Race again intruded into the tragic affair of Anna Climbie, the little black girl who died as a result of appalling mistreatment over an extended period by her great aunt and her boyfriend, both also black. Our biased assessment? No, that of Afro-Caribbean journalist, Angella Johnson, writing in the Daily Mail (January 14th) on the outrage. Anna died, said Miss Johnson, because those working in the social services in the London borough of Haringey, who are supposed to be responsible for spotting and stopping such abuses in child care, were so hypnotised by the demons of "anti-racism" that they could not believe, or were afraid to believe, that such things were happening or that they were particularly untoward.

It may be recalled from media reports that Anna sustained 128 separate injuries, resulting from such things as whipping with a wire coathanger, smashing of the feet by a hammer, slashing of the hands with a razor blade, scalding of the head with boiling water and beating with a bicycle chain. Every night she was stripped, hound limb-to-limb and bundled into a black bin bag and tossed into a bathtub in a freezing room, where she lay sometimes for three days without food. According to Miss Johnson, those working in the appropriate local authorities who had been alerted to Anna's probable fate were reluctant to intervene because they were afraid to appear "racist", and also because two key persons concerned, Lisa Arthurworrey, a black social worker, and Karen Jones, a black policewoman, simply didn't want to believe that fellow Blacks like the girl's two guardians could be doing wrong. Said Johnson:-

‘So when the enquiry looks for answers I beg to suggest it looks closely at the hand political correctness may have played in Anna's death.

‘Clearly cultural blackmail played a part. Even though Arthuworrey and Jones are black, it is likely that assumption and cultural differences coloured their actions.’

Anna's guardian, Marie Therese Kouao, and her partner Carl Manning apparently had taken her from Africa's Ivory Coast to Britain, according to Johnson, "so they could mi1k the British welfare system." But, once here and settled to in area like Haringey, they could do no wrong. They had become an "oppressed" minority. It seems to me, said Johnson-

‘...that in left-wing councils such as Haringey the Marxist maxim about the underdog always being right colours the working practices of many agencies’