Children
The serialization in 1837-1839 of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, in which the escapades of the young protagonist begin with his escape from a workhouse, neatly coincided with the enactment of Britain’s first law regulating child labor. Whether Twist had anything to do with the enactment, I have no idea, but the welfare of children has long been a subject of interest to political bodies.
That interest now comes with a macabre twist (pun intended) in this country. Impressionable and uniformed children are now encouraged in some jurisdictions (and by POTUS) to do irreparable harm to themselves despite their parent’s natural right to protect their children. Indeed, California is moving toward criminalization of parents who dare to inform their confused children that they are not members of the opposite sex or non-binary, and parents who dare to prevent those same vulnerable children from undergoing irreversible and psychologically devastating sex-change procedures.
Children are still victims, in ways that Dickens and the reformers of yore would condemn.
Blacks
Long story short: Blacks, for the most part, were truly victims in the eras of slavery and Jim Crow.
Blacks now — courtesy of “affirmative action” and white guilt — are overrepresented in many ways, ranging from college admissions to executive positions to their presence in films, TV shows, and commercials. All of that despite their genes and culture, which cause them to be overrepresented among low-income-earners, low-wealth-accumulators, and violent criminals.
But no matter, the “victimhood” of blacks permits them to riot, burn, and kill with near impunity. And it has come to the point that a cop (even a black one) dare not confront a black “victim” for fear of being persecuted for racism, if not killed in the line of duty.
Women
Women have been victims for so long that I will not venture a thumbnail sketch of their victimhood. The fascinating aspect of that victimhood is the continued depiction of women as oppressed when they dominate public education and college enrollments, and have become broadly represented in politics, the media, the academy, big business, the military, and you name it.
Women’s main gripe these days is that they are “underrepresented” in STEM disciplines, though that gripe conveniently overlooks inherent differences between male and female brain structures.
There is another gripe, which is about the intrusion of so-called “women” into women’s sports, but that can be reversed if women will just get their heads around the fact that conservatives who oppose the mutilation of children are equally opposed to unfair competition and forced mingling of the sexes.
I cannot resist noting that much which is wrong with America today — coddling of children who become criminals, coddling of criminals, the lowering of standards for jobs that require strength and speed, the tendency to create “victims” and then require their advancement on any basis but merit, and the victimization of women by so-called transsexuals — is due to the feminization of the culture, which traces back to the long dominance of women in public education.