called this dude from Australia...
a "monkey" and received a "3 Test suspension" for the racial slur.
First off, isn't "monkey" an evolutionary slur??? And does or does not the offended dude look like like an idiot in blackface?
Pics poached from this article.
And besides.... monkey? He called you a monkey? Oh puhlease!!! Is that the best insult he could come up with for this guy? I mean look at him! And dude! Seriously... couldn't you have a fancy comeback about the knob he's got on his forehead?????? I know cricket is a gentlemen's game and namecalling is childish. But jeez louise!!! Get over yourself!*
*I freely admit that I know fuck-all about the politics behind this. I'm speaking strictly as an American, looking in on a situation getting a ridiculous amount of press coverage in another country and genuinely wondering....WTF??????
BEST THOUGHT ON THE SITUATION:
"Only a racist would be personally offended by a racist remark."~Richard
14 comments:
I hate living in Australia, precisely because these are the kinds of 'incidents' that attract international attention. I don't know much more about the politics behind cricket, but I suspect it has everything to do with little boys in grown up bodies calling each other names and then crying about it. Get over it, pussies.
Sometimes people get so upset over stupid little shit. It was probably meant to be offensive, but whatever. I think the only people who should probably worry about that shit are people who are high profile and diplomatic, like politicians and diplomats.
Too many people just whine instead of getting even, mostly I think because they let anger blind them to an opportunity.
A good comeback... "what the fuck did you just call me, Tinky Winky?"
What the hell is that on his head?
Andrew Symonds, wearing the zinc sun screen on his lips was called a monkey, he is of Jamaican decent and while not as bad as nigger, it isn't much better - porch monkey?.
It was intended as a racial slur, something that is unacceptable in any arena, especially a professional sporting one. The indian could have just commented on the other players performance
I think it is disgusting that the Indian Cricket Board used blackmail and influence to get the charge down graded. We let this slide and kids think its okay to pick on others who are different because they are different.
So we have a napkin-nigger clashing with a porch-monkey, nice! At least the former comes with a doily for his beer glass, or is it a spare hanky?
I agree with Sean, but defend the right of a private organization to do what it will within the law, even if it is bloody stupid or "disgusting".
Doesn't the knob contain his hair? Anyone know for sure? Frankly, I think this is a great marketing opportunity for the sale of Monkey Knobs.
In N.America the popular myth is that 'people of color' can only be victims of racism, and the only racists are us Whities.
Here in Toronto it is a group of Blacks who have pushed for, and today obtained, a City charter for a Black's only public school. No racism there either, right? And, no one of any prominence* has dared point that out! So for 200 years they fought segregation, and now they want it back. Duh!
*Update: as I typed this, the news played a clip of a now well known Black mother who's son was killed by a stray bullet --shot by other Blacks in a gang fight.
She said that Martin Luther King wanted blacks and whites to live together and to share the front of the bus... "This is just segregation again. This is 2008, let's not have Black Schools".
There is some chance that the Province will overrule the City on this one.
Jacob- That was precisely my point, two individuals, definitely acting like little boys, the one slinging around the term "monkey". I want to know what the other dude said when the microphones weren't listening in!
Frankly, with that zinc on his lips he DOES look like a monkey. Sean said that racial slurs are "unacceptable in any arena". Are they sure it was a racial slur and not a physical slur? Isn't this starting to border on thought crime? If Monkey Lips was a white dude would this have even gotten the umpire's attention?
"Monkey" isn't a term I've heard used very often (first time I heard "porch monkey" was in Clerks 2, but it's ok because Randal is taking it back), but let's accept for the moment (stupid as it is) that "monkey" is about as offensive as nigger or spic or whop or kike etc....
Racism- the belief that some races are inherently better than others. Was he really saying "I, being a napking nigger, am better than you, a porch monkey, and by labeling you as such I am asserting my superiority"???? He was being a dick, plain and simple, should have been handled on the field with a "Shut up and play the game".
Granted "racism" is unacceptable, but he was hardly descriminating against the guy, he called him a name. He didn't refuse to bowl to him, he didn't refuse to play on the same field as him, he didn't say "get off the pitch monkey, go back to swinging from the ugly tree".
Why did he say it and what did he mean by it? I don't know. Why don't I know? Because the only one who will ever know why he said it is the dude with the black knob on his head. (Which I think is a diaper where he stores his shitty beliefs, isn't it a Sikh tradition?)
And Sean, no kid is going to look at this and say "oh goodie!! Now we can call Aussies of Jamaican decent monkeys 'cause the Cricket Board said we can". The rational ones are looking at this thinking, "bunch of idiots calling each other names" the other kids are thinking "well he does look like a monkey with that stupid shit on his lips, he was just asking for someone to make fun of it."
Richard- the desire of the minorities to be allowed their own schools and a miriad of other things is a natural consequence of the huge emphasis now placed on ethnic diversity and multi-cultural awareness. If we're so great because we're Jamaican or Sikh or black then let's have our own school and be cool all by ourselves away from those boring old white crackers.
Ok here is a funny story about racism and how sometimes it isn't meant to be that way...
Several years ago we (the hulk and I) went out to Wendover with the Witch, her husband and his parents. We have been friends with all of them for years, including his parents.
So, we are sitting at dinner and her husband's mom says to the hulk... "didn't Samoans use to be cannibals?" I seriously thought the witch and her husband were going to DIE! They both dropped their forks turned red and D(the witches husband) says to his mom "that was RUDE mom."
The hulk and I just started laughing. His mom was completely serious. The hulk just replied something about fava beans and Chianti. :D Once everyone realized that the hulk wasn't pissed and I wasn't pissed we all had a good laugh. And to this day we make poly=cannibal comments for fun.
BWAHAHAHAAH!! I love it!!!!! Cool story!!!!
And you're right, of course Poodles, m'dear, sometimes a spade is just a spade.
*snerk*
Can't add anything to this thought provoking post and the equally interesting comments. Except that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously and learn to relax about these kinds of comments. Sometimes it's really isn't what it seems.
I think this, from Fiery, is the 'bottom line': "should have been handled on the field with a "Shut up and play the game"
I once dropped into our rather dark campus bar, and saw an acquaintance at a table. He always like to trade jokes, and it was clear that he and the others at the table were doing so. As I sat down, my eyes not yet adjusted to the dark, I piped up with, "How do you know when a Paki's been in your back yard?"
He promptly said, "How?"
"Your garbage is gone and your dog is pregnant."
As I finished the punch line my eyes finally adjusted, and I saw he was sitting with three guys who were very definitely of Pakistani or Indian descent. I probably turned ten shades of fiery red. My throat tightened up as I prepared for the well-earned incriminating comments.
One of the three leaned forward, his eyes met mine, and his mouth started to move. He said, in a very distinct Paki voice (try to do it for yourself :-),
"How did the first Paki's come to Canada?"
Still unable to trust my voice, I just shook my head.
"They threw their leader in the ocean and walked across on the dead fish."
After the laughter died, the second Paki said with an exaggerated Paki accent.
"Didn't you know that curry is toxic to fish?"
I said, "It's a good thing no one here is racist?""
There was a couple of chuckles, and one who seemed particularly perspicacious said, with evident perspicuity, and with no Paki accent whatsoever,
"Only a racist would be personally offended by a racist remark."
I have since developed that thought and call those who who are offended, "Reflex Racist where "reflex" means "bent or turned back on itself".
Reflex Racism is ubiquitous among the American Indians and Afro-Americans, and many people of similar 'color'. Their own sense of their race causes them to shoulder and accept racist remarks as assaults upon their own person.
If they did not see themselves in terms of their skin color they would only see the remarks as pointless, as the speaker's bigotry, or as just plain funny.
"Only a racist would be personally offended by a racist remark."
I beg to differ Fiery on the kids watching cricket heroes and not mimicing what they do or say.
Under the rules of the game it should not matter if the name was borderline offensive whether or not the two gentlemen were black, yellow or white. If it was intended as a racial slur then it should be punished as one.
Yeah he wasn't preventing him from playing and I am sure that Andrew Symonds will get over it - it is however the pinciple of the matter.
If we look at sexual disrimination you may not prevent a woman from coming to work but if you make sexist jokes you are making the work environment uncomfortable.
Are we saying that the woman should just put up with it, the joke wasn't that offensive?
This has been broadcast around Australia and what every little sportsman/woman can take away from this is that its okay to be recist as long as its not too racist.
Frankly I can't believe we are having the discussion.
As to what Symonds said, who knows but nothing came up in the case.
Fiery, thank-you for acknowledging my point on racism. I would like to add, because Sean mentioned it, that the same principle applies to sexual remarks.
However, I would like to point out that if such remarks were so frequent that they interfered with the target's daily work, the employer (e.g. Cricket Team owners) should act (privately, not legally). If the employer won't act the target of such interference should not want to work with that employer. The employer should be left with the jerk, and without the better person that was the target... in that way both jerk and employer properly become the losers.
Legislation against such freedom of choice is morally reprehensible (see next comment).
Sean is quite right, given that this has is an internationally known event. If it had stayed on the field, which I think is the context fiery was coming from, then the kids would not know about it.
I think that distinction is why we are having this conversation, Sean. None of us supports genuine racism, even as a personal insult, but this discussion has conflated the two different contexts.
You are staunchly focused on the broader international and media handling of it, but I think quite a few of us were focused on the event on the field. I also don't think any of the previous comments were intended to dispute your view in the broader context. That is indeed a legitimate concern.
Unfortunately it is now being decided by government 'authorities' --"The Board of Control for Cricket in India" and the Australian Federal Court; I hope Cricket Australia is a private organization.
These authorities are just one group of men deciding the rights and wrongs of (all) other men in the Orwellian terms of Speech &/or Thought 'Crime'.
That is vastly more evil than racism among a citizenry, or anything else that has occurred in this issue. It is a violation of everyone's right to freedom of speech and thought!
I may have sounded a bit melodramatic in my previous post, and for that I through myslef at the mercy of the readers :)
There are regulations and rules governing racial slurs and the process for reporting them. The players agree to abide by these rules. So If it hadn't been reported in the media the Indian player shopuld still face some sort of sanction under the rules of the game - but no there are sponsorships at stake here, big money so interests have been threatened.
Post a Comment