50k-pc: 2013

Saturday, 25 May 2013

Schoolgirl apologises to 'heartbroken' Swans star

Schoolgirl apologises to 'heartbroken' Swans star

The 13-year-old girl who racially abused Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes has apologised for calling him an "ape".
Goodes revealed on Twitter on Saturday afternoon he had spoken to the teenage Collingwood supporter, who abused him in the final quarter of the Swans' 47-point win against the Magpies at the MCG on Friday night.

Racism has no place in our industry, has no place in our society.

"Just received a phone call from a young girl apologising for her actions. Let's support her please," Goodes wrote.

Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou after speaking to the media during an AFL press conference. Photo: Getty
On Saturday, Julia Surowka, of Neerim South in south-east Victoria, said she was sorry for her comment.
"I didn't mean it in a racist way and I'm sorry for the football club and for the AFL," she told Channel 10.
“When I called him an ape he explained what ape means for like indigenous people and he said that he doesn't hate me and that I need to learn from my mistakes.”

Adam Goodes points to the offending teen. Photo: Twitter

Goodes told reporters on Saturday he was "heartbroken" after the incident and couldn't bring himself to stay on the field to celebrate the team's victory in the indigenous round.
"I am pretty gutted to be honest. To win, the first of its kind in 13 years, to win by 47 points against Collingwood, to play such a pivotal role, it sort of means nothing," Goodes said.
"To come to the boundary line, to hear a 13-year-old girl call me an ape - and it's not the first time on a footy field that I have been referred to as a monkey or an ape - it was shattering.

The fan who allegedly abused Goodes. Photo: Twitter

"I turned around, and when I saw it was a young girl, and I thought she was 14, that was my initial thought, I was just like: ‘Really, how could that happen?'"

Goodes pointed out Julia to ground security, who escorted her from the venue.

Goodes said that the blame did not lie with the young girl.

"She's 13-years-old, still so innocent, I don't put any blame on her," he said.

"Unfortunately it's what she hears and the environment that she's grown up in has made her think that it's OK to call people names."

Julia's mother, Joanne, said she was "astounded" by her daughter's actions, but "I don't think Julia even realised what she'd actually said”.

On Saturday, Julia was the target of abuse on social media sites.

Goodes and AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou both urged restraint and called on the public to support the teenager.

Premier Denis Napthine said on Saturday the incident was "very, very disappointing".

"There is simply no place in Victoria, and particularly on our football fields, for abuse based on racism, culture, gender," Dr Napthine said.

Dr Napthine said he would support a boost to school programs "to make sure all young Victorians understand that this sort of abuse based on racism, culture, is totally and utterly unacceptable in modern society".

After Friday night's game, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire spoke with Goodes and apologised on behalf of his club.

Goodes, who declined to press charges over the incident, said the incident affected him deeply, especially coming in the indigenous round.

"This week is a celebration of our people, our culture, and I had the absolute privilege of meeting the great man, Nicky Winwar, two days ago now. What he was able to do for us 20 years ago, to make a stand, racism has a face last night, it was a 13-year-old girl - it's not her fault," Goodes said.

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Brian Koenig Official Website

Brian Koenig

– April 18, 2013Posted in: Blog Archives

In his prototypical racial-mongering fashion, Al Sharpton is crying foul over a CNN report that refers to a Boston marathon bombing suspect as “dark-skinned.” Or something like that.

Specifically, he calls it “coded, offensive language” that was “shameful.”

“I want to be very careful about this because people get very sensitive when you say these things,” CNN reporter John King affirmed in the report. “I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official, that this was a dark-skinned male…I’m not making a personal judgment, forgive me, but I think it’s the right judgement, not to try to inflame tensions.”

Sharpton on his MSNBC show Wednesday evening said the “reporting error” on the arrest was bad enough, but that he was “deeply troubled” by the “dark-skinned” descriptor. He cited the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, who called it “useless information that borders on inflammatory.”
“These comments are very offensive, they have no place in our discourse, especially in a time when Americans are inspired by an example of the people in Boston coming together as one,” Sharpton said. “What King’s words did is to make every dark-skinned male in Boston a suspect, and that’s shameful.”

If Sharpton is going to say anything about the report, maybe he should point out that it was erroneous — that, in fact, there had not been an arrest.

It will be interesting to see what Sharpton says about the actual photos and video the FBI released late today. The photos are somewhat fuzzy, so it’s difficult to make out the suspects’ skin colors. Suspect # 2, in my opinion, definitely looks dark-skinned — if not middle eastern, at least black or Hispanic.

Regardless of how it’s reported, Al will spin it in to some racial debacle. Anyhow, you can’t call ‘em black and you can’t call ‘em brown, you’d think “dark-skinned” would be one of the more subtle descriptions.

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

It’s time to end racism in the nursery - Lego pulls toy following accusations of being anti-Islamic.

Lego pulls toy following accusations of being anti-Islamic. It’s time to end racism in the nursery

By Tim Stanley Politics Last updated: April 2nd, 2013
167 Comments Comment on this article

The Hagia Sophia or Jabba the Hutt's palace?

What do Salman Rushdie and Lego have in common? They’ve both been accused of ridiculing Islam. But while Rushdie’s crime was to write a book parodying the faith, Lego’s mistake was to release a toy model that looks a bit like a building in a Muslim country. Don’t laugh: I’m sure this is how Nazism started.

Lego has announced that it’s pulling its infamous Jabba the Hutt-themed play set and insists that the toy has simply come to the end of its run. But Birol Kilic, head of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, is claiming glorious victory after a long campaign that accused Lego of fanning the flames of racism. Kilic says that Hutt’s palace looks eerily similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and that because Jabba is a villain this will reinforce negative attitudes towards Muslims. Quote: “This does not belong in children’s bedrooms. And the minaret-like tower features machine guns. Children will become insensitive to violence and other cultures.”

Of course, it doesn’t look like the Hagia Sophia so much as it looks like what it’s supposed to look like – Jabba the Hutt’s palace in Star Wars. But that doesn’t mean it’s not insidiously racist, just that the bigotry doesn’t start with Lego but with George Lucas and his barely concealed mission to turn five-year olds against Islam.* Perhaps the Turkish Cultural Association would like to see every print of Return of the Jedi burned (I volunteer) or else CGI used to replace Hutt’s palace with something less racially sensitive – like a Number 24 bus?

Let us please not stop there. I find it strange – perhaps a display of subconscious chauvinism – that no one has yet attacked Lego’s Pirates of the Caribbean sets for its representation of native islanders as spear throwing cannibals. Every time I see my three-year old relative playing with one of its Heart of Darkness-style sets, my heart sinks. Every time he swallows one of the heads of one of the cannibal figurines, I am outraged – it is they who should be eating you, little boy, not the other way around. Perhaps I should call the police? My cousin is clearly raising a future leader of the BNP.

And while we’re at it, can we not clamp down on other areas of the nursery that have become infested with bigotry? Paddington Bear pushes some very negative stereotypes of Peruvians as marmalade chomping spongers who don’t wear trousers. Harry Potter reduces the ancient religion of Wicca to a conjurer’s stereotype and the Teletubbies have often been accused of being nothing less than a bunch of John Inmans. Why does Barbie like clothes rather than engineering or running for high office? And in Dora the Explorer one can detect the ugly whiff of neo-imperialism. What right has this little madam to “discover” places that are already inhabited, projecting on to them her own privileged understand of the world? Yes, she is a Latina, but her racial identity has been appropriated by corporate power to push a “safe” image of Hispanic culture. As one professor of women’s studies at the University of Arizona points out, Dora the Explorer

…creates a monolithic Latino/a identity that appeals to the dominant culture (particularly white parents). Because Dora is not identified as specifically Mexican or Salvadoran, Puerto Rican or Peruvian, she exists outside of historical and political realities—including the debates about undocumented immigrants that have demonized Latino people in the United States. Not only is Dora unthreatening to Anglo audiences because she is a child, her cinnamon complexion and straight hair reflect European ancestry rather than indigenous and African roots. Throughout her adventures, Dora enjoys an unusual geographic mobility, crossing landscapes but never distinct borders, always returning home rather than staying somewhere new. Her animated domain is devoid of references to social class, labor, or a currency-based economy.

Sing it sister: Dora the Explorer is the 21st century’s Uncle Tom!

Of course, I could be overreacting to the alleged racism that’s all around us. It’s possible that toys are just toys and that their makers carelessly pluck images and styles from different cultures without intending any offence – and possibly causing no offence, either. It’s also possible that we’re rumbling towards a future in which culture is policed by a strange alliance of fanatics and well-intentioned liberals, killing free speech and imagination along the way.

But while all that is possible, my generational instinct is to see malice anywhere and everywhere. The world shall not be safe for democracy until Lego is banned. Because that's how liberalism is supposed to work.

*Joke. Please don’t sue, please don’t sue.
Read more by Tim Stanley on Telegraph Blogs
Follow Telegraph Blogs on Twitter

Tags: Barbie, dora the explorer, hagia sophia, Islam, lego

50k-pc