Discussion time. Okay, so Australia are currently playing the Sri Lankans in a series of one-day cricket matches. Earlier this week one of the Aussie players was reprimanded for yelling a racial slur after he got out. I was curious to know what he said, since none of the media dared to repeat it. Finally today I found an article that revealed the mystery phrase: “black c***”. (The censored bit – for those of you too slow to play along – is everyone’s favorite crude slang term for female genitalia.)
So here’s what I don’t get: cricketers use that term – the “c” word – all the time. You can’t hear it, but you can clearly see them mouthing it at one another. (Shane Warne is a particularly bad offender.) Why does the addition of “black” make it racist? Is it now racist just to call somebody black? (Yes, I agree that it was definitely being used in a negative sense in this case. I just find it odd because there are so many worse things he could’ve said.) Also, why isn’t anybody labeling it as sexist? Just because he directed it at another man?
It’s just funny to think that this entire brouhaha erupted over one guy calling another guy a color and a part of a woman’s anatomy. Such silliness.
martin
January 18, 2003 — 1:17 am
Well i was reading an article not long ago about the acceptability of swearing and the degrading of the word F*** and other such words.
Basically its tack was now that if a politician were to be heard saying F*** or C*** then that would be worthy of mention but wouldn’t particularly have an adverse effect on their career but if they said something about race say nigg** then their career would be effectively over.
Back to the point, I think the main thing is that if he’d just said C*** then that be be ok if as you say they were all saying that all the time anyway then it would be normal parlance. Its the combination that makes it bad.
Moire
January 18, 2003 — 3:06 am
But why does it make it bad? I mean… It’s not like he called him a nigg** c***. I don’t think the guy meant it in a negative race sort of way. It was almost like an observation. He’s black, and he’s a c***. 😛
What if he’d said Chinese c***? Or Russian c***? Or even British c***? Does that make it any worse?
Heh. I know it’s not as simple as all that, but I think it’s ridiculous that whites aren’t allowed to notice racial differences anymore. I’m sure it would be fine if a black player said something similar to a white player. No one would’ve blinked at hearing “white c***.” It’s totally a double-standard.
I think it might’ve been a bigger problem that the Shri Lankans probably don’t go around calling each other c***s, am I correct? It might’ve been taken more out of context, seemed more personal and racist, because it’s not a commonplace insult in Shri Lanka.
I dunno. I agree, though… It just seems silly.
Kris
January 18, 2003 — 9:10 am
At least he owned up to it and apologized instantly. I’ve been reading about Shaquille O’Neal and how a group of Chinese-Americans are going to protest at his next game. Apparently he’s been in some rivalry with that new 7-foot Chinese center guy, and during a recent press conference he made some comments in a parody Chinese accent. Rather than apologizing, though, he complained that he was just making a joke. See, that’s an asshole move. Rather than admitting he was wrong, he implied that it was just everybody else’s fault that they didn’t get his humor. I hate people like that.
Kris
January 18, 2003 — 9:12 am
Oh, and we’re not sure about Sri Lankan swearing. Australians are known for “sledging” (trash talking), but Rodd’s never heard anything about the Sri Lankans doing it. So maybe their politeness did have something to do with it. (Not that I don’t think they were totally justified in calling him out for it.)
Tricia
January 21, 2003 — 4:23 am
My 2 cents: I know that in different countries there are different sensitivity levels, but here it’s still acceptable to be sexist, but not acceptable to be racist. As the black c*** comment is both, it’s only the racist portion that raise hackles. (I find it offensive on both counts). Appropriate timing as we are celebrating MLK day in the US today.