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.
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