OPINION
Peter Allan Williams
Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.realitycheck.radio three days a week
peterallanwilliams.substack.com
The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney born but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, a monkey.
Public opinion, as expressed through media – public and social – is supportive of the NRL taking a strong stand on racial abuse. Some say the ban isn’t long enough.
On the other side of the world Samantha Kerr, who inherits brown skin from her Indian grandmother but is otherwise seventy five percent Caucasian and is now one of the best players in women’s football, gets drunk and calls an English police officer stupid and white.
According to former Australian men’s football captain Craig Foster it’s ok for her to do that because “racism can only be perpetrated against a marginalized person or group.”
Um, who is marginalized here?
An inebriated multi-millionaire of predominantly European ethnicity and a sense of self-entitlement learnt from male colleagues in the Premier League or an English bobby of moderate income just doing his best to tidy up a messy incident in a taxi.
The sympathy for Kerr – and Foster is not alone in expressing it – is worth remembering in the context of the Leniu/Mam incident.
The Samoan, although pleading guilty to the charge, explained that at the time he thought it was “fun and games, one brown man sledging another brown man.”
Leniu explained that growing up in Brisbane he didn’t take offence at being called “monkey” or “coconut.”
But the unspoken truth in Australian race relations is that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders are untouchable. They cannot and must not be abused or insulted, even by their own – witness the vitriol directed against trailblazing indigenous NRL star Anthony Mundine for his support of Leniu.
So a couple of questions here.
If Leniu’s comments had been directed at another Polynesian or Maori player would any action have been taken?
Almost certainly no.
This case went to the NRL Judiciary after Mam complained. It’s unlikely any complaint would have come from Leniu’s opponent if he had been of the same ethnic extraction. Even if such a case did reach a hearing, a ban as lengthy as this would not have been handed down.
If it had been Mam sledging Leniu would the perpetrator have copped an eight week suspension?
Almost certainly not. The racial hierarchy regards Indigenous Australians as victims of colonization and immigration. Therefore punishment for bad behaviour would be mitigated.
That a charge has been laid against Samantha Kerr is remarkable because the British justice system has historically been reluctant to take action against criminal behaviour perpetrated by those of Asian ethnicity – witness the Rotherham “grooming gang” scandals which weren’t prosecuted for nearly twenty years.
If Kerr said what she is alleged to have said it’s up there with Anikaaro Harawira-Havili, daughter of Hone, telling an Indian police officer, during the Ihumatao protest of 2019, to “f**k off back to your own country.”
No action was taken against her.
Would it be now?
Unlikely.
Her father insisted to me on the radio that was not a racist comment.
Will Kerr’s case make it to court?
Probably not because she’s sort of brown and she’s rich. It’s an irresistible combination for getting off.
Also, as Craig Foster says, racism “is when someone with race-based societal power excludes or disadvantages a racially based person because of their race, colour or descent.
“Definitions of racism were not designed to protect a white police officer who has greater racial and legal power.”
He cannot be serious.
How much longer will we whiteys put up with the double standards?