Cricket Australia must take a stand against racist spectators

WILL THERE EVER BE A AUSTRALIAN BORN,,,ASIAN IN THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKET TEAM?????????

I would love to hear a sub-cont..commentater.I do not think they are allowed to sit with the Aussies....

"I just refer to the PC comments I do think political correctness exist and I think political correctness is a bad thing because it is racist." I completely disagree. Political correctness IMO is just a term that people use when they don't consider something to be offensive, yet when that person finds something to be offensive, they don't use the term political correctness Furthermore I disagree that political correctness is necessarily racist. "There are people who believes that certain attributes, behaviours and practices are linked to cultural and ethnic identity.  therefore when people criticised certain behaviours, they would respond that it is part of our culture or part of our racial identity and therefore you are racist for doing that and you have to respect cultural differences." I don't like that either, however it has nothing to do with political correctness. Afterall, it works both ways. There are numerous people, many of hate 'political correctness' whom consider Australia to have certain values and attributes. "To me that is political correctness and I find that type of political correctness to be downright racist as there is no such thing as racial identity (people who encourage that thinking are racist towards their own race)" Completely disagree. Being proud of one's race is often a response to racism and persecution. So a black man may describe himself as 'proud black man' because he lives in a society in which black people are still considered by some to be inferior, and are still subjected to racism and discrimination. The same goes for gay people. On the other hand, it would be extremely racist for a white person to proud of their race as whites are the majority and are not subjected to racism. In an earlier post, you mentioned hair colour and height. Short people and red heads are not subjected to the same murderous bigotry as gays and black people may be. As for ethnicity & religion, I don't think there is anything wrong with being proud of one's religion (as I am) or ethnicity, as ethnicity may be based upon factors such as a shared language or history. "and in a progressive society, culture is fluidic and always changing because 'cultural' values are always scrutinised." I would agree with that.

I just refer to the PC comments I do think political correctness exist and I think political correctness is a bad thing because it is racist. There are people who believes that certain attributes, behaviours and practices are linked to cultural and ethnic identity. therefore when people criticised certain behaviours, they would respond that it is part of our culture or part of our racial identity and therefore you are racist for doing that and you have to respect cultural differences. To me that is political correctness and I find that type of political correctness to be downright racist as there is no such thing as racial identity (people who encourage that thinking are racist towards their own race) and in a progressive society, culture is fluidic and always changing because 'cultural' values are always scrutinised.

Indeed, Cricket Australia cannot be everywhere within the stadium nor can they or should they do or be able to do the policing of such things. As long as the appropriate policies and procedures are in place and followed when such behaviour is brought to the attention of Cricket Australia then I see little more that they can do other than take very strong action. Ultimately the problem lies within broader society outside of cricket and should be highlighted and dealt with by all sectors in society so then hopefully Cricket Australia do not have to deal with it in the future. To blame Cricket Australia is very poor form. Fair enough if comments reported to them are not dealt with in a satisfactory manner though.

I don't agree. For personal/historical reasons, I'm biased against the religion that Margaret Court follows. However it doesn't mean that I would dislike someone, or not be interested in getting to know someone, just because they are Christian. If I were to allow my historical/personal biases to rule whom I meet and what I think about those I've never met (they just happen to be Christian) than that would be bigotry. Everyone have all sorts of thoughts, many negative, and some violent. Most people, however, know that these are just thoughts, and would never act on them. Some people may think about having an affair, even though they would never do so. Some may think about killing their horrible boss, but they would never in a million years go through with it. Similarly, some (not all) may have negative views about other races or religions, or positive views about their own races and religions, but as long as they know that it is irrational and they ignore it, I don't think it can be called racism or bigotry. I don't agree that we are all racist, and I certainly don't think it excuses or justifies the practice of racism, such as in sporting grounds.

I don't think that wanting to stamp out racism is PC. It should be stamped out. That the Indian authorities ignored the monkey chants of Andrew Symonds is pathetic. I don't think we should emulate them or other countries and treat it as 'not as big a deal.'

amazonfan Variations on a theme perhaps. Bias is a form of prejudice as is racism.

Racism seems to be more unacceptable in anglo/celtic countries like Australia, NZ, Canada, US, UK. In other european countires , asia in general, and the middle east it seems that people just shrug their shoulders about it and say thats the way it is. Re the row in the UK with the outrage due to racist comments by some soccer players, and Sepp Blatters response that racist comments could just be solved with a handshake. Look how the authorities are very PC here about it and jump on it, compared to the Indian authorities ignoring the monkey chants of Andrew Symonds. It just is not as big a deal in all countries.

Racism seems to be more unacceptable in anglo/celtic countries like Australia, NZ, Canada, US, UK. In other european countires , asia in general, and the middle east it seems that people just shrug their shoulders about it and say thats the way it is. Re the row in the UK with the outrage due to racist comments by some soccer players, and Sepp Blatters response that racist comments could just be solved with a handshake.

Why do you say that we are all inherently racist? I think that we may all be biased, but I don't think it makes us racist. Perhaps you could clarify what you mean? BTW, talking about 'p.c sanctimonious binging' is just silly. You may not agree with it, but it doesn't make it either PC or sanctimonious.

That's pretty poor attempted racism. I don't think any of the convicts came over in Australia in planes

How about racism in the other direction? Would indian fans yelling "you came in planes you came in chains" count as racism towards white Australians because this is what I heard at a recent game.

I do kind of get your sentiments about people being inherently racist In my opinion to value your ethnicity to be anything more than just a colour of skin is to be racist (although it is a milder form of racism obviously) and to have pride in your ethnicity is racist. In the end being proud of your ethnicity is like being proud of your colour of your hair or being proud or being proud of the colour of your eyes or being proud of being short or tall. It just seems nonsensical. However that type of "mild racism" is socially acceptable. I also see a lot of people being racist to their own race by associating personal attributes to their racial identity. Therefore if people are being individual and behaving differently to other people out of their free choice, they are labled as betraying their own racial identity and betraying their cultural heritage. Although I don't agree with it and I certainly wouldn't say it happens to every person, I've seen this type of racial pride and emphasis on racial identity enough to know that it's a pretty common theme that affects all human beings and cultures. I also sympathese with the PC. In the end making generalisation and jokes about people based on race is objectively no different to making generalisation about people due to the colour of their hair (like dumb blonde jokes) or how short and tall the person is (short man syndrome jokes), gender role humour (people make fun of differences between male and female all the time). The generalisation can be done in a joking and non-offensive way and it can be done in a malicious and offensive way (especially if someone actually treats the generalisation seriously and actually believes that generalisation can be applied to everyone). Therefore a "Racist" joke isn't necessary bad itself. For people who find that statement controversial, let just say this, if you ever met two close friends who are both from a different minority group in Australia. Chances are they will make light hearted racially tinge joke to each other. It's pretty common and no one is hurt by it. The reason why racism is singled out compared to other physical characteristic of the body is due to historical background. Historically, there isn't any widespread systematic discrimination, genocide and enslavement based on the colour of hair a person has or the colour of their eyes. historically it's ethnicity based discrimination that leads to the worst crimes against humanity. The offensiveness of racial comments is due to historical baggage rather than the intrinsic values of making racial generalisation. I'm willing to accept that historical baggage because it's probably too soon for people to be making flippant racial humour when the scars of racism hasn't been resolved and perhaps still being perpetrated today. this probably explains the double standards of racism that sometimes occur. However I do believe that the day we know that racism isn't an issue in humanity is that people can openly joke lightheartedly about race in a same way people joke about other physical characteristic of a human being without anyone being offended as we know the historical baggage of racism to be healed. This probably takes more than a millennia for this to happen . In any case, I try to take that attitude in life. If someone says something racist to me, I try to treat it as nothing more and nothing less than someone making comments about any other physical characteristic I have. I can be offended if it is done in a malicious way (but no more offended than people maliciously insulting me because I'm shortsighted or I'm a little bit overweight etc) but I can laugh it of if it's clear the person is joking and not serious about it. However I accept that for other people where racism is too close to home and too near the bone that they won't be able to take that attitude and that is fine.

Sachin I am not saying we should all be, I am simply saying we all are - inherently and this would include your good self I expect. I have a low tolerance of all the p.c sanctimonious binging that seems to be so prevelent these days and especially so in respect of Australia.

Peter Care - Please Note: my name is not David Dautovic. I was just pointing out to Agga 78 that there were people in the football media that also were not happy with it. As for my opinion on the scarf issue - I really could not give a f*** ;-)

Funny how this anti-social behaviour isn't reported in the media, yet when a flare goes off at an A-League match...

I'm sorry Athas, wasn't it you that wrote a previous article about the over officious policing of the F bomb at a-league matches? For all the people that are upset about the scarf, I say "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." i.e if that word has never passed your lips or you have never written it then you have a point.

australians can't provide a decent a decent atmosphere compared to most other test nations????

weldone. Very clever..me to wonder from where they learnt it FROM