Ordinarily, I quite enjoy Indigenous Australian journalist Stan Grant’s articles. Typically,
he writes about international relations, which I find quite interesting. Things like, “Mass
protests over China's COVID-zero policy sound like 1989. Is Xi Jinping listening?”. However,
recently he’s on a pursuit, along with the rest of the ABC apparently,
to make regular Australians feel like they’re racists. In this article, “Why would a teenager
vilify an Aboriginal footballer? The answer lies in Australia's history and law”. Actually,
what’s funny, when you click on this article, the title immediately changes to,
“Racist abuse of Indigenous NRL player Latrell Mitchell reflects Australia's past and present.
How can we escape it?”. In the article, he mentions “white people” no less than four times:
1. “If our people being the most imprisoned people in this country
is not enough to make white people stop being racist then I don't know what is.”
2. “If our people dying 10 years younger than everyone else in this country is
not enough to make white people stop being racist I don't know what is.”
3. “At times like this I wonder what is the point in writing anything that
appeals to the better angels of white people because that seems like a fool’s errand.”
I find it interesting that even the ABC aren’t immune to racism:
“ABC apologises to staff for racism in newsrooms”
And number 4. “I am not writing this to make white people understand.”
Stan Grant is an international relations specialist. When he sticks to international
relations, I quite like his journalism. But when he targets "white people" as if that's
the only reason racism exists, he's being wilfully ignorant. I know he knows that
racism exists outside of "white people", but he's acting like it doesn't. I know he's lived
in China. And I know lots of Chinese people. I would argue that Chinese people in Australia
are much more dismissive of Indigenous Australians than is the average "white
person". But why doesn't he mention that? Why is it only the "white people" that are
the demons? Is he intentionally trying to stoke a racial divide? And why is the ABC allowing this?
In his article, he finishes with, "This country was founded on a racist idea that
we were barely human. Our land was stolen. Our people were killed. Racism is written into our
constitution. There it is still, in Section 25, a heinous clause that can allow for people to be
denied the right to vote on the basis of race. It is considered inoperative today — called a dead
letter clause — because the Racial Discrimination Act prohibits it. But it still sits there,
condemning us. I do not belong to a "race". I belong to a people: Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi,
Dharrawal people — members of the human race. Race is a fiction but, as we know, such a lethal one."
It's funny, he says that race is a fiction, but he keeps demonising "white people".
When I was a kid, Stan Grant used to host a current affairs program called Real Life. I
used to watch it with my Dad, and at no point did we ever comment,
or even think about Stan’s racial identity. I just thought of him as that news
reporter guy. It’s only in recent years that I’ve ever thought about him in terms of race,
and the only reason is because he keeps bloody well going on about it all the
time. It’s like he’s obsessed about it. It’s as if there’s nothing else that defines him now.
good evening I want to pay my respects to the iora
people and the land of the gadigal people and who we're meeting tonight
Stan Grant has been really successful in his life, much more successful than me.
He’s worked for CNN and other big media outlets, and he’s done really well in life. So why now is
he stoking these racial tensions by bringing up white people all the time? In an article he
wrote last month, he states, “Everywhere there are those who weaponise the past,
and out of conflict, conflict grows”. But isn’t that exactly what he’s doing?