Today’s Repulsive Bill Leak Cartoon Proves Racism Is Alive & Well In Oz

Controversial Aussie cartoonist Bill Leak has put up today’s ‘Bleak View‘ cartoon and it is… horrifying. To say the least. 

In the image, a policeman is holding a young Aboriginal boy by the scruff of the neck in front of his father, and says “You’ll have to sit down and talk to your son about personal responsibility”. 

The father, who is holding a can that looks like VB, responds, “Yeah righto. What’s his name then?”.

One has to wonder where ‘The Australian’ considers the line to be crossed. At what point would an approving editor turn around and say, “Hmm, no… this is simply *too* racist”. Does that line even exist?

This incredibly blatant nod to racial stereotypes that Indigenous Australians have fought against for generations is likely referring to the current situation at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in Darwin. 

The detention centre was the subject of a report by ABC‘s ‘Four Corners‘, which showed footage of gross maltreatment and horrendous abuse of its teenage inmates, including one teenager being tear-gassed, being dragged and shackled, abused by guards, and restrained in a chair with a hood over his head. 

Don Dale houses a number of Aboriginal children who are being abused and mistreated by guards, but Leak’s cartoon relies on the gross cliché of ‘absent/unfit black fathers’ in order to place the blame on Aboriginal parents rather than the obvious culprit in this heartbreaking story: aggressive guards abusing their power. 

Plenty are stunned by Leak’s latest offering:

Australians get offended when people say we’re racist, but can you imagine this appearing in a US or UK newspaper? pic.twitter.com/6KzOJMaiVv

— average media guy (@axmcc) August 3, 2016

That racist cartoon by Bill Leak in The Australian would have caused outcry 30yrs ago. How it’s published in major outlet now beyond belief.

— Rohan Connolly (@rohan_connolly) August 3, 2016

Truly absurd that @australian still publishes Bill Leak. Such a sad state of affiars https://t.co/pliWOWEAvn

— Gen Wood (@woodgenevieve) August 3, 2016

Dear @australian the Bill Leak cartoon is profoundly offensive & racist. Others can see it, why can’t you? Time for Bill to go

— choosing (@ch150ch) August 3, 2016

Disgraceful, racist rubbish from The Australian. Shameful Bill Leak pic.twitter.com/IrSPEKCjAR

— John Mendoza (@johno0910) August 3, 2016

imagine bill leak hunched over his drawing board muttering “if i make the cop aboriginal too, it will prove im not racist”

— for a clown to hav (@mattvbrady) August 3, 2016

How does that Bill Leak cartoon *actually* get published in 2016? Is it actually not hate speech?

— Anna Spargo-Ryan (@annaspargoryan) August 3, 2016

Leak is well-known for his conservative and and racist cartoons – he caused international fury back in December last year for a cartoon titled ‘Aid A La Mode’, which depicted Indian people eating solar panels. It was released as clear commentary on Paris Climate Conference, with Mahatma Gandhi‘s grandson and Indian politician Tushar Arun Gandhi calling it a “racist creation of uneducated arrogance”.

But Leak’s speciality is reducing Australia’s First People to devastating clichés that offend at least, harm and kill at most:

A reminder that The Australian, a national broadsheet, has been publishing Bill Leak’s racist scribbles since ’06: pic.twitter.com/XzY6xANZzv

— Vanessa Lawrence (@nesslawrence) August 3, 2016

Yet Leak seems unwilling to accept that horrifically outdated and factually incorrect racial stereotypes are not fodder for his craft. 

Regardless of whether it’s a purposeful magnet for the anger of the Left – Leak seems neither funny nor clever enough to create that ruse – his scribble is in a mainstream, national newspaper seen by hundreds of thousands of people. 

And that can and will have great impact; racist ‘jokes’ have undeniable ability to harm minorities through perpetuated hatred.

Racism is alive and well in Australia, make no mistake about it.