An Obadiah Slope Column
Racism at the G: (you might need to wait for the video)
Obadiah thinks there is only one response: this is racist. And, besides too much beer, the only reaction can be that these white men think they have more right to be at the “G” than brown people.
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Racism and a story of being racist: the Rotherham sexual exploitation scandal involved 1,400 girls, primarily from care home backgrounds, being abused by “grooming gangs” between 1997 and 2013 in Yorkshire, England. The majority of the girls were white and working class and aged between 12 to 14. The perpetrators were predominantly British-Pakistani men, particularly taxi drivers. The abuse included rape and gang rape, and trafficking.
The authorities were extremely slow to act, fearing that because the perpetrators were ethically Pakistani, they would be accused of Racism.
This story is back in the news because Elon Musk has raised the fact that British PM Keir Starmer was Britain’s Chief Prosecutor from 2008 to 2013 as the scandal became a national issue. Musk has sought to smear Starmer as somehow being involved. From 2011, Andrew Norfolk, chief investigative reporter of The Times, dug into the story following the conviction of five British Pakistani taxi drivers, resulting in a series of national inquiries and investigations.
Musk and other conservatives are backing a call for the government to investigate abuse in Oldham, another deprived town near Manchester.
This story has an echo in Sydney. In 2000, Obadiah was working on the Sunday paper, The Sun-Herald. One Saturday morning, editor Phil McLean called the team together and said, we have a story that people are going to attack me for, but we are going to publish it.
That Sunday, we published the story of a gang rape gang led by Bilal Skaf in the Sydney suburb of Greenacre, and yes, the paper was criticised as McLean had predicted. Nine men were convicted in 2002 and sentenced to a total of 240 years. Bila Skaf will be eligibale for parole in 2031.
In the aftermath, the suburb of Greenacre experienced white flight. Greenacre Anglican and probably other churches lost a lot of their people as families moved away.
But here’s a shout-out to the team from Obadiah’s church who went to help the struggling church in Greenacre. You know who you are.
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Racism 3:
