Jack Straw’s comments about British Pakistani men luring vulnerable white girls have caused a furore, particularly in the free Urdu ‘pot-boiler’ press. The exact words used by Straw can be read in any online newspaper.
Jack Straw is certainly not a crazy guy and he chooses his words carefully; you could even say he anticipates possible straw man arguments against him. Hence note the caveats that come with his statement – he acknowledges that Pakistani men are not the only to commit sexual offences and that the sexual offences wings of prisons are filled with white men.
I think, though, that Straw has hit the nail on the head in so far as he grasps an attitudinal trait among some Pakistani men. It’s not about statistics; most sexual offenders are not Pakistani. It is about attitudes; it’s about an attitude, shared by more than people who engage in grooming, which sees white women as immoral and available. This attitude is based purely on racism.
The ‘easy-meat’ comment is no doubt provocative, and, based purely on numbers, inaccurate. But rather than meet it with diatribe, the comment should encourage introspection. The British Pakistani community needs to look carefully at how it relates to other communities and, perchance, revise the attitude of moral superiority.
