Thursday, 23 January 2025 — Institute of Race Relations
Less than six months after the far-right orchestrated racist riots that targeted asylum accommodation and mosques, comes a new bout of dog-whistle Islamophobia, fomented by Elon Musk who reposted forty tweets on the UK’s child sexual exploitation and ‘grooming gangs’ in 24 hours, also calling for the release of jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Conservative and Reform leaders Badenoch and Farage swiftly leapt onto the bandwagon, repeating Musk’s calls for a new national inquiry into the ‘national rape gangs scandal’, as documented in our calendar of racism and resistance.
What has since transpired is the spectacle of a Dutch auction between the parties as to which could be tougher on ‘grooming gangs’, culminating with home secretary Yvette Cooper’s volte-face announcement of an ‘urgent national review’ of past cases of child sexual exploitation involving ‘grooming gangs’, examining the ethnicity and demographics of abusers and victims, as well as ‘the cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending, including amongst different ethnic groups’. This will take place alongside a series of local inquiries, to be piloted in five towns including Oldham. While we wait to see how Baroness Louise Casey, who is heading the national review, will frame issues of ethnicity and culture, the direction of travel is not promising. In an interview with GB News before the new national inquiry was announced, Kemi Badenoch had demanded precisely this focus, on the grounds that ‘grooming gangs’ are made up of ‘peasants’ from ‘sub-communities’.
The government’s capitulation came only days after Starmer rejected a national inquiry, and despite warnings from a whistleblower, the previous inquiry’s chair and senior police officers about the politicisation of the issue and the impact on survivors.
Thankfully, there are signs of civil society and professional unease over sensationalised parliamentary politics. Over seventy academics, charities and experts on exploitation, advocating for a responsible approach that puts support for all victims and survivors first, have pointed out that the portrayal of sexual violence as a crime unique to one community hinders their ability as professionals to identify and understand the many ways exploitation cases can present. And, crucially, they state, it also causes harm in those communities impacted by ‘divisive narratives’. Over the last two weeks, these harms have been manifest. Muslim and South Asian communities and anyone critical of the ‘grooming gangs’ narrative are being targeted with social media abuse and NGOs are reporting multiple acts of racist violence against asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation.
IRR News team
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.
Calendar of Racism & Resistance
We are very excited to present our new graphic for the Calendar of Racism and Resistance designed by Kyle Alexander. On the bottom left it reads IRR News, working towards a world without chains.
In this week’s Calendar, we highlight stories unfolding over the past two weeks on policing and criminalisation, migrant and asylum rights, far-right fascism, and also resistance to state violence in the UK and Europe.
Find these stories and thousands more on our Register of Racism and Resistance database.
ONE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY!
Come join our team!
We are looking for a dynamic Deputy Director to drive the organisation forward in challenging times at a salary of £48-55K depending on experience.
This role is for IRR to develop its next phase as a radical, uncompromising educational body, which ‘thinks in order to do’, so as to eliminate the violence of state and structural racism.
Please share this widely, or if you are interested apply on the link below.
Closing Date is 23:59pm on Friday 31 January 2025.
January 2025
Latest issue of Race & Class
January 2025 issue of Race & Class is out now!
This issue leads with a piece on Awaab Ishak and the devaluation of migrant, working-class life by Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert and Rupinder Parhar.
The authors analyse the mechanics behind Awaab’s death which an inquest found was due to a severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged mould exposure.
The issue also includes a commentary on the politics of infrastructure in contemporary mobilisations for Palestine, and other articles include analysis on Sweden’s advancement of a racial security state, cultural appropriation and cultural transportation from a Latin American perspective, and parking on the streets of public-private predation in Chicago.
February 2025 in London
Liminal presents Lexicon II
IRR is supporting Lexicon II, an event series taking place over three days and across multiple locations, it brings together scholars, artists, writers and activists to unpack two interrelated terms: “hostility” and “infrastructures of care”. As borders infiltrate everyday life, conjuring up diffused atmospheres of surveillance, Lexicon II reflects on how various practices can be mobilised to account for and contest these hostile environments, opening up spaces of resistant care.
Organised by LIMINAL with the support of: Centre for Research Architecture, Royal College of Art, Turf Projects and the Institute of Race Relations.
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Institute of Race Relations
The New Dark Age 
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