Our obsession with group identity has destroyed lives

The grooming gangs scandal shows the dangers of prioritising ideology over truth.

While reviewing an archival file on grooming gangs, Baroness Louise Casey (pictured above) made a chilling discovery: the word ‘Pakistani’ - in reference to one of the perpetrators - had been erased with Tipp-Ex. Her report into mass child sexual abuse in England and Wales has been published this week, and stories like this have dominated the headlines. The failures and cover-ups of the authorities appear to be myriad. While Casey’s audit has revealed that where ethnicity of perpetrators is recorded it reveals ‘disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds’, it also notes that in two-thirds of cases ethnicity has not been recorded at all.

The fixation with group identity, and the conviction that the public is largely comprised of racists seeking any excuse to commit a mass pogrom, has provided succour to criminals from minority groups. The report into grooming gangs by Professor Alexis Jay in 2022 made clear that fears of being accused of racism meant that those seeking justice for victims continually found themselves charging into dead ends. While racists have certainly exploited data that reveal disproportionate levels of sex crime among immigrants, this does not mean that the data are wrong.

Baroness Casey’s review has finally forced the hand of the Labour government which, up until now, has been reluctant to initiate a national inquiry. The thousands of girls who were raped, tortured and even killed by gangs of men of mostly Pakistani heritage will now hopefully find some kind of justice, but it is long overdue. This grotesque state of affairs is a reminder that the monomania over group identity – one exemplified by the creed of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) – is not simply a ‘woke’ irritation that can be brushed aside. It actually destroys lives.

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