Migrant Victim Blaming

I think that victim blaming is cognitive bias. But one we can all outgrow. Our brains crave causes to anything that happens. Anything good anything bad. So when you hear that someone had something bad happen to them it is natural to think: "Well, what did they do?". It makes our lives simple and our world fair.

Tiger King

Can there be something more endearing than believing that all bad things happen to people who deserve them? To me, it reminds me of an episode in Tiger King, in which someone brought baby tigers to their Las Vegas hotel, so that people could pet them (also the tigers). It brings the idea of a fluffy giant baby who could kill you in a few months. Indeed, thinking that only bad things happen to bad people is a highly privileged and dangerous thing to think.

Victim blaming

Before we continue, though, let's give a common example of victim blaming. You learned that a friend of yours was sexually assaulted in a party. Victim blaming entails any thought related to asking: But what did they do?, How much did they drink?, Why were they there so late?

Again, all these are natural questions that our lizard brain comes up with when faced with a tragedy. Clearly more evolved questions are things like: Is the criminal under custody?, How can I help them in this terrible time?,. Do they need help getting legal representation?

But as always, system two thinking takes longer to activate. So, I believe, we all get lost for a few seconds experiencing the two seconds it takes to remove any chunk of information from our working memory. After some 10 seconds, we are all back on track, and the adult is driving the elephant in our head.

Migration

Victim blaming, at least for me, seldom steps away from sexual assault. If I hear that a friend's car got stolen, I seldom think of where they parked the car. Same if they lost their job, I would not ask if they were bad at it. Nor would I wonder if they forgot to turn on their alarm after hearing of their house being burglarized.

Lately, though, I hear more and more people looking for explanations for why a person gets deported. What did they say? What did they do? How could they think of posting something like that? Are they not grateful for living here? How could they defend Palestine?

These questions enrage me. I am a person who escaped migration anxiety just a few years ago. I still experience the frustration and rage of racist immigration systems. But the threat is gone, for me. When I hear newscasters exploring the blogs of students who were deported for speaking up on unjust policies. I get angry.

No one should be uprooted from the land they live on without just cause and without proper notice. If they are, the government and the people behind the policies are to blame. Not the migrants.

Migrant victim blaming is wrong.

No underwear

I once heard a senior management professor, talking about how any woman who goes to a bar and wears no underwear deserves to be raped. This is different from victim blaming. For this imbecile, no underwear justifies crime.

I believe the same is true in the case of migration. Victim blaming migrants is not simply a case of system one thinking. It is not our lizard brain getting it wrong. People believe that if someone writes critically about whatever policy one elected official dislikes, then they need to be removed from the country.

Passive majority

The problem I see, though, is that even the more liberal among us do not acknowledge the mistake in blaming migrants for their deportation. Liberal news outlets spend precious space writing about why a person is deported, instead of focusing such resources on explaining how to help people in danger from authoritarian politicians.

I could imagine The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Yorker, NPR, or PBS making articles on the clothes used by a victim of sexual assault. But they spend their energy on exploring the reasons why a xenophobic regime deports a person.

True, evil is often banal. Most evil is done by the people who do their jobs. But along with these banal workers, there is us. The passive majority that let the evil happen. If no one speaks up and complains when a news segment victim blames migrants. Then our society will not see the problems it entails.

We are all the passive majority and we need to be enraged when we listen in on someone justifying rape and someone justifying deportation of a legal alien.