A Short Rant on the Mythology of Victimhood

Old sins are less urgent than new ones. No celebrity anecdote changes that.

I have just seen a post by a young entrepreneur sharing an interview with black British actor David Harewood talking about the time he received monkey chants from Leeds football fans.

Obviously, if it happened this was probably a horrible experience, and something to be condemned.

The thing is the story is from over 40 years ago. It’s from the 1970s or early 1980s. Perhaps the right time to condemn it was nearer to when it occurred. And perhaps there is a time to move on. But we never seem to move on, do we?

This is how the mythology of victimhood works. There’s never a sell by date on a tale of white on black racism. And everyone then treats that as if these are the conditions of today. Meanwhile Harewood went on to be hugely successful in ‘racist Britain’, extremely wealthy, and get an OBE.

That’s not saying racist abuse from football fans was right. It’s saying get the fuck over it when it was 40 years ago.