or Jews, or Catholics are drenched in sin.
I am not criticising your concerns with bad things that may exist “in the … community” or whatever. What I do object to is the way your headline is a shield for Straws Orientalist fantasies.
Yours Cordially,
David Hillman
Cheers David, abuse of women transcends class and race, and what Straw has done is fan the flames of racism.
“abuse of women transcends class and race”
While that might be true in the abstract, there are plenty of concrete instances when it doesn’t. When Indonesian rioters raped ethnic Chinese women in the Djakarta riots, or Russian troops carried out mass rape of German civilians in 1945, did that transcend race?
The total silence of the feminist blogs on this one is remarkable – especially when you consider that quite a few found the time to write critical pieces about Julian Assange’s bedroom habits. Only one writer, for whom gender trumps race, seems to be able to look this issue in the eye – Julie Bindel.