Perpetually outraged can’t make sense of Sam Kerr saga Rita Panahi Herald Sun March 7, 2024

It’s been fascinating watching perpetually outraged, race-obsessed activist and media types tie themselves in knots trying to make sense of the Sam Kerr saga.

At first they were just confused but before long confusion turned to indignation when it became clear that the alleged victim of Kerr’s racist comment is a white, male police officer. Then they resumed doing what they do best; blaming racism and misogyny for Kerr’s predicament.

The Matildas captain and Chelsea striker has been charged with intentionally causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress to the officer over an incident in London on January 30, 2023 where she is alleged to have called him “a stupid white bastard”. Australians, including her bosses at Football Australia, CEO James Johnson and Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson, were shocked to learn of the charges earlier this week when Kerr appeared at a court hearing via video link.

One can understand why Kerr failed to advise FA of the incident when it occurred, clearly hoping the matter would disappear but once charges were laid in January, 2024, she should’ve come clean with her various bosses. The matter is set to be heard in February, 2025, but Kerr may escape that ordeal if she is successful in Kingston Crown Court next month where her lawyers are expected to argue the case should be dismissed for abuse of process. Even if you back these draconian laws policing speech, one can argue that justice delayed is justice denied and authorities took almost a full year to charge Kerr and she has to wait another year for the matter to be finalised in court.

If the case does proceed to trial then the soccer star faces a fine or a maximum jail sentence of six months. Any sort of penalty will be an enormous fall from grace for one of Australia’s biggest sporting stars. Kerr reportedly earned more than $3m in the year leading up to last year’s World Cup where her fame and earning capacity soared further. It remains to be seen whether her marketability will be hurt by this saga and whether it’ll cost her sponsorships with the likes of Nike and EA Sports.

That seems unlikely. But already there are some folk who are normally outraged by any suggestion of racism, real or imagined, lining up to defend Kerr even if she is guilty of the offence, arguing that you can’t be racist towards white people. Then there were the feminists claiming that Kerr is being treated unfairly because she is a woman. Just don’t ask them “what is a woman?”. Senator Lidia Thorpe wrote: “Replace all statues of captain cook (sic) with statues of Sam Kerr, our one true captain”

Former Labor MP Emma Hussar wrote: “Sam Kerr should I (sic) tell more men they’re stupid white bastards, (esp those in powerful positions) and continue her good service to Australian women everywhere. Sam is a legend.” Sydney Morning Herald ran a headline asking “If Sam Kerr was a straight, white housewife, would she stand accused of racism?” Writer Jane Caro said: “I hope that we don’t treat a female football player worse than we treat male football players who fall from grace … we sometimes have this double standards where we expect women to behave much better than men and when they don’t we punish them even more harshly.” These intellectually dishonest positions are almost comical. We all know if a white player, male or female, had similarly sledged a black or brown officer the consequences would be far more serious, particularly with their football club and sponsors.

For many, Kerr’s biggest offence isn’t what she allegedly said in a heated moment, it’s the hypocrisy of lecturing others about racism and then allegedly falling short of that standard herself. One had to laugh at this droll take from

@ayedfy who posted: “Lot of people on the Left suddenly OK with a highly paid coloniser denigrating a working-class indigenous person with racial slurs. Good on the local police for resisting Kerr’s imperialist violence.” I find the whole notion of having “mean words” criminalised absurd, that these laws exist and can be misused to pursue charges that can take years to finalise is grossly unfair.

But presumably the racism-obsessed activist class, including Kerr herself, back such laws. And, if you back these measures you must understand that it applies equally to all. You cannot have an Orwellian some animals are more equal than others interpretation that exempts certain races from prosecution.

Source: https://twitter.com/OcarinaJones