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Uncle Toms and Coconuts - racism in sport

By Stephen Hagan - posted Tuesday, 9 August 2005


If the shoe fits, wear it.

Just when you think the racial vilification laws in our national football codes are working effectively, along comes another racist outburst. South Sydney Rugby League Captain Bryan Fletcher’s recent racist verbal spray of “black c***” directed at popular Parramatta Indigenous back rower, Dean Widders, may have cost him his captaincy, a $10,000 fine and one-week suspension by his club. But will this penalty deter other sportspeople from involvement in future racist behaviour?

I think not.

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Racist and inappropriate language will continue to be condoned by non-Indigenous sportspeople as long as we have Uncle Toms and Coconuts in our midst.

The Uncle Tom caricature portrays black men as faithful, happily submissive servants. Uncle Tom, as with the Mammy caricature, was born in ante-bellum America to defend slavery. How could slavery be wrong, argued its proponents, if black servants, males (toms) and females (mammies) were content, loyal servants? In his book, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks, Donald Bogle summarises the depiction of Toms in movies:

Always as toms are chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted, they keep the faith, n'er turn against their white massas, and remain hearty, submissive, stoic, generous, selfless, and oh-so-very kind. Thus they endear themselves to white audiences and emerge as heroes of sorts.

The term “Coconuts” has its origins in the word Cocos from the Portuguese word ''macaco'', maybe derived from the fact that the nut has three germinating pores, which resemble a monkey face. The specific name comes from Latin and means nut-bearing.

The word "coconut", as defined by the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is also used as derogatory slang, referring to a person of Latino descent who emulates a Caucasian (brown on the outside, white on the inside).

In my youth, Indigenous leaders used such words to describe members of their community who had assimilated too well with non-Indigenous folk, to the extent they were ashamed of their people. I remember seeing them at the annual show or festivals drinking and sharing racist jokes with their white buddies at the expense of Indigenous people.

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Unfortunately not a lot has changed in the past couple of decades since I was a kid. I see Indigenous people today stoop, with monotonous regularity, to even lower levels to appease white people.

Respected journalist and former international rugby union star Peter Fitzsimons, writing under the headline “No room for racists” in the Sydney Morning Herald  (9/7/ 2005), raised concerns about three former international Indigenous rugby league players and their take on the “Widders” incident:

Gee, really? Another line of defence has come from former league stars such as Colin Scott, Sam Backo and Tony Currie, who said that when they were playing they, too, were sledged for their Aboriginality, and yet their view was that they were happy to leave it on the field.

Gentlemen, with respect, it's not just about you. The point of nailing those who utter such sledges is not just to ensure that Aboriginal players are protected from racist nastiness - it is to make sure that all Australians understand they are in a culture where this is no longer acceptable.

Spot on Peter.

I also observed with interest, former Indigenous international Rugby League player, captain and coach, Arthur Beetson’s public comments when he defended his former Queensland State of Origin coach and now president of the Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust, John McDonald, in the court cases against me over the retention of the E.S. Nigger Brown Stand. On July 13, 1999 Beetson, in reference to the offensiveness of the word “Nigger”, was quoted in The Toowoomba Chronicle:

“I just can’t believe it.” Mr Beetson said yesterday. “I have heard about it and I’m absolutely amazed. I don’t know what’s going on in the world. I don’t have a problem with it and when I read about it I found it quite laughable.

"But this whole thing is just stupid, that was the bloke’s name.”

He said some members of the Aboriginal community “had lost the plot”.

“I can only think they have a lot of spare time on their hands. I think you could ask anyone with Aboriginal blood in them and they wouldn’t have a problem with it I’ve got mates with nicknames like Coon and things like that and they don’t worry. Soon I won’t be able to call them anything.”

While our Indigenous international rugby league greats try their hardest to appease their white buddies, respected community leader Normella Duncan was quoted in The Toowoomba Chronicle  (24/6/2005) with comments that racism was rife in junior rugby league in Toowoomba. Mrs Duncan said she believed racism in junior league was going unpunished. She cited the fact that two players submitted letters stating they were racially abused during the ill-fated Souths-Newtown Under 16 game in May.

The players were suspended for the rest of the season, but she said officials had not dealt with the players’ claims of racial abuse in the match. On the local television station recently Mrs Duncan said the junior league players retaliated during the controversial game because they were sick of being called “monkeys, coons and niggers”.

I was in shock when John McDonald, given his history with the “N” word, said publicly that he wanted to mediate between the Junior Rugby League Committee and the boys in their dispute.

The fact John McDonald is chairman of the Australian Rugby League as well as the International Board of Rugby League, gives me cause for concern about the rugby league hierarchy’s ability to address the growing problem of racism.

The Australian Football League is also having problems of their own, especially after the Friday, July 15, night game. Football commentator Rex Hunt is reported to have made a racial slur against Collingwood forward Leon Davis, that "Neon Leon hasn't lit up tonight, he's as black as a dog's ..." during the Magpies' match against Essendon. Davis considered legal action.

And still it goes on.

Dean Widders and Leon Davis should be congratulated in making their strong and courageous stance against racism in sport and I guess inadvertently reminding us that people are not born racist but are a product of the society in which they live.

Unfortunately every suburb and town has their fair share of Uncle Toms and Coconuts living among those who condone racist activities and while I won’t say that the above-mentioned people fit that category - I will say “If the shoe fits, wear it”.

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Article edited by Rachel Ryan.
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About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

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