http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/miss-judgement/index.php/heraldsun/commen... There's no point in being a victim Rita Panahi 2016-05-30 HeraldSun.com.au Where do you rank in the Oppression Olympics? Are you floundering at the bottom of the table among the privileged white, Christian, heteronormative cisgender males with no moral authority to speak on any issue? Or are you going for gold as a transgendered pansexual Muslim woman of colour? There was a time when a person’s status was determined by their birth; those fortunate enough to belong to the aristocracy were judged to be our moral and intellectual superiors. Now there’s a new and even more toxic pecking order that determines one’s acceptability and authority to speak on a range of issues. The new aristocracy is determined by one’s victimhood status; the more grievance points you accumulate, the greater your mandate to preach. Of course, if you don’t identify as a victim then your oppression ranking plummets to Anglo-male depths, but if you play the game right, you can use your grievance status to score plum roles as well as dodge all responsibility if you happen to fail miserably. One popular tactic among the victimhood brigade is the refusal to accept any criticism that comes from those who are of a different race, religion, gender, sexuality or whatever else differentiates you. Men should not speak about feminism, whites should butt out of black or ethnic debates, and non-Muslims should never pass judgment on Islam. Last week soon-to-be-retired Senator Nova Peris rejected the opinions of those who don’t share her oppression ranking. “Until you are an Aboriginal person, don’t criticise me,” she said. Really? Can I play that card the next time I receive unhinged abuse from the always bitter and outraged feminist frightbats who are invariably middle-class white women? From now on my standard response to any and all criticism will be: “Unless you are an American-born Persian Australian, don’t judge me.” Let's remember that Peris isn't some disempowered victim; indeed she's been treated better than most in her short political career. Allegations that Peris used taxpayer money to carry out an extramarital affair would have ended most political careers but she survived and earned a few extra grievance points by painting herself as the victim. While working for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Peris was involved in a decision to bring her lover, Olympian Ato Boldon, to Australia for a 10-day tryst interrupted by a few athletic workshops. However when the scandal was revealed, and again last week, there was no shortage of media pundits eager to characterise any criticism of Peris as racially motivated. We see the same simplistic arguments put forward claiming only indigenous people are entitled to an opinion on Australia Day, or Invasion Day, or whenever matters concerning the indigenous community are debated. How absurd to think that all people of a particular race or religion share the same values and viewpoints and will have their “side” adequately covered by an ethnically-appropriate representative. Those who demand that every member of a particular minority group think and vote the same way are guilty of the sort of closeminded prejudice that the Left used to rail against. It's not just a local phenomenon - Egyptian feminist Mona Hathaway, a favourite of the Q&A set, recently demanded that only Muslim women speak about the religion's many problems, particularly with veiling. “If you're white/ not a Muslim woman: shut up and listen to us, Muslim women,” she tweeted. Victimhood does not equal moral superiority, particularly when in your eagerness to establish your victimhood status you ignore real victims. Western feminists who turn their back on oppressed women while getting worked up about non-issues such as gendered toys and “sexist air conditioners” are not noble warriors, merely trolls. Ordinarily I'd be the type of minority the average Leftie would be delighted to embrace given my many oppression points: woman of colour, Middle Eastern refugee, atheist, single mother - if I was also a lesbian with a disability I'd have hit the diversity jackpot. And that's part of the problem. Many progressives consider diversity a disability to be overcome. The victimhood they seek signifies for them a struggle that is often entirely in their own minds. My failure to see my ethnic origin as some sort of handicap is deemed unacceptable. The fact that I don't view Australia as an inherently racist country ruled by monstrous patriarchy riles them even more. Unlike most Western feminists who have abandoned their sisters in the Muslim world, I won't stay silent about the systematic subjugation of women in the name of Islam. That I won't frame my opinions in a manner that pushes daft social justice agendas that are short on justice and high on propagating falsehoods is the final deal breaker. All of that combines to negate any oppresion points I've accumulated and casts me as an enemy of your average Leftist, or progressive as they prefer to be called. Those people believe that if you don't subscribe to their dippy worldview you're suffering from internal misogyny and racism. That's intellectually vacuous and it's at the heart of the social justice activism that's taken hold of much of academia. Is it any surprise universities are increasingly banning free speech and creating “safe spaces” to spare their delicate student populations from the only diversity they hate - the diversity of opinion? Identity politics that portrays victimhood as something to be lauded is counter-productive and divisive. Only a bigot would dismiss someone's opinion based on their race, religion, gender or sexuality. rita DOT panahi AT news.com.au