[Thanks Keysha]
Oh dear oh dear.. the Australians are at it again! tut tut!
Remember this?
The folks down under are once again being accused of racism because of the KFC commercial below, that was being shown in Australia during cricket season.
Via BBC News
The Australian arm of the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken has had to withdraw an advertisement after accusations of racial insensitivity.
It showed a white cricket fan trying to pacify a group of rowdy West Indian fans by handing around fried chicken.
When the advertisement reached America via the internet there were complaints.
It was accused of reinforcing a derogatory racial stereotype linking black people in the American deep south with a love of fried food.
The advertisement from Kentucky Fried Chicken features a white cricket fan dressed in the green and gold of the Australian team surrounded by a group of West Indian supporters, who are dancing and singing to a calypso beat.
He decides to quieten them down by handing around a bucket of fried chicken.
KFC’s head office in the US has since apologised and issued this statement,
“KFC Australia is removing the television advertisement that was being run in conjunction with the Australian cricket season.
“We apologise for any misinterpretation of the ad as it was not meant to offend anyone.”
However KFC Australia released a statement saying,
“It is a light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team,”
“The ad was reproduced online in the US without KFC’s permission, where we are told a culturally-based stereotype exists, leading to the incorrect assertion of racism.
“We unequivocally condemn discrimination of any type and have a proud history as one of the world’s leading employers for diversity.”
Your thoughts please? Racist or just harmless lighthearted fun?
Categories: News
MAD NEWS UK 
I was waiting for this story to appear here…
I cannot honestly be bothered to comment where Australia and racism is concerned. I like the way that they always allege on their pr responses that only black people in American seema bit precious about being laughed at minsterel or fried chicken-wise yet their history is built on similar and more recent barbarianism to the indigenous black population of Australia…
I actually was not bothered about the commercial, rather the defence
OOps, I could be bothered to coment then 🙂
If Australians want to continue to embarrass themselves in front of the world, let them get on with it. IGNORANT !!!
@Reclaimin
you took it there! lol
They know exactly what they are doing.
australians come across as openly closeted racists. heard of their racism from a co-worker who lived there for years. just look at there visa laws – more importantly think of the aborigines what state the majority of them live in.
australian kfc knew exactlty what they were doing. now they are trying to play the ignorance card as if they do not know about the www. kmt.
ps australia I watch your airport customs show (name escapes me) and your staff – no surprises
…wonder what did the black actors who appeared in the advert thought about it when they were making it
@ myself – bad grammar, must comment better
They came in handy
probably struggling extras who just need to feed their families.
Their defence is apalling.
@SoFrulushes C’mon now, I was thinking the same thing Pheva was thinking….How does a fully sane, intelligent black person permit their image to appear in a commercial like that? Especially in a country with a history like Australia has? I’m still baffled, and enraged.
The ratio of black to white in that ad was disgraceful and the ad in question was made possible by all parties present. Racism is everyone’s problem, and we have to work together to stop it.
The corporations want to feed their families too…
Sorry man, no excuses. It’s BS and we are enabling it.
oh gawd, i missed the point…the ad was at best annoying.
I am actually surprised that they even included and had black participants in a CRICKET related advert. Seriously, cricket game of all games, it would not even work in GOLF. Not familiar territory. Not for me anyway. LOL
While I believe that there are more serious incidents of Racism going on in the world today, I feel its important to fight it on all fronts, from the most violent to what I like to call Racism 2.0 which is a lot more subtle sly, and hi tech.
I not convinced that the people behind this are unaware of the stereotype regarding Black people and fried chicken. They could’ve done a similiar concept without black people, so why did they feel that they needed to have black people in it? To me they are delibrately playing on this stereotype.
Notice his words “Need a tip when your in a awkward situation” What situation would that be? When your a lone white amongst a group of black people? So its “Too easy” to resolve a issue with a “crowd pleaser”, The crowd being all black & the pleaser being KFC.
This advert is an example of why diversity is important. I’m quite sure that there were no black people involved in the creative briefing or any senior role in relation to this advert being signed off.
I find it dissapointing that advert with such lazy stereotypes could even get to this stage, Wasn’t there even one white person who would’ve thought hold on a minute, this advert is playing on racial stereotypes, and may deemed offensive?
In regards to the black people in this advert, I don’t belive that they were given the full story line of the advert, and had any ability too see the finish product before it was aired. They do this all the time, make you think that your filming in a particular context, then they edit it and put it together to tell a different story. If they will do it to the Queen of England what makes you think they won’t do it a group of black people. However I’m more than aware that unfortunately there some black people will do near enough anything for money, and must shre the responsibility for the negative images of black people being perpetuated through the media.
http://www.twitter.com/creamouk
http://www.myspace.com/creamouk
http://www.youtube.com/creamouk
http://www.facebook.com/creamouk
What did we expect from Edom?
I had a look at the cricket squad may be i looked at the old photos or something, and wondered what the hell black people were doing in an australian cricket related advert. The sums failed me. Then i thought that may be if it was a nike advert, or something that looked more prestigious, they would equally have that ratio of black in the advert. *side eye* LOL
It was cricket season so the Australian’s were due to play rivals the West Indian team . And some bright spark came up with this idea for a commercial
When it comes to sports, Australians will do anything to cause an upset. They can really be pathetic.
I wonder what they are going to pull come world cup in SA. The thought feels me with dread.
Hi All
I expect to be lambasted here but…
I am an Australian. Most people I’ve discussed this advertisement here with were not even aware that this racial stereotype even existed within the USA. The people I’ve spoken to, myself included are incredibly confused as to how this is even a racial stereotype to begin with.
The context of the advertisement has been lost in translation with it’s appearance on the internet and in discussion with American audiences.
It is currently cricket season in Australia which involves many (in my opinion, tedious!) hours of cricket being viewed on our televisions screens, of which KFC is a major sponsor of the Australian cricket team and has been for many years.
This summer, we have had the West Indies and the Pakistan cricket teams touring. It hasn’t been an exceptional year for our cricket team (for years they have claimed the cricket world cup) and other teams are beating them.
To explain the perspective employed by the makers of this commercial (which incidentally would’ve only been aired during commercial breaks in the cricket) there is a lone Australian supporter sitting amongst the West Indies crowd. We can establish this by the fact he is wearing an Australian cricket team jersey. His head is in his hands whilst the West Indies crowd are celebrating. Not an uncommon site if you have a rival spectator sitting within the opposing teams crowd and his team is loosing. This is the awkward situation. It isn’t about black people and white people, it’s about different people supporting the team of their home country. The same situation occurs when England, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka etc etc tour during our summer and when our team tours other countries during their northern hemisphere summer.
From there, the lone supporter offers the rival team some KFC, who just happens to be a major sponsor of his team. The surrounding crowd happily eat it. If the major sponsor who made this advert happened to be a beer company, I’m sure he would’ve offered them a beer. If the surrounding crowd happened to be English, who are equally as vocal and proud as the West Indies team are for their side, the advertisement, within it’s context for it’s intended audience, offered the same product and the intention would’ve been the same.
I don’t expect, given the emotional response that has been received within the USA that I will be changing any of your thoughts but I hope you do consider the context I have provided you with. I’m not saying that my country is not without it’s racist elements and like most countries, including the USA, we have shame in our past and shame in our present. There are internal and foreign policies that I strongly disagree with that have impacted and enforced racists views that have lead to extreme behaviours in some sectors of our society. But we are not alone in this across the world, the USA included, and I can assure you now, the African-American’s of whom this is apparently a reflection of a racial stereotype, would not be the ones targeted in our current political climate.
I wish I understood what a little more about how the racial stereotype has come into being with the American culture. I am genuinely confused as to how a fast food product has such deep connotations of racial stereotyping. I think both countries have a lot of issues that need to be addressed to promote diversity.
Finally, to SoFrolushes, could you please explain what you mean by the term “openly closeted”? The term seems to be quite contradictory. We’ve seen a lot of your TV shows over here too. If I were to go by what I’ve read and seen in TV shows, the treatment of minority groups in your lower socio-economic classes and various laws and visa stances, I too would think you are a highly racists and reactionary country. The truth for both countries probably rests somewhere in the middle.
further to my above post, for those that are unsure why there would be black people at a supposedly white persons game (talk about racial stereotypes, there are many countries that play cricket and most are not primarily Caucasian countries) here is a link to a picture of a recent West Indies cricket team..
http://crickettamasha.googlepages.com/westindiesrecords
Thanx 4 the link but am much more interested in the australian cricket squad link.
The only reason i even looked at their squad was bse of their equal employment claim. Am no cricket fan, could care less who plays but when they made that equal employment claim, curiosity got the better of me.
I mean, diversity employment claim
ahh.. the claim of employment diversity was made by KFC.
@BM
Respect fo outlining your opinions and ideas behind this advert.
Many oof the commentators here are resident in other countries not just the US, so the first issue is that the outrage regarding the ad is not exclusive to one part of the world. I am based in the UK and have been to the US once. I say this, because if you you use basic technology like er.. the TV, radio,the internet or bother to come out of your comfort zone and network with people whoo have lived all over the world or who come from different parts of the world, this advert would be an eyebrow raiser at best.
It strikes me as sad that Australians who live a fairly technologically accessible life as us in Europe and America could fail to see what may cause offence to people.
And if blinkered Australian ad execs cold not see this as ‘creatives’ then the Kentucky based junk store who signed it off shoud have.
I have worked in a media company for a mainstream TV channel and can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it was to endelessly rewrite and submit ad concepts so am amazed that at no point in this that anyone questioned the implications. Personally, I believe it was questioned but the pros outweighed the cons in their opinion.
I believe you have been true to your beliefs so thanks for sharing but I feel that you exemplify the institutionalised racism that allows white people to ignore the blindly negative imagery that is churned out daily for people of colour. It just seems all a bit tedious I’m sure…so much fuss over nothing eh…
MMM Tasty
http://loveforlife.com.au/content/08/11/18/kfc-why-kfc-horrible-n-fact-about-kfc
@BM, am sorry but that ad and australian cricket does not add up.
Anyway am glad they were worthy of KFC advert in huge numbers. Wonder how many arms they broke trying to twist the decision. I bet none. Thats all.
We are talking about the same australia that could not hire black people to do an MJ tribute song. Bm darling, you need more people.
Are the Aborigines extinct or are they not interested in cricket? It is Strange how they had a sudden change of heart to include people of colour in a kentucky fried chicken advertisement. Very convenient indeed.
The next best thing to kfc is beer. Kfc can claim diversity and force diversity on a team that does not practise diversity. Australia has been losing matches and therefore decided to do that advert that they well knew would cause a stir. They didn’t know my ass.
Again my point is emphasised, without the context that this ad lives in, the rest of the world wont understand it. The same way that the apparent racial stereotyping that “all black people eat fried chicken” doesn’t make sense here. It lost is contextualisation. I do not understand why that is a racial stereotype. You don’t understand why we don’t get it. We live in different societies with different cultural and racial reference points and whilst the world is indeed smaller due to the accessibility of internet, television, movies etc it doesn’t mean that every stereotype makes it through.
In terms of me being an example of institutionalised to white racism, please don’t make claims about me that you can’t justify. As I expressed, I am horrified by international policies in my own country. For instance policies that involve refugees being locked up behind razor wire are abhorrent and the lack of human compassion shown by others in this country for people who are persecuted and stripped of all rights and dignity just because they are different is an element of our current political climate that leads me to feel despair for where we are headed.
In regards to the MJ incident, there is no defence and if I had to find the silver lining to that situation, it has hopefully put a thankful end to the comeback career of a television host whose relevance was lost a long in the 80’s, which is where the skit in question originated. Please know, we weren’t impressed by that either.
Our aborigines are not extinct thankfully. But that is not the reason they weren’t in that commercial. Once again, the commercial wasn’t about a white man in a crowd of black people. It was an Australian cricket team supporter in a amongst the West Indies supporters. Similar scenarios have been seen when the Barmy Army as the British supporters proudly call themselves have been touring the country when their team plays here. Out of interest, I’d love to hear from people from the West Indies to see what their thoughts are on the ad.
I’m still waiting for someone to tell me why “all black people love fried chicken”.
The real problem here is that black people have expressed to you the problem and how they feel about it and you still do not acknowledge it. Reclaimin was spot on about you.
How many Aborigines are in the cricket team? If you had a good track record of inclusion, you could have got away with this but you don’t. Try and convince us regular Joes how Australia did not know. By the way click on that extra link of MJ tribute, then watch the video Real Nv left. Come back and essay us after that on how they didn’t know.
You seem to be one of the few who does not understand what it means. That was a Youtube Video made by an Australian using fried chicken on a black person while taking the Piss.
Ps, i am waiting on your response regarding that youtube Usain Video. So far you have been honest and dismissive at the same time. Damn shame.
From everything I’ve read across multiple forums, I’ve seen plenty of people express that they are unhappy with it but no one has explained why. Likewise, if I presented you with a racial stereotype related to minorities in my culture and told you people were upset by it, you might not understand why without someone explaining it. It’s fair enough to tell off the naughty children but you have to tell them how they hurt someone’s feelings, not just that they did it.
You may believe that Reclaimin was spot on about me but again, you don’t know me, other than that I am Australian. I live in a world surrounded by others of different ethnicity. In my last work place, I was one of only a small handful of Australian born workers. I will always speak out when I believe others are being treated and judged unfairly. I have actively in other work places sought to hire those from different cultures to diversify my work place. Without knowing me, you can not say that I am institutionalised to white racism. I can respect peoples opinions and perspectives but please, do not make personal assumptions about me, as I am refraining from doing about you.
Yes, currently there are no aborigines in our cricket team but there have been. No they aren’t under-represented in other sports. In our national Football league for example, there have been teams at times have been a majority Aboriginal. This is because in that sport, talent and training has been given particular emphasis in the rural and remote communities many choose to live in. Our national Rugby code is full of people that hail from the pacific islands. In fact, it’s a running joke here that if you are good at sport, we’ll let anyone represent our country at an international level. I just wish we’d extend that privilege to people that seek asylum here.
In regards to your point on the MJ tribute, I’m not sure what you are expecting me to essay you on? As I mentioned before, there is no defence there. It should never have happened. The show it appeared on was a reunion show for a program that died a long time ago (originally, that particular skit appeared some 20 odd years ago on a talent segment within the variety show. As it was a reunion special, they brought in old acts.) The host, who has been desperately trying to resurrect his career on the back of nostalgia certainly does not speak for me or anyone I know in defending a poor programming decision.
Please Rowetta, tell me how you use fried chicken to take the piss? You may have considered me to be honest yet dismissive at the same time, but I believe you are also dismissing a lot of what I have said as well. Please come back to me with out patronisation or personal attacks and provide your point of view. I don’t know where you are from, but I’m sure if your country was being written of as a racial backwater, you too would have words to say because the actions of a few do not speak for the actions of a whole. Does your country have a good track record of inclusion? How are your ethnic minorities treated?
I have just watched the Usian Bolt clip, the accent isn’t Australian. Upon looking into other videos by the same user, I’m seeing a decidedly British angle with a British accent? Please correct me if you can direct me to something that says he is Australian?
Fried chicken has been used to refer to obesse black people. Once a black person is plus size, for those who take cheap shots for racial purposes, that is what they will come out with. Eating fried chicken is like christmas to black people, an energiser, no party without chicken. Well, if you have racists spitting this nonsense in your face when they feel like it, you will take offence to it. Australians being racist in the way we know them, a white person sitting amongst black people and handing out chicken to them to shut them up, what reaction do you expect?
I was not dismissing what you said but if you dismiss what i say, i am just going to do exactly what you are doing untill i get my point accross.
Thank you for being the person that kindly shed some light on why it is used as a racist slur. Please understand that that stereotype does not exist in my country. I’m guessing that with the home of fried chicken being the south of America it places more relevance on the slur due to the well documented bigotry that we’ve seen exists in that part of the world. Please know though, the “black” people in our world and any racial slurs you may use against them are so removed from the fried chicken argument that it caused genuine confusion here.
In the same way that black people don’t all love fried chicken, Australians aren’t all racists. That statement is offensive to me and as equally dismissive against a whole nation as chicken is to black people. I’m sure some Australians are racists as I’m sure that some black people actually do like fried chicken but it doesn’t make it true of the whole. Using the Usian Bolt clip that you directed me to demonstrates that the world is full of racists.
I looked further into the clip and the user described the clip as being commentated by a member of the BNP. Not a familiar acronym to me so I looked it up and it was for British National Party. If the maker was Australian, I’m sure he would’ve chosen a minor Australian right winged party to make his point. I then looked at other videos and from what I understood, he is a small scale anarchist making videos in his darkened room. After consideration of what I saw, I don’t even think he is a racist – that video was using racial stereotypes to highlight what he sees as the narrowminded views of a political party. If I wanted to take what I’d seen at face value though, I could easily draw the parallel that all British are racists. Just on the back of one piece of text.
I actually don’t think it is worth addressing anyone with points about this.
I thought about taking each paragraph of denial and justification and responding to seem well read about some of the comments made…but don’t see the point. It all starts to get lost in context.
Contect context context….
At what point do people sometimes stop, listen and consider that something is simply generally offensive to people. I mean, if we are to get down to it-how much will a persons life be blighted and their joie de vivre taken if they accept that flinging pieces of fried chicken to a group of people to quell them may be deemed innapropriate? I mean the SHEER WORK at explaining to a number of people who are majority black skinned from every part of the diaspora why they shouldn’t be offended strikes me as someone who is a victim of institutionalised racism, sorry if you’re offended.
I don’t think that it is omething that you embrace actively, it is something that tells you however, that even though a wealth of people from different parts of the world, ages and experiences who are all bound together by black skin may feel offended by something that it is still more likely to an invalid reaction, that there must be a better explanation that is not down to straight forward racism even though the one thing that they do have in common is skin color and not much else. I cannot believe that I have to spell this out but whilst African Americans have the largest media voice worldwide and therefore their deep Southern slavery tales can be used to argue this ad, black people all over the world suffered the same basic racist slurs about being lazy, loving chicken, having thick rubber lips and being great entertainers. So this is not some culturally exclusive slur my friend.
In the same way you might say that ‘white men can’t dance’ . this is not culturally exclusive to the Swiss or the Australian- do you see? Australians did not pop out of nowhere , their settling was designed in a near identical way to much of the former Brtish Empire worldwide who enjoyed a rich and healthy slave trade that kept black people in a one-dimensional context that your great grandaddy may be able to educate you about. I love the cultural context argument about the black people being West Indian. If only my white counterparts could tell the difference between a West Indian, Trini, Ghanaian, Somalian or African American, then we would have really made some progress!lol!
ALL MY LIFE I have encountered well meaning white people telling me how I should feel when images of my colour or culture seemed to be laughed at. I am treated as if I have some form of cultural paranoia. Never will they consider that my offence and beliefs come from personal experience of direct racism, that maybe I have met black people the world over who share similar sentiment and that if I dare divulge the examples to justify my discontent then once again they try to appease me with point by point arguments that ultiimately deny that any offence was intended. Their must be an exclusive network of black people in Africa, America, Latin America, Europe (obviously not the well-adjusted Aborgines) who by day get on with the same education,life and love as their white conterparts but by night indoctrinate negative , untrue ideas about themselves (the chip on shoulder syndrome) endlessly questing to prove that white people conspiratially hate us and at every turn will do something racist . This I realise would be a better concept then the possibility that occassionally white people in the media think that laughing at black people sells and is incredibly funny and a bit racist.
BM, i insist that video is Australian made. Your going to keep on defending that it is not and i will keep on insisting that it is. The same fomular you are using to dismiss what we are saying about fried chicken. If i can’t convince you that that advertisement is offensive, then you cannot start to convince me about the video. We can argue about it all week till we cannot for the sake of it and i will refuse to hear what your defence for it is.
Rowetta, are you still referring to the Usian Bolt video here? I am curious as to why you are adamant that the video was made by an Australian. I’ve always been open to what people have to say and am listening to what you have to say, I would hope that you do the same. The evidence I about the user and the clip itself and the actual accent on the voice tell me it isn’t Australian. I am open to hearing the opposite is true if there is evidence of the fact, not just a feeling that it is because as you said “Australians being racist in the way we know them”. Sentences like that don’t strengthen your point, give me the evidence to back your claim.
I’d also like to add that I am genuinely thankful that you did take the time to explain the slur. It is what I have been trying to understand all along whilst hoping (against all odds!) to have people understand the perspective over here and perhaps the loss of media contextualisation. You mentioned earlier that I’d been honest in my communication on this forum so I hope that you take on board that I am genuine in my thanks for someone finally shedding some light on the topic.
To Reclaimin, the whole reason I came here to this forum to discuss this topic was to try and understand what the context of this slur meant to other people. I’m here because I WANT to stop and listen. I want to be able to raise my children with the compassion and understanding that I despair is being lost. Not just in Australia but across the world through wars that are built on a difference of idealogical opinion. I only just found out when watching the Usian Bolt clip that apparently watermelon is bad too! I seriously, cannot tell you how bewildering I find it that people of any race or ethnicity are reduced to stereotyping by food. I suppose I shouldn’t be since apparently all Asians are meant to love rice etc etc.
I came looking to forums when I saw this break out in news channels here hoping for some enlightenment as to how something can mean something so different in 2 different parts of the world. I am not here to justify and deny that black people, or people of any race for instance, do not suffer from any of the symptoms of racism that you write about. I think it’s a horrible shame that this is a reality for so many people. In the world I live in, I am one of only a handful I know who is more than 2nd generation Australian. Maybe the impact on me is that I have just been seeing people. Not an Australian, an Italian, a Sri Lankan, an Iranian, an Aboriginal, a Scot, an Indonesian and a Sudanese. That is just a small handful of people in my workplace.
On your points regarding British settling and black slavery, Australia did not have the same slave labour that settled other countries ie, the black people removed from their lives in Africa and various Caribbean countries. My country was settled on the labour of white convicts (of which I have ancestral roots) and aboriginals that survived the initial settling (or Invasion Day). What this means to us, from what I have seen in this incident, is that we have a removal from the stereotypes that plague black people in other nations that were settled and constructed on slave labour in other British or American Colonies. But we are also not unique in that, the British colonised India by enslaving Indians. Whilst African-Americans may have a huge voice in the media in some parts of the world, we have other voices of other ethnicities commentating strongly here, perhaps we listen to them more because the hold more relevance in our society.
If that is the world you face on a daily basis, I empathise with you. For different reasons I’ve spent my life having things that are apparently wrong with me being emphasised in the media and in my social environment through out my life (in fact, before I even commented, this forum was telling me I was bad for being Australian!) and I have struggled with not believing it too. I’m not trying to say my situation is your situation, I am just explaining how it is that I can empathise with you.
Please don’t, on the back of this piece of advertising, assume that all Australians are racists. Some of us just want to understand.
The point is not the evidence or that it is Australian made, it is why you feel the need to defend and move mountains to defend it. You have the right to offence without being interogated but others don’t? I can see why u take offense to Australians being lumped as racist, why is it so hard 4 some of you to just see and accept when corrected. From your responses, i could have sworn you were part of the decision makers in this advert, simply bse i sense the need of detachment from other worlds.
And also, this IS NOT about ALL black people loving fried chicken, (we probably do, lol) that has NEVER been the issue with racial slurs or stereotypes, look at the words nigger, monkey, paki, rughead, whitie. They are only words, right?
For Rowetta – the Youtube video was by a user Coughlin666 whose name is Richard Coughlin. Here is his profile on a UK website featuring “UK’s largest collection of comedians biogs and photos”
http://www.comedycv.co.uk/richardcoughlan/index.htm
Why do I feel the need to defend it? Because I will rightfully accept responsibility when I have done something wrong or when someone proves to me that my way of thinking is wrong. Likewise, I will defend and try to prove something wrong if I have evidence to the contrary. Much like people have done with their opinions and views on this issue. The same question can be asked of you, you have the right to offence without being interrogated but I don’t? You don’t like reading things that are a generalization about black people, I also don’t like reading it about Australians.
Why is it that I can’t have my thoughts and opinions as a commentator without the assumption that I was involved in the advert? For the record, not that it matters, I can’t stand KFC. It makes me feel ill if I eat it, the inhumane treatment of the chickens has been documented too thoroughly for me to ignore and I don’t think they have the best record for treatment of their employees (like most franchises I’m afraid).
I know this isn’t about all black people love fried chicken (your joke has been noted by many commentators on the web In fact, a lot of comments I saw on the youtube thread were more concerened that KFC here does fries!). I reiterate as I had asked during every post, I wanted to know why it was a slur and what was behind it.
The point i am trying to make is, why are you offended by that video and why is being lumped as racist offensive? If you do some soul searching minus using logic on why you are defending the video and being lumped, you might just step into our shoes a little bit.
Just to clarify, a few different videos have been discussed now, which one are you referring to?
I don’t need to do soul searching to know why I’m offended but I’ve found that the best way to communicate a point of view is with logical discussion rather than accusations and generalized statements. I also choose not to believe everything I read without checking into it for myself. I choose to defend myself for the same reasons you do. There is nothing worse than being misunderstood or vilified for something that is beyond your control. I choose to speak out, as do you.
Again, I’m not saying that my situation is the same as your situation but black people aren’t the only people that have suffered taunts because of their appearance. Others, like me have for different reasons.
I dare say on the Australian front, I’m offended for exactly the same kind of reasons you are at the racial stereotypes. Instead of coming in here and making equally offensive statements about the commentators and their opinions on this blog, I’ve tried to engage you in a logical discussion so you also have the chance to see another perspective from the group that you are choosing to stereotype. Black people do not have exclusive rights to those feelings. No one does.
It’s becoming patently clear to me that despite the ease of media that Creamin mentioned in an earlier post, people aren’t really interested in learning about what really goes on and how people really see things on the other side of the world. The only thing is, I’m the only person here accused of being removed and living in an protected bubble because I understand where I’m from and not necessarily where you are from, your history and the different challenges you face. I also don’t know how I will understand because no one seems to be willing to tell me any of that, I’m just supposed to know. I have no idea which countries you are even from. What I do understand about the world is my countries role in the Asia Pacific and the people I meet from there and the challenges they face because it’s represented everyday in my local community.
The way you are feeling right now, the anger and frustration of trying to put a point accross time and time again, sometimes its not about logic but feelings and looking at other people as human. Turn to logic and lose the fight discrimination and racism in general coz that is how racists get away with what they do and never realise or learn otherwise. And i was refering to usain Bolt video. The racial slurs and stereotypes have never been made on logic but putting someone down to the ground.
sorry but I’m not quite following the points you are making there. I think the time I’ve taken to respond indicates that my feelings on this issue are also quite strong and passionate. But to communicate that to you and to answer the questions and accusations placed against me the best response I can see is to respond in a logical construct. In fact, one other person seems to communicate the same way on this forum, and he also provided identifiers. I have much more respect for what he has to say. I feel that perhaps you want me to provide some sort of emotional tirade instead but that in my opinion wouldn’t add anything of benefit to this discussion.
If you are referring to the Usian Bolt video and have bothered to look into the 2 minutes of internet research it took me to do to disprove that it was an Australian commentator then it’s time to move on. It wasn’t Australian and that is all I was arguing there. You are right, discrimination is never logical but neither is believing it is the views of an entire nation based on a poorly attributed post of a clip originating in another country by someone else. Can we talk about how clearly the British must be a racist nation now? At least we’ll be able to agree on some points, they’ve been looking down on us uncouth and vulgar convicts for decades.. :p
I expect no emotional tirade from you whatsoever. We will never agree on this, for various reasons. One of which is that we seem to be speaking the same but different languages. Even after the reasons you have been given, you still do not see anything wrong with it, why? because you do not want to see anything wrong with it, or you want to desensitise us from this stereotype or something or whatever. Ok, Black Australians do not take offense to the advert, check, Black Americans took offense to it and it was withdrawn, why was it withdrawn?
What exactly do you want to know that has not already been said? If it does not offend you, then it does not, if it offends others then it does. Actually you do not have to do anything about it if you do not want to. You can carry on seeing it as non offensive, it is no crime.
Ask yourself why you bothered to or even felt the need to look at that video clip and defend it and also ask yourself why you feel offended that all Australians are lumped as racist?
I do not even think that you understand what the impact of racial slurs and racism and discrimination in general have on people. Until you understand that, then you will fully understand what the fuss is about mere fried chicken. I am sure with your research skils you can find out how this chicken stereotype started and why it became a problem in the first place. maybe you could talk to those who raised the alarm in the first place and got it cancelled. They might be the best ones to speak to and maybe you will find answers that will put yur mind to rest. Otherwise i do not see the point in why even this has gone on for so long.
Until you realise what racism is all about especially the impact it has had and why people are still fighting the stereotypes to this day and racial slurs which by the way were never invented by those fighting them, there is no point in you trying to understand what the fuss is about. For someone who says that you have been taunted for the way you look or how different you are, i find it quite surprising that you still are not getting what discrimination, racism is all about. even the mere fact that you are offended by being lumped as all racist, and yet you still cannot see it, makes me wonder what exactly you are looking for.
You want to talk about how the British are racist now, go ahead. This is about fried chicken and how we see it.
I cannot believe that BM has not yet got the moral story in my insisting on that clip being Australian made.
@BM: You appear to be a ‘well intentioned white man’ trying to understand racism. Understand this: when a Black person identifies an incident of racism and expresses hurt, resentment and anger, it is offensive for you to come from your position of ‘white privilege’ and seek to defend the incident.
I really appreciate that you want to bring your children up to be respectful of all people. You might be able to do this by listening to those who are on the receiving end of racism and respecting their opinion. Learn from the stereotypes that your society has assigned to the Aborigines (drunk, lazy – you are probably familiar with them). Consider those stereotypes, consider the position Aborigines hold in Australian society, then reflect…
If this doesn’t help with your education do your own research, start with Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.
Does anyone really expect Edom to understand their wrong doing against others? Have they every understood and taken responsibility for their savagery against other nations including and especially the so called negro?
It makes perfect sense to me to say that AUSTRALIANS ARE RACIST, when i look at the state in which the Aborigines are in. YOU ENABLED IT AND STILL DO. That was some news flash.
Lati I’ll just take a few points that I can respond to at this time. I’m not dismissing the rest of what you have written. At what point have I said I still don’t see anything wrong with it? Once I finally found out the answer to my question I remember expressing that I was rather displeased that someone could be reduced to a type of food. Since then, I’ve been finding I’ve had to defend myself for being Australian.
It wasn’t me who asked why I felt the need to defend that particular video. It was you who asked that of me. I’ve also indicated that I do understand the impact of slurs, perhaps not racial ones but ones born out of discrimination none the less. After seeking answers on the net, I found this site. After asking many times whilst combating the anti-Australian sentiment, I finally got a response from Rowetta. Finally are you saying that I am upset about being lumped as a racist but still don’t see it? What does that mean? In my opinion, discrimination of any form is discrimination and I’d be surprised if you decided to take that on and argue against it. No one person has exclusive rights to the way it feels to be discriminated against. Perhaps some people do not see other forms of discrimination as being as important to combat as the very one that they are suffering from. The most amazing thing I’ve found in this conversation is that people are fighting it by being just as narrow minded and racist. It’s not setting a fabulous precedent for your argument that you can’t understand it and stop it until you have been discriminated against. Apparently, being a victim doesn’t actually stop you marginalising others. At least, that’s the impression I am getting here.
To Rowetta, earlier you were telling me I was wrong for dismissing you. Then please stop dismissing me. How am I meant to respond to an argument that says a video must be Australian and when being shown evidence to the contrary, you tell me I’m missing the moral story that it may as well have been Australian? Please Rowetta, instead of throw away lines that are illogical, enlighten me on how I’ve missed the moral story. Your basis for on your argument seems to be the VERY thing you accused me of! Not listening and being afraid to admit when you are wrong.
To Bee, the reason I came here was listening to what people have to say about racism and how they feel about this particular incident because we don’t understand it here because not something that I or many that I know have seen used. I tell you though, it is really hard to do so when the very thing that people are arguing against is the very tool they are using weapon they have chosen to use. In fact, they were using racial stereotyping before I even entered the conversation. It doesn’t make sense. It’s actually making me think that no one is immune from having a discriminatory mindset, no matter what they have personally suffered. It’s sadly ironic.
Of course, no one will listen to what I’ve just said. Because I’m not black, I must not be in a position to be bewildered by people fighting racism with racism. If anyone wants to improve any sort of racial relation in this world, they need to start with their own behaviour and listen to the PEOPLE they are in conversation with. That goes for me as well as YOU. For christ sakes, if I met you in person none of this argument would matter because to me people are people and I’m pretty sure you’d be just as friendly and polite as I would be to you. And before you say anything about the white person spewing out meaningless crap, Australians come from so many back grounds these days. We have huge migrant populations from around the world and you couldn’t be insular if you tried and I for one would never try.
To Creamin, respect to you for sharing your thoughts articulately. Thank you for your input.
You know what BM, am sorry u feel offended, but by you feeling offended, it puts you right in the position we are in. That is the only way you might get a feel of what we go through and feel on a regular basis. Not being understood, being dismissed, forced to defend ourselves the way that works for us. Racism is a bitch love.
It’s not the only way, there are many forms of discrimination not just the brand you suffer from. If you feel forced to defend yourselves, and I’m sorry if you do, perhaps it’s time to choose a new method of defence. Clearly the methods employed in this forum aren’t progressing peoples situation either.
The thing with racism is that in most cases it is not done out of ignorance, but on purpose. Because people see other people as less human bse of skin colour. If you can get people to see past colour first, you might get somewhere. Other than that, what can i say? I mean, you can’t even say something without being made to feel paranoid. Why? Because people do it because they want to do it to hurt and make people feel less human. What suggestions do u have in mind anyway?
I honestly couldn’t care less what colour someone’s skin is, what shape their eyes are, the accent they speak with or what food they eat. I just want to be able to engage in rational conversation with adults and learn about different people from different walks of life. Their good stories and the hard ones if they are willing to share.
I don’t know the answer to getting people to see people for who they are, not what they look like or where they are from but I know that if you feel marginalised because of any form of discrimination, you’ll have a better chance of being heard by others if you don’t fight back with the same sort of tools. It’s the basic tactic taught to kids these days on dealing with school yard bullying.
Think how many less people would die in civil wars and how many people would be able to live in the country they call home without fleeing to seek refuge if people listened to each other and didn’t fight fire with fire.
I don’t know how big the impact would be, but it’s a small step in the right direction surely?
I think when you look at discrimination in general, you will find that it starts at home in the house. Slaves were oppressed 4 long, they obeyed but even after moons, racism does exist why is that? We can only mock it 4 effect. That is very effective, though not pleasant. That’s why comedians are the most offensive but funny and effective. Ofcourse we are no comedians. What do u think?
A tree or plant with rotten roots cannot bear good fruit even if you tried. There are several ways of dealing with it but the most effective has to start with parents. Forcing people to be what they don’t want to be yields these results. Ask yourself why there is no diversity in the first place. We can look at all logical ways to argue these things, but when someone does not want to change they will not change. In discrimination, there is always a power factor.
If we were all raised up to see people as people, we would not even be having this conversation because nothing would seem that offensive. You have to realise that history is at play and influences how we treat each other in the present. The problem is we so badly want to forget that part and sweep it out of existence. The reality of racism is not on blogs but out there in real life day to day. If only people listened to logic, Malcom x and all those who have fought would have resolved this by now.
The other day I was busting jokes at work with a friend and said “that Mohammed and Jesus malarkey” in a sentence. For the rest of the morning, this friend was quiet. Then I said “Fatima , are you p*ssed off because of what I said about your mum?” and she said “No, as a Muslim, the way that you referred to the Prophet Mohammed offended me” I said “I’m Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause offence” and life went on. And do you know, that even though I am not a fan of religion, I didn’t feel the need to exlplain why I catgorically didn’t cause offence or why I find it odd that she would be so offended given the things we were discusssing earlier.
This is the difference between particular white folk and my folk. Sometimes, you just move on and teach yourself in your own time. Pick up a Q’uran, ask questions..socialise with others more.
Everything seems very literal in the response, you even pointed out that Australia was built on the back of white convicts, as if I didn’t know. I never mentioned British colonialism and slavery only affected blacks but this rather irrelevant point was made to argue what. My point (which was clearly missed in the quest to point score on the irrelevant as anything is easier than acceptance) in context was that Australians should be aware of racism and persecution because their own history was based on the same set up as America where slave labor, forced repatriation and unwelcome white settling was rife. The colours of the victims are irrelevant but the same experiences could be shared. There are teems of upset British orphans who were bamboozled into going to Australia because the British government lied and told them that their parents were dead just to make up the white numbers. Many are still alive to tell that shameful tale. Up until the 70s mixed race Australians were taken away from their Aboriginal mothers by the Australian government to be westernised and to dismiss their Aboriginal roots. I don’t need to have an Aussie mate to know this and actually does this mean that many Australians don’t know these things -wow!
Around the world there are similar tales and sadly the white mans burden is that in many instances , much of the oppression caused has been based simply on a quest for white racial superiority. I may note that there are indeed may csees of tribal purity between those of colour-you only have to see the senseless genocide that occurred in Rwanda as an example. But getting back to the point (why am I bothering again), once you have been on the receiving end of the oppressor I suppose it’s easier for you to search for these historical truths. I still think that in your bid to understand some of the ramblings , that you make a good case for being blinkered by white historical default. It strikes me that a well educated academic need not know abut these things to succeed in the Wesstern world. Clearly history lessons, news, current affairs, politics, art in Australia do well to steer minds away from these things. However, this was the same nation that not long ago that thought it was funny to have a group of white people paint their faces with boot polish for entertainment. They won the last time they did this- and that show is a very mainstream show like Britains Got Talent. Also, the hilarious blacked up guys were all medical professionals. Hmmmm, again these men studied hard for a minimum of four years in higer education and still went through with this…lol! I’m surprised that they didn’t paint their lips red-if your gonna do it, you may as well go all the way!
So BM,
If Australia are unaware of Ameicans shame with this type of entertainment and are genuinely innocent, then why did they think that it was funny anyway?
“However, this was the same nation that not long ago that thought it was funny to have a group of white people paint their faces with boot polish for entertainment.”
Actually, only one member of the Red Faces sketch was white – the rest were Indian and Arab. Not that this excuses what they did, but it looks like you’re just projecting your own ignorance and heightened sense of “grievance” on a country and society you know little about beyond the usual media stereotypes.
This was ages ago, but jeez…