I am amazed by the fact that mainstream media is throwing all the moral outrage over the fact that Dominique Strauss Kahn had sex with women who, so far seem to be consenting sex workers, however, they won’t touch this tidbit of information from a few weeks ago with a ten foot pole:
All of the women, who are mainly French and Belgians from immigrant backgrounds
Granted, the above is from a couple of weeks ago but no other outlet has since mentioned the ethnicity of most of these sex workers. For me, in the context of the rape allegations in New York, where the victim is also an immigrant, the quote above is much, much more powerful. It speaks volumes of DSK’s mindset and, in view of his role as Chief of the IMF, to me, this also reflects on how he thought of the people in the countries of the Global South where his institution was imposing policies that led to further poverty and exploitation.
Instead, we are getting moral outrage because OMG SEX WORKERS! Please, that alone does not tell a story. Moreover, that is not even the newsworthy part of the story. Because truly, I am much more interested in the details of his racism and how he was part of an institution that played a large role to establish these racial categories globally than in an old guy being called a “libertine”.
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