DID THE COURT GET IT WRONG?

ARTIST Bindi Cole gave evidence against me as an Aborigine. Now she says she is “also white”, and I ask again whether the Federal Court got it wrong.

Cole was one of nine people identifying as Aboriginal who took me to court over articles in which I asked why they didn’t identify instead as white, or both Aboriginal and white.

You see, even the judge called them “fair-skinned Aboriginal people”.

For instance, one was an Aboriginal activist whose sister disputed her claimed genealogy and identified as non-Aboriginal.

Another was an Aboriginal writer whose father was born in Austria.

Cole, herself, has some Aboriginal ancestors on her father’s side and none on her mother’s.

As I said in my articles, all identified as Aboriginal for heartfelt and honest reasons, but I argued that race could be a choice. In my opinion, all had other options in identifying themselves.

To my shock, the nine won their case. The judge said there was typically no choice in identification for such Aborigines, and for various reasons, ruled I’d broken the Racial Discrimination Act.

But now Cole says she’s changed her thinking because of this court case.

In a powerful video she’s filmed, she said: “I was exposed to conservative ideas for the very first time …

“I realised what a bubble I had actually been living in … What I was, was a social justice warrior and a virtue signaller.”

Cole says she read deeply and no longer identifies solely as Aboriginal.

“One of my identities is Aboriginal and I can’t stop being Aboriginal. I am what I am. But when I made that my sole identity, it was confusing because I am also white. So I was both the victim, the Aboriginal victim, but also the white oppressor.”

Cole says she had previously identified as a female victim of male oppression, too.

“I was always a victim of so many different things that I didn’t actually have to take any responsibility for myself or for my behaviours whatsoever.

“I could constantly blame everything and everyone else.”

Cole, a courageous thinker, still thinks I was mean to her, and I am sorry about that.

But here’s one of the people the Federal Court said I’d offended now confirming one of my key arguments, that Cole and the others could choose how they racially identified.

So what now?