Racist or not?

[stui magpie]

Sam Kerr, you know, the female soccer player, is in strife for allegedly calling a cop in England a "stupid white bastard" after a night out on the p155 which apparently saw her upchuck in a taxi. (hands up anyone who hasn't done that in their 20's to early 30s"

Kerr is 1/4 Indian bloodlines, just for the record.

Some people are calling for her to be stripped of the Matildas Captaincy, others are saying it isn't racism because the inherent power imbalance isn't on her side. IDFK either way. My general opinion is it's a person in their early 30's who's been targeted by assholes for being brown and lesbian, had too much to drink and said something they wouldn't normally say.

Thoughts?

[stui magpie]

Aww shit, I meant to put this in the VPT. Sorry, Mods can you pls move or should I delete and try again?

[What'sinaname]

I know there is bullshit out there that from the Diversity Council of Australia saying that a person without race based societal power can't be racist, but instead is prejudiced.

The fact is, she chundered in a cab and refused to pay the cleaning fee. The poor cabbie called the Cops and the Cops got racially attacked in his workplace.

[Skids]

She's worth over $5 million and earns a million a year... sure is a power imbalance.

The world's definitely gone nuts.

I thought it was all about how the victim feels?

[David]

My instinctive response is a) yes, technically, though surely at the most mild end of the spectrum; and b) that cop is a massive snowflake for booking her over it. All the stuff about her being stripped of the captaincy is equally cringe and just further evidence that people are desperate to find something to be offended about.

[pietillidie]

One of those flare-ups that all involved, including the cop as David says, need to move on from in the light of day. People are more than one incident, and it's unfair to make them one incident. Meanwhile, in life terms she's still but youngster and will learn holding one's tongue can save a lot of rigmarole and fuss. Meanwhile, we all go on benders we regret, regardless our age, fame, career, income, sexual preference, ethnicity, gender or whatever else!

Discretion is, as always, the better part of valour for all concerned here, including, especially for those worked up about it (and I don't mean the OP, whom I know definitely won't be worked up about it, and who's just being topical in the spirit of the VPT!).

[What'sinaname]

The fact that she hasn't apologised highlights how entitled and out of touch she is. She even came out to set the record straight that she didn't call the cop a bastard, but instead a "stupid white cop" and at no stage thought, "oh, maybe I should apologise for saying that".

For all of Peta Credlin's faults, at least she called out the hypocrisy and double standard.

[slangman]

Replace Kerr with De Goey and white policeman with black policeman and you will easily understand why her remark was racist and her behaviour worthy of getting stripped of her captaincy at the very least within the current day societal standards.

Twenty years ago this would have barely made the papers.

[David]

The problem is that you can't just swap white with black and assume that it has the same impact and same capacity to cause harm. We (including people in the UK) don't live in societies with histories of discrimination and systemic violence against white people.

Conservatives can call that hypocritical or double standards, but the issue here is that racism is not something that emerges from a vacuum – its effect lies within existing societal power dynamics. If you don't understand that, you don't really understand what racism is.

[What'sinaname]

If you’re view aligns with MP John Ruddick, it’s time to take a good hard look at yourself.

[stui magpie]

Personally I think the Cop needs to take a teaspoon of concrete and HTFU. It might be technically racist, but geezus. It's hardly comparable really for calling a black person a black (insert insult).

I got called Whitey once by an Aboriginal bloke I'd just been interviewing for an Aboriginal Liason Officer role. He bailed during the interview once it became clear the role wasn't for him and said "See ya Whitey" as he walked out.

I was taken aback a bit, as I didn't expect it but certainly wasn't offended. The Aboriginal Elder who was interviewing with me however was not happy at all, thought his attitude sucked.

[Bucks5]

I disagree. It has to work both ways and it is racist if it is said to insinuate that the other person's skin colour is a negative trait.

[slangman]

[David]

I don’t use it as a slur; I just get think it’s generally the case that people who don’t think racism is power-inflected lean conservative (though I also think there are conservatives who do understand and appreciate this).

Speaking of which, I had to look up who this John Ruddick was who What’sinaname is denouncing above, and he’s a right-wing LDP politician from NSW. I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/cop-in-sam-kerr-racial-abuse-case-a-sook-nsw-mp-has-claimed/news-story/f1f9959a90dfbb8d65eb19c1bfc09214?amp

[stui magpie]

If a White cop in England took offence at being called White, he has to have skin like tissue paper. Maybe it was the Bastard comment that upset him, the Poms can be twitchy about that whereas to Aussies it's basically a term of endearment.

Possibly an apocryphal story, but back in the 1940's or 50's, England was playing test cricket in Australia when the England Captain stormed into the Australian dressing room and complained that one of the Australian team had called him a Bastard.

The Australian Captain (apparently) turned to the dressing room and yelled out, "Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?"

The English captain left before anyone replied.