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I still don't think the world has a good idea of how severe Australia's media racism is. https://twitter.com/PPantsdown/status/1267654927205101568
Australia's racist cartoonists are the visible tip of a big xenophobic iceberg. They're simple-minded and unsubtle. They are passionately defended as 'free speech' by the industry. Here's a few examples of their previous work, to give you an idea.
The late Bill Leak once drew simple, crouching Indians smearing chutney onto solar panels (because we're stupid, right). The @AusPressCouncil ruled it as totally fine (because they're racist too). https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1198523581929590786
Leak was an absolute powerhouse of racism. He didn't discriminate (lol). He hated black people, Muslims, Asian people....he just went with the times and punched down to whoever was nearest in the pages of the @Australian.
Another News Corp cartoonist, Mark Knight, depicted Serena Williams using racist tropes. He had an army of white Australian defenders behind him, when a backlash ensued.
Knight regularly does 'both sides', which he uses as some sort of defence. "I'm racist, but sometimes not racist".
The first is a reference to a manufactured crisis where Australia's media outlets began targeting black Australians using dodgy crime statistics.
The first is a reference to a manufactured crisis where Australia's media outlets began targeting black Australians using dodgy crime statistics.
Here's a recent example - News Corp's Warren Brown depicted an aslyum seeker as a sharp-toothed, hairy rapist, running to assault white women.
Again: @AusPressCouncil cleared it as "in the public interest". Because in their eyes, racist abuse *is*.
https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1229503283536056321
Again: @AusPressCouncil cleared it as "in the public interest". Because in their eyes, racist abuse *is*.
https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1229503283536056321
As with all of these instances, the historical context, the sheer cruelty of the work and the impact on Australians are all ignored in the name of free speech and press freedom. https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1095101919029125120
This isn't really about cartoonists. They're people who lack the verbiage and sophistry to mask their racism as pseudo-serious concern-trolling.
But they visualise a feeling that exists so broadly and so strongly in Australian media: a simple, direct hatred of non-white people.
But they visualise a feeling that exists so broadly and so strongly in Australian media: a simple, direct hatred of non-white people.
There is so much more to racism in Australia than this but the role of media outlets - from the obvious cartoon stuff to the insidious, long, soul-crushing campaigns run across disparate outlets - consistently gets a free pass.
I hope that changes. Live depend on it.
I hope that changes. Live depend on it.
Still happening, folks https://twitter.com/BundjalungBud/status/1277541069463273472?s=19
