Kerr

03/14/2024

It’s a bit confusing that Sam Kerr can make a racist remark that apparently isn’t racist because it was directed to a member of a racial majority. Then later an Islander Rugby league player abuses an Aboriginal player, and it’s racist.

My view is that they shouldn’t be thinking in racial adjectives at all, majority or minority. It just reflects a way of thinking that does you no good.

Looking back at my school days in the 70s I recall numerous racial slurs floating around.

They were meant to sting and they sometimes did because the recipient rarely had a useful comeback. As an aside, if they took it badly they were sort of buying into the racism.

The entire point of the slurs was to get in the last word in an argument before fists started flying.

I also can’t recall anyone being actually racist in the sense of genuinely believing that a certain race was inferior in any way.

In our melting pot of a school we simply had too much data that proved just the opposite. Plus, we had too many races present, and it wouldn’t have been very practical – you would have had no friends.

For example, in soccer the best players were all of Italian origin. We didn’t give it to them, the clear “racial” superiority. No way, we “Australians” and Greeks (plus the odd Armenian or Chinese kid) were much better at stats after all.

I guess I’m saying people can act racist without actually being racist. Which is why it makes sense to crack down on racist behaviour. It only works if the underlying person isn’t racist.

And for those genuinely racist types, well they will slowly be bred out of the human race with no affirming behaviours to hang onto.