Why the Woke-Left hates casual racism (but seems happy to use it themselves)
It’s a case of double standards, writes Warren Mundine
‘Casual racism” or “everyday racism” are expressions to describe throwaway comments based on racial prejudice, said ignorantly or without bad intent.
For example, asking a non-white person where they “really come from” or mispronouncing nonEnglish names.
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says such things can marginalise, denigrate, humiliate and harm people, even if the conduct isn’t motivated by hate or malice.
The ABC’s website has pages of content on the topic, including articles entitled “Where are you from? Why a seemingly innocuous question can be so offensive” and “Your stories of everyday racism: What’s in a name?”
The Woke-Left have their very own category of casual racism. Actually, it’s just regular racism — the only thing casual and everyday about it is how regularly and offhandedly they dish it out and their level of denial.
Phillip Adams, ABC Radio National broadcaster and The Australian columnist, is the latest celebrity Leftie to dish out a racial slur on Twitter, with his put-down of entertainment icon Kandiah Kamalesvaran, better known as Kamahl, for defending the late Sir Donald Bradman.
In response to Adams’s bizarre claim that Bradman refused to meet Nelson Mandela, Kamahl said he’d been welcomed to Bradman’s home many times and corresponded with him for over a decade.
Adams replied that Bradman clearly made Kamahl an “honorary white”. In doing so Adams attacked Kamahl with what some consider one of the most demeaning racist insults against a black or brown person – calling them a race traitor.
Black or brown people who are successful, wealthy, conservative or oppose or criticise some Woke-Left cause are often called sellouts and traitors to their race.
There are many labels including “Uncle Tom”, “coconut” (black on the outside, white on the inside) and “token”. It’s grounded in the idea being black or brown equates to failure and oppression and being white equates to success and independent thinking.
Adams’ tweet to Kamahl appeared to be a scornful put-down with a very clear message: your friendship with Bradman was delusional, he only liked you because you were successful and he thought you were as good as a white person.
Adams’s claims about Bradman were false. As chairman of the Australian Cricket Board, Bradman cancelled South Africa’s 1971-72 Australian cricket tour saying: “We will not play them until they choose a team on a non-racial basis”.
He didn’t come to that decision easily, not because he was racist, but because he believed sport and politics shouldn’t mix and was reluctant to punish South African cricketers who opposed apartheid – and ruin their careers – because of their government’s actions. Bradman and Mandela had great mutual admiration. Bradman wrote to Mandela saying he was “a champion of humanity and a man with a compassion for mankind”.
Bradman is in the Woke-Left’s firing line because of a recently uncovered letter he sent to Malcolm Fraser in 1975 following Fraser’s crushing election defeat of Gough Whitlam.
Bradman urged Fraser to bring inflation under control, expressed support for private enterprise and opposition to socialism and suggested ditching some Whitlamera policies. For expressing views that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Labor caucus during the Hawke/Keating years, Adams declared Bradman a “right wing nut job”.
Apparently it’s okay to tweet racial insults at Kamahl for defending Bradman because Bradman criticised Saint Gough.
Adams has since deleted his tweet about Kamahl but refused to apologise. Instead, he’s come out defiantly – blocking Kamahl on Twitter, tweeting about making an “intellectual” point and Bradman’s opposition to apartheid not being pure enough; boasting about his record on various social justice causes since the 1960s and his Human Rights Medal from the AHRC; and saying he’s the one who deserves an apology.
That’s Woke-Left moral superiority for you.
Currently I receive racial abuse daily and will for another year because I oppose the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The ABC and AHRC couldn’t care less. They only oppose racism when it suits their politics.