{"id":4665,"date":"2013-06-07T22:22:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T12:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=4665"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:24:11","slug":"casual-racism-and-dominant-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/casual-racism-and-dominant-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Casual’ racism and dominant discourse: A review of the AFL media debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Adam

Adam Goodes points the finger after being called an ‘ape’ by a young Collingwood supporter during the AFL’s Indigenous Round. Photo: Andrew White Fairfax<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sarah Capper<\/a><\/p>\n

June 07, 2013<\/p>\n

In 1999, former St Kilda ruckman Peter \u201cSpida\u201d Everitt<\/b><\/a> was cited for racial vilification against Melbourne player Scott Chisholm. Everitt reportedly called Chisholm a \u201cblack c**t\u201d during Round 2 of the AFL season that year.<\/p>\n

Everitt copped a $20,000 fine, self-imposed a four week match ban, and undertook a racial awareness program. He apologised to the Aboriginal community, to Chisholm and spent time with Chisholm\u2019s family<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was copious media comment on the AFL and racism, and player attitudes. The outrage, as demonstrated on talkback and in newspaper editorials, centred on the racist implications of Everitt\u2019s phrase.<\/p>\n

The public narrative, by and large, didn\u2019t seem remotely perturbed by the sexism attached with the use of the word \u201cc**t\u201d.<\/p>\n

The media circus rolled on, with other episodes of racist attitudes within the AFL rearing their ugly heads<\/b><\/a> along the timeline leading up to last week, when the issue dominated the news<\/b><\/a>, sparked by a 13 year old Collingwood supporter calling Sydney Swans great Adam Goodes an \u201cape\u201d from the crowd during the opening match of the AFL\u2019s Indigenous Round. Of all the Rounds, yep.<\/p>\n

The already-big media story was then lobbed into a murkier depths when Collingwood President Eddie McGuire linked Goodes<\/b><\/a> with possible promotional tactics for the musical King Kong on his breakfast radio program.<\/p>\n

Prior to the \u2018King Kong\u2019 comments, the Collingwood President had been hailed for his response to the 13 year old supporter<\/a> in his club. In the wake of the first instance, he even shone the spotlight on politicians kicking around the asylum seeker fear football, arguing that:<\/p>\n

“Politicians set the tone for the type of country that we will get and the voters go along with it. We all have to decide whether we’re going to be a red neck, hick country, or we are going to be a country that is very much involved in tolerance”.<\/p>\n

The Magpie President had spoken<\/b><\/a> with the 13 year old, and reported that she hadn\u2019t understood that her \u201cape\u201d comment had been racist. But Maguire understood it, which made for all the more warranted condemnation when he stumbled through his King Kong promotional suggestion of getting Goodes involved.<\/p>\n

It must have sucked to be Adam Goodes last week. You spend the first few days after your game during Indigenous round \u2013 yep \u2013 explaining how parents and the wider community have a responsibility for teaching our children the values of respect, and then one of football\u2019s most powerful men, who has on the surface been making all the right utterances, takes the offensive remarks to a new level on his popular breakfast radio program.<\/p>\n

McGuire\u2019s defence<\/b><\/a> during what can only be described as a painful (to watch) press conference was that he was tired, it was a slip of the tongue<\/b><\/a>, he knows it was wrong, he put his foot in it, and again, gee it was a terrible slip of the tongue.<\/p>\n

Some of the commentary that followed the Maguire comments and apology asked deeper questions:<\/p>\n

– In the Global Mail, Debra Jopson<\/b><\/a> asked \u201cwho is going to apologise for Australia\u2019s covert racism?<\/b>\u201d and pointed to Northern Territory Aboriginal activist Olga Havnen\u2019s recent Lowitje O\u2019Donohue lecture on \u2018Healing the Fault lines: uniting politicians, bureaucrats and NGOs for improved outcomes in Aboriginal Health<\/b><\/a>\u2019 (a gap sadly highlighted this week with the passing of the lead singer of Yothu Yindi).<\/p>\n

– Sam De Brito<\/b><\/a> compared the situation with the treatment of racism in the United States, that in Australia we instead have the \u201cAussie “lite” version\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe do not understand the anger, the shame, the frustration, the bitterness and\u00a0 sorrow of what was taken from indigenous Australians,\u201d<\/a><\/b> he wrote in his Fairfax column.<\/p>\n

– Writing for the Conversation, Tom Heenan and David Dunstan <\/b><\/a>looked at the this \u2018casual\u2019 side of racism that is often excused as a joke, and \u201cgiven Australian Rules football is the most popular sport in the land, and McGuire one of the best known personalities, what does this tell us about wider Australian society\u2019s approach to \u201cjokes\u201d involving race?\u201d
\n<\/b>
\n– And in Overland journal, Jeff Sparrow<\/b><\/a> argued:<\/p>\n

“[Maguire\u2019s] \u2018King Kong\u2019 remark deserves all the attention it has received, not because we should care about the state of his soul or the deep structures of his mind, but because if someone in his position can get away with racial invective, there will be consequences all down the line.”<\/b><\/p>\n

But amongst the condemnation, critiques, questioning of our cultural attitudes and wider conversations that can only be worthwhile as having in this country, there were defenders of Team Eddie, and further evidence of what De Brito and Heenan and Dunstan write about in terms of Australia\u2019s \u201ccasual\u201d attitude towards racism.<\/p>\n

Cue Eddie\u2019s mate Sam Newman<\/b><\/a>, a bloke who should have been pulled off our television years ago (from his \u2018blackface\u2019 dress up antics, to his abhorrent sexism), who defended Maguire\u2019s comments as a \u201cgaffe\u201d made by \u201cword association, nothing more”.<\/b><\/p>\n

Talkback callers took to the issue with gusto. One caller to Mcguire\u2019s show said<\/a> \u201cYou can\u2019t even say anything (without) people getting upset. Come on people cool down,\u201d <\/b>while another said<\/a>, \u201cI can\u2019t believe the storm it\u2019s caused,” she said. “You\u2019re probably the least racist person I know.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Anytime a member of the dominant culture tells someone to \u201clighten up\u201d or \u201ctake a joke\u201d or \u201ccool down\u201d, alarm bells should go off.<\/p>\n

And they went off recently, after Mamamia founder Mia Freedman defended the Voice judge Delta Goodrem<\/a><\/b>, who had re-tweeted a picture of Voice fans dressed up as the judges \u2013 including one with a \u2018blackface\u2019 as Seal (Goodrem wrote the accompanying message \u201cThat is hilarious!! Hope u had fun! Ha!!\u201d).<\/p>\n

In response to Goodrem being told that blackface is not funny, it’s racist, Freedman wrote:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cStop this madness. PLEASE. WE. MUST. STOP. IT.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0And \u201cDoes anyone truly believe Delta is racist? Or the guy dressed up as Seal? Come on.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Broadcaster Meshel Laurie<\/b><\/a> wrote a passionate rebuke of Freedman\u2019s defence, also published on Mamamia, arguing:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b><\/em>Australian racism doesn\u2019t affect my employment opportunities, or my nights out. The media doesn\u2019t ignore my problems, or those of my ancestral homeland… People don\u2019t openly fear or mistrust me because of my color. I\u2019m not followed in shops by anxious staff. Taxis don\u2019t pull up at my house and then drive off when they see me walk towards them. No one tells their kids not to play with mine. No one worries I might be a terrorist.
\n\u201cAs a fortunate white woman, I don\u2019t believe I have the right to decide what isn\u2019t racist in Australia. I\u2019m not the one hurt and belittled by it. Honestly, I find the telling of racial minorities that they are over reacting about racism demeaning.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Also in response to Freedman, Sunili Govinnage<\/b><\/a> wrote in Fairfax that:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“the biggest problem with comments like these is that every time people say that a racist joke or blackface dress-up is ‘hilarious’, and that being offended by it is “batshit crazy”, it delegitimises already marginalised voices against hurtful values and attitudes.<\/b><\/p>\n

“By mentioning that she was “having one of those ‘has the world gone mad?’ moments”, Freedman suggested that being offended by racism is irrational and wrong.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cHer response to allegations of racism came in the same gaslighting formula used by some men to describe the ‘hysterical’ reaction of women to instances of innocuous-to-some sexism.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Both Laurie and Govinnage\u2019s arguments centred on the old notion that \u201conly the oppressed understand oppression\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the Prime Minister Julia Gillard rose in parliament last year and delivered her \u201cI will not be lectured on misogyny by that man\u201d speech, directed at the Opposition Leader, she was accused of playing the ‘gender card’.<\/p>\n

The media labeled it \u201cdesperate\u201d (in both New Limited and Fairfax papers, here<\/b><\/a> and here<\/b><\/a>) (a word not unlike ‘hysterical’, as Giovannage acknowledges), while the Opposition Leader accused Gillard of playing the “victim card”.<\/p>\n

Following the subsequent \u201cgender card\u201d accusations, the Prime Minister provided this reflection<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is actually a manifestation of deep sexism that you would say, that if a woman raises her voice, then that is her playing the victim, as opposed to her standing up for her rights.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

As with racism, we have a culture of ‘casual sexism’ in this country whereby it is often countered with doubts being cast on the level of offence caused and with the predictable ‘lighten up, it\u2019s just a joke’ response.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same as when a straight person describes something as being ‘soooo gay’, and then defends this phrase by declaring \u201cI\u2019m not being homophobic, I\u2019m just saying \u2018it\u2019s stupid\u2019\u201d (please, if you ever use this line, re-read it again and again until you figure it out).<\/p>\n

In tackling one of the biggest indicators of gender inequality, US Anti violence campaigner Jackson Katz<\/b><\/a> has proclaimed men\u2019s violence against women a \u201cmen\u2019s issue” (rather than the typical prism of seeing it as a \u2018women\u2019s issue\u2019), because it\u2019s the dominant culture that ultimately needs to change if we want to make serious inroads in addressing the issue.<\/p>\n

“In the United States, when we hear the word ‘race’, people generally think of African Americans,” Katz said. “When people hear ‘sexual orientation’,they tend to think that means homosexual, gay, or lesbian. When people hear ‘gender’, they think of women.”<\/b><\/p>\n

“In each, the dominate culture is left out of the equation. This is one way that dominant systems maintain themselves in that they are rarely challenged to think about their own dominance,” Katz said. “This is one of the key characteristics of power and privilege and why the dominant culture has ability to go unexamined and remain invisible.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Dismissing casual racism, sexism, or any \u2018ism\u2019 as someone else\u2019s issue to solve, or as being ‘just a joke’, does nothing to challenge or change the dominant culture – it just reinforces it.<\/p>\n

Comedian Aamer Rahman, who initially highlighted the offence in Delta Goodrem\u2019s re-tweet, neatly summarises this notion<\/a>, that \u201cnormalising the casual mockery of people of colour through accepted mainstream culture \u2013 structurally preserving a white majority’s right to have fun at someone else’s expense \u2013 is a key building block in maintaining the hierarchy of racism.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Message from Sarah, editor of Sheilas:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sheila’s monthly email\u00a0links subscribers to issues being covered in the media. It’s an e-publication, produced in between the major editions of ‘Sheilas’, published on www.sheilas.org.au<\/a>.\u00a0 I have given No Fibs permission to publish the June email and encourage No Fibs\u00a0readers to subscribe to Sheilas. Simply enter your email address into the ‘sign-up’ field on the website (www.sheilas.org.au<\/a>) or email me and I will add you (sarah@vwt.org.au<\/a>). It’s free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Capper June 07, 2013 In 1999, former St Kilda ruckman Peter \u201cSpida\u201d Everitt was cited for racial vilification against Melbourne player Scott Chisholm. Everitt reportedly called Chisholm a \u201cblack c**t\u201d during Round 2 of the AFL season that year. Everitt copped a $20,000 fine, self-imposed a four week match ban, and undertook a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,585,31,399],"tags":[648,2605,2581,429],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-1df","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}