Risk and Exceptionalism LXXXVII:

The Abuse of Femicide

After the murder of a seventeen year girl old girl, named Lisa, near Duyvendrecht in Amsterdam, Dutch feminist movements immediately tried to uphold the narrative, that femicide is a male issue. These movements already anticipated what happened the subsequent weekend in football stadiums in the Netherlands. At the seventeenth minute, a minute applause was scheduled to draw attention to femicide. However, many mostly, if not not exclusively, male fans had brought national flags to the football grounds. Some of these flags were flags from the Dutch fascist party during the Third Reich, the NSB, others from South Africa and even one from the corporatist-imperialist organization from the times of colonial exploitation, the VOC. 

The reason why radical nationalism made this “stance” in relation to femicide is that the current suspect is reported as having been living in a refugee centre. This obviously opportunistic attempt to change the public narrative from the one advanced by feminist movements is not completely random. A potential murderer who had entered the country as a refugee is an easy trump card to play to support anti-refugee policies. This is why all stories about crimes being allegedly committed by foreigners in general (even including those who are not refugees) are extremely welcome to anti-refugee politics. Whereas those who hear and read a news story about someone killing innocent people often have as a first reaction an expression of fear that the person responsible is a foreigner or worse, a refugee, those anti-refugee movements are actually hoping that it is. That is, they need these crimes to make their case. They needed Lisa to be murdered so that they could make their point. They might have even been waiting for this very moment.

The first element that needs to be flagged up here is the role of the scapegoat. The refugee is today’s off-the-shelf scapegoat. “He” is the stranger that is among us and stays. René Girard’s conception of the scapegoat emphasizes its integrative function. Because of the scapegoat being loaded with the blame of all bad things happening to the community, his sacrifice is like a making amends to the gods. There is, however, a significant element that is often overlooked, which marks the revolutionary moment of Christianity. Christ is the scapegoat that carries not the blame of his own sins, but of the collective sins of the community. His sacrifice is an offering to appease God on behalf of the sinful community. That is to say, whereas human politics may associate the scapegoat with allegations of crimes committed, the perceived necessity of scapegoating stems from the crimes committed by the community itself. This is exactly what white, European racism has always been about. The most hideous crimes have been committed by white Europeans in the name of Western, Christian Civilization. Imperialism is the reason why refugees come to Europe. Imperialism is the cause of extreme poverty and inequality, of hunger, draughts, loss of biodiversity, climate change, environmental pollution, wars, terrorism, corruption etc. All of these factors contribute to the alleged refugee crisis facing the imperial core (not just Europe).