Althouse: "The parents of an 8-year-old girl sexually assaulted by four boys are blaming their daughter for the attack, according to police."

২৪ জুলাই, ২০০৯

"The parents of an 8-year-old girl sexually assaulted by four boys are blaming their daughter for the attack, according to police."

How is this possible? Cultural difference.

৪৬টি মন্তব্য:

The Drill SGT বলেছেন...: Let's have more of that multicultural stuff. Respect each others unique cultural traditions.

That melting pot concept was so 19th century.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৩২ PM
নামহীন বলেছেন...: As all the right-thinking people believe that all cultures are to be accorded equal respect and accommodation, is it safe to assume that charges against the four boys involved should be dropped and the girl charged with seducing minors? Just asking. Wouldn't want to be considered culturally insensitive or be brought up on charges of committing a thought crime in our brave new world before expressing an opinion.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৩৩ PM
traditionalguy বলেছেন...: That will teach those women a lesson for stalking innocent boys with their sex rays.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৩৪ PM
Freeman Hunt বলেছেন...: At bottom of article:

"I don't know who are the worst animals here, the boys or the parents," said ABC15.com reader StayathomeMom.

Then you are not a very clear thinker, ABC15,com reader StayathomeMom.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৩৮ PM
Kensington বলেছেন...: The eight year old girl must have been dressed like she wanted it from four at a time.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৪৩ PM
Automatic_Wing বলেছেন...: Gotta love the diversity. More, please.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৪৪ PM
The Drill SGT বলেছেন...: well, she was lucky not to be 9 y/o and under Sharia. She could be vulnerable to a stoning death sentence for adultery.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৪৭ PM
The Dude বলেছেন...: All cultures are equal, except of course, those that are a bit more equal. Welcome to 21st century America, where the (non-)natives are restless.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৪৮ PM
Unknown বলেছেন...: In no culture on earth is it okay to blame an 8 year old for being raped. These people (who have denied the reports, but let's assume the worst) belong to a culture of their own making.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৫১ PM
Balfegor বলেছেন...: That melting pot concept was so 19th century.

Pish posh. On the contrary, the 19th century was all about the whole East is East is West is West and never the twain shall meet thing, that emphasis on and celebration of overwhelming difference. Think of the pageantry of the Queen's diamond jubilee in 1897, the ranks and ranks of troops in their diverse and colourful national dress, drawn from every corner of her vast Empire -- Scots, Irishmen, Bantus, Bengalis, Sikhs, Rajputs, Zulus, Gurkhas, and on and on and on. Think of the picturesque novels and short stories of that age, with their fascination with exotic climes and unfamiliar customs. Think of Kipling.

We are the neo-Victorians. Vivat Imperator!; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৫৩ PM
Salamandyr বলেছেন...: In no culture on earth is it okay to blame an 8 year old for being raped. These people (who have denied the reports, but let's assume the worst) belong to a culture of their own making.

You sure about that?; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১:৫৩ PM
knox বলেছেন...: I read the book Makes Me Wanna Holler years ago, and he made it sound like gang rapes of young girls by young boys were a very common thing in the hood. They called it "pulling a train," if I remember correctly.

It just about made me throw up reading it. They would plan ahead, sometimes even choosing the sister of one of their friends, if she was an easy target. The girls were usually 13 or under. They'd just wait til they were home alone, drag her into a bedroom and take turns.

If it's true, seems like a really great issue for feminists to take up. If they really mobilize under that issue, they might even spark my interest again.

As to the "blaming" aspect of this case: Is the family is Muslim? The article doesn't say.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:০৩ PM
The Drill SGT বলেছেন...: In no culture on earth is it okay to blame an 8 year old for being raped. These people (who have denied the reports, but let's assume the worst) belong to a culture of their own making.

Change the age to 9 and I'll take a big chunk of that bet; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:০৭ PM
Fred4Pres বলেছেন...: Sadly Drill SGT, you are correct. Iran actually makes marriage for girls at age nine legal because Mohammed, who was around 56 at the time, consumated his marriage to Aisha when she was nine. Granted things were different 1500 years ago, but I suspect that was not common even then.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:১৪ PM
Bissage বলেছেন...: My guess is there isn’t all that much law and order over there in Liberia; a place where it is generally better to disavow one’s innocent daughter than it is to openly concede you don't have the power to protect your family and that they are up for grabs.

One might expect the President of Liberia to say otherwise.

Let’s hope she’s right about that.

Let’s hope we are dealing with some kind of weird, abhorrent behavioral atavism.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:১৬ PM
Dark Eden বলেছেন...: "In no culture on earth is it okay to blame an 8 year old for being raped. These people (who have denied the reports, but let's assume the worst) belong to a culture of their own making."

If only that were true. I guarantee you if this girl is given back to her parents, she'll be found dead shortly thereafter.

But keep wearing the multi culti rose colored glasses while girls continue to be raped and killed right under your nose.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:১৮ PM
bearbee বলেছেন...: re: culture, it is an aspect of the so-called culture that the President Ellen Johnson-Sirlea of Liberia is working to change

Liberia: Peace is a mere illusion when rape continues

..a recent study by UNICEF indicated that more than fifty per cent of all reported rapes are brutal assaults on young girls between the ages of ten and fourteen.
...
Predictably, President Johnson-Sirleaf is thunderstruck by the force of the sexual violence. In a very real sense she is staking the integrity of her tenure on her ability to confront and subdue the war on women.

Is it a neighborhood of immigrants from West Africa?; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:২৩ PM
Balfegor বলেছেন...: As to the "blaming" aspect of this case: Is the family is Muslim? The article doesn't say.

Probably not. They're all Liberian, and Liberia is mostly Christian and Animist, with a smaller Muslim minority. I'd guess they're probably Christians, although my grounds for that guess (that Christians are probably richer than the animists and Muslims, and thus more able to emigrate out) may be faulty.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:২৩ PM
Triangle Man বলেছেন...: People, please. The key is not that it is a cultural difference, but that theirs is an "authentic culture". Do try and keep up.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:২৭ PM
save_the_rustbelt বলেছেন...: Another reason for more immigration, huh?

There are large populations of Somalis in Minnesota and on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. How this occurs within our immigration scheme puzzles me, but it certainly makes a cultural mess. The Somalis tend to be hard working folks, but placing a large number of unskilled immigrants into a few neighborhoods is really 19th century bad news.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:২৭ PM
bearbee বলেছেন...: CIA World FactBook shows religion in Liberia as:

40% Christian
20% Muslim
40% indigenous beliefs; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:২৯ PM
Irene বলেছেন...: এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:৪৯ PM
Irene বলেছেন...: And in our culture, sportscaster Christine Brennan implied that ESPN's Erin Andrews's Peeping Tom situation may have resulted from Andrews's own provocative shtick.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:৫১ PM
The Drill SGT বলেছেন...: এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:৫৭ PM
The Drill SGT বলেছেন...: Balfegor, I was making an Ellis Island point, theough I guess that was 1920, not 1890.

On your Victorian meme, those Brits didnt think all cultures were equal, just exotic. They were firm believers in British exceptionalism and White Man's Burden, etc.

example in my favorite Brit from that period, General Napier expounding on what he thought of mulitculturalism and the Indian practice of Suttee (widow burning):

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Kipling and all that :)

I can imagine how Napier would have dealt with these rapes.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:৫৯ PM
Scott M বলেছেন...: @Irene

Wow...are you giving moral equivalence to the incident you cite and the attack on the little girl?

I doubt very seriously that even the peeked-in-on blond in the sportscaster case would agree with you.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ২:৫৯ PM
Balfegor বলেছেন...: On your Victorian meme, those Brits didnt think all cultures were equal, just exotic. They were firm believers in British exceptionalism and White Man's Burden, etc.

That's a fair point. I would argue, though, that somewhat ironically, many of the people who promote the multicultural stuff believe, themselves, that their (deracinated upper middle class American) culture is superior to all other cultures, even if they don't recognise this belief playing itself out in their actions. For them, all other cultures are contingent -- you see this attitude when they travel abroad, and perhaps they dabble in local ethnic dress or ethnic custom, but always remain secure in their unshakeable conviction that their culture remains normative, that it is a choice for them. They can go native, if they want to, but they don't have to -- it's like Obama dressing up in native dress, play-acting at participation in another culture.

It's nothing more than humouring other cultural practices. In schools, for example, the liberal upper middle classes encourage appreciation and study of other cultures not because they want or expect their bourgeois children to adopt a culture alien to them and take it seriously (like John Walker Lindh, say), but because it gives them a frisson of the foreign.

It's like the President's famous comments about "bitterly" "clinging" to religion. It's not that he has a problem with religion or the religious, any more than he has a problem with Muslims in the Middle East -- he just talks down to them, as though they're children who cannot help thinking what they think. It's gentler than the Victorians, but it encodes the same assumptions of dominance and superiority.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৩:১৬ PM
$9,000,000,000 Write Off বলেছেন...: Bill the Butcher had soemthing to say about this,

My father gave his life, making this country what it is. Murdered by the British with all of his men on the twenty fifth of July, anno domini, 1814. Do you think I'm going to help you befoul his legacy, by giving this country over to them, what's had no hand in the fighting for it? Why, because they come off a boat crawling with lice and begging you for soup.

And again,

Boss Tweed: You may or may not know, Bill, that everyday I go down to the waterfront with hot soup for the Irish as they come ashore. Its part of building a political base.
Bill: I've noticed you there, you may have noticed me.
Boss Tweed: Indeed I have. Throwing torrents of abuse to every single person who steps off those boats.
Bill: [gleefully] If only I had the guns, Mr. Tweed, I'd shoot each and every one of them before they set foot on American soil.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৩:২০ PM
$9,000,000,000 Write Off বলেছেন...: I should add that I don't agree with Bill. I blame Zionist sex gum for the boys rape-urge.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৩:৩১ PM
নামহীন বলেছেন...: Well said, Balfegor. Well said!

(I know, I know, it was written not said, but "Well-written!" just doesn't look right to me ;-); ২৪/৭/০৯, ৩:৪৫ PM
John Thacker বলেছেন...: Pish posh. On the contrary, the 19th century was all about the whole East is East is West is West and never the twain shall meet thing, that emphasis on and celebration of overwhelming difference.... Think of Kipling.

Pish posh indeed. I do think of Kipling. I think of how everyone forgets the second couplet in the Ballad of East and West:

Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

Everyone uses that Kipling quote to mean the opposite of what the poem says. It's as bad as "good fences make good neighbors."

Kipling's point was that East and West were physically separate so people weren't going to meet, but that accidents of birth don't really matter when people meet.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৩:৫৯ PM
Methadras বলেছেন...: Well, what do you expect from people who come from an 8th world shit hole?; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৪:০১ PM
AlmaGarret বলেছেন...: I lived in Liberia for 2 years (1982-84). Granted that was a long time ago, but I certainly didn't see violent gang rapes of 8 year olds as part of the "culture". Liberia is also not exactly a bastion of radical Islamists either, then or now. Quite the opposite.

I did see teenaged girls (say, 14 on up) being sexually preyed upon by older men, usually in the form of a fairly short but intensive courting - lots of attention, gifts, late night visits. Most times the girls ended up pregnant. The older folks definitely saw this as a societal problem.

My guess is that this current event and the overall problem of rape in Liberia is a reflection of the overall breakdown of social norms in that part of the world as a result of horrific civil wars. Read Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone for a first hand account of a boy forced to be a child soldier in Sierra Leone (right next door to Liberia).; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৪:৪১ PM
MadisonMan বলেছেন...: My opinion is that there is more to this story than is being reported. Someone has been misinterpreted or misquoted.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৪:৪৪ PM
TWM বলেছেন...: "In no culture on earth is it okay to blame an 8 year old for being raped. These people (who have denied the reports, but let's assume the worst) belong to a culture of their own making."

You're joking, right? In many Islamic nations they would not only blame her, but stone the girl afterward.

Western culture, with all its faults, is superior to most, if not, all others. You can argue otherwise but it won't change that fact.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ৬:৫৭ PM
kentuckyliz বলেছেন...: The parents can contact the Department of Multiculti Affairs and get their assistance reserving the largest stadium in the city and printing the notice in the papers inviting everyone to the public honor killing, BYOS.

Bring Your Own Stones.; ২৪/৭/০৯, ১০:০৮ PM
traditionalguy বলেছেন...: KentuckyLiz...Checking the thread this AM, I really did spill my coffee laughing at Your comment. You think like me, and therefore may be dangerous.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৭:০৩ AM
jayemarr বলেছেন...: It certainly IS due to "cultural differences". Their culture is broken.

Ours may be also, but not in quite so spectacular a fashion.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৪:৫১ PM
MF বলেছেন...: Hmmm. Makes me feel less bad about my own culture now. Which makes me feel more bad, on a personal level.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৪:৫২ PM
Unknown বলেছেন...: Drill Sgt - Where is Napier, now that he's REALLY needed?

I'm willing to allow diverse cultural customs - my own family is one of immigrants, and I am proud to be the first native-born US citizen in my extended family.

But, when my parents got here, they learned to speak English, and assimilated into the culture. While the old language (Spanish) was spoken in the house we all learned English first.

Oh, and those immigrants? 4 kids, 2 physicians, 1 lawyer and a career officer (retired as a Major General, my father) in the US Air Force.

Of the kids of my generation? 3 career military officers, 3 lawyers, 4 physicians or doctoral-level medical professionals.

My kids generation? 3 military academy graduates working on careers, 3 more physicians or in training to become physicans, and a lawyer.

We all speak English (some are barely fluent in Spanish), and we're all AMERICANS, without any damned hyphenations. We celebrate Independence day, and the younger kids (around 10 years of age) go on trips to the 'old country', just to start learning why the hell my grandparents left it. Our culture? The United States of America (May G-D Bless and Keep it).

These Liberians and anyone else that wishes to live in such a despicable culture can and should (as far as I'm concerned) get themselves back to their ninth-world shithole where they can live any damned way they want. We used to have standards for immigrants (which caused trouble for my family - we actually followed the laws), time to get them back.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৫:০৮ PM
lonetown বলেছেন...: Thank god they aren't cannibals!; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৬:০৩ PM
lonetown বলেছেন...: Thank god they aren't cannibals!; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৬:০৩ PM
lonetown বলেছেন...: Thank god they aren't cannibals!; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৬:০৩ PM
নামহীন বলেছেন...: The parents will cajole authorities to lure the 8-year-old back. Then, one way or another, they'll kill her.

Welcome to reality, America.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৬:১৪ PM
Unknown বলেছেন...: "well, she was lucky not to be 9 y/o and under Sharia. She could be vulnerable to a stoning death sentence for adultery."

And, lucky her, she's no longer a virgin so if she were in Iran she wouldn't have to worry about a midnight visit by the deflower-before-execution police.

Beyond belief.

I think I'm going to watch some nonsense movie where the worst of fantasy comes nowhere close to this. And people complain about -video games-?; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৬:৫৫ PM
Unknown বলেছেন...: Fwiw, I was curious and did somew digging. The family appears to be muslim. The Mandingos are one of the "likely to be muslim" groups in Liberia.

Given the father's attitudes, I hope the girl is not returned to him cuz she might not survive.; ২৫/৭/০৯, ৭:০৭ PM