Perhaps the most upsetting event in recent British history was the grooming gang scandal, where thousands of underage girls were sexually abused. The police did nothing to stop it for years, despite numerous reports.

One of the worst affected areas was a town in the north of England called Rotherham, about fifty miles away from where I live.

The victims came from a range of ethnic backgrounds, but the overwhelming majority were underage white girls. As for the perpetrators, most of them were men with Pakistani heritage.

Under a pseudonym, one of the survivors gave an interview on the TRIGGERnometry podcast, where she described how men referred to her ethnicity while they were sexually abusing her, calling her names like “white sl*g” and “white wh*re.”

As a white person, what systemic power did she have in this situation? What could she do to stop the men abusing her?

Could you, the author of this article, look the survivor in the eye and say she wasn’t a victim of racism?

Would you tell her to grow up?