If the last couple of weeks since the death in custody of US man George Floyd has taught us anything, it’s that there’s a really serious racism problem in Australia, especially within our media.
And today we’ve added another example to the laundry list that already consists of Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Samatha Armytage’s various on-air fuck-ups. This time it’s the Sunday Telegraph, who published the following dumpster fire that should’ve never made it to print.
How the hell did someone allow this to run to print? Editors, sub-editors… Just when you thought the #sundaytelegraph couldn’t sink any lower. I’d lose my job if I used any version of the n-word, would be shocked if Peter Gleeson kept his. pic.twitter.com/guu8Voc2Ht
— Jordan Mulach (@JordanFW07) June 14, 2020
The article, entitled Where’s the real justice? was written by Peter Gleeson and published in today’s edition of the Sunday Telegraph, with a slightly-tweaked version appearing in the Sunday Herald and Courier Mail.
“The reality in this country – and the United States – is that the greatest danger to Aborigines and African-Americans is themselves,” the alternate version reads.
Honestly, it’s pretty hard to determine where to begin with this mess. In addition to using the n-word, Gleeson (who legitimately calls himself “Gleeso”) referred to Indigenous Australians as “aboriginals” and blatantly claimed that people of colour are a danger to themselves, which is some real coloniser bullshit.
Although some will argue that Gleeson’s wording isn’t as offensive as *the* n-word, the term has been unacceptable since the mid 1980s, following Stokely Carmichael’s coining of the term Black Power. The term hasn’t always been considered as offensive as it is now, but we’ve all known it’s offensive since at least the 80s, so there’s really no excuse to be using it in 2020.
Hundreds of people took to social media to call out the Sunday Telegraph, questioning how the story made it to print without an editor stopping it.
The racist column in today’s papers come just two days after Gleeson ranted for a solid three minutes about PC culture during his Sky News hosting segment.
“Unless the average person out there, including our viewers take a stand, the PC warriors will win,” he proclaimed in the segment, which discussed the Chris Lilley ordeal that made headlines earlier this week.
In just one week, he’s sooked on national TV about not being able to watch Chris Lilley do blackface anymore and has used the n-word in a column, which does a pretty good job of illustrating his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement.
The whole column is an absolute mess, prompting hundreds of people online to question how the story hit print without any editors questioning it.
Interestingly enough, the story is still live on the Courier Mail website at the time of publishing this story, despite multiple obvious fuck-ups in the piece.
“Why do black lives matter more when a white person is involved? On the day George Floyd was killed, 10 black people were shot in Chicago, all killed by black people,” Gleeson writes, before discussing Floyd’s criminal history and drug use as if that’s an excuse to be killed by police.
Readers were quick to condemn the column, and the publication on Twitter, asserting that failure to do something about the article is also racist.
This was in Australia’s @dailytelegraph today. No this wasn’t written 100 years ago this was written today by peter gleeson pic.twitter.com/wgPBQIdc03
— Tom Thanks (@steph_vol) June 14, 2020
How the hell did someone allow this to run to print? Editors, sub-editors… Just when you thought the #sundaytelegraph couldn’t sink any lower. I’d lose my job if I used any version of the n-word, would be shocked if Peter Gleeson kept his. pic.twitter.com/guu8Voc2Ht
— Jordan Mulach (@JordanFW07) June 14, 2020
Peter Gleeson’s statement is racist. Allowing his statement to be printed is racist. To fail to complain is racist. The behaviour we walk past is the behaviour we condone. https://t.co/pQvPPIxWA3
— Kate (@kaycee451) June 14, 2020
@dailytelegraph fire peter gleeson don’t be shy…
— 𝖍𝖔𝖙 𝖌𝖆𝖗𝖇𝖆𝖌𝖊 (@cinnagrrl) June 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/georgepsihoyios/status/1272027454446555143
https://twitter.com/t_cutlet/status/1272022947847274496
Peter Gleeson and the News Corp are yet to comment on the column.