Fairfax Columnist Utterly Cooks It, Slammed For Racist Chris Gayle Piece

By

Alasdair Duncan

Published

Fairfax columnist and novelist Malcolm Knox is copping the flogging of a lifetime on Twitter right now, thanks to column he published today on the Chris Gayle affair, in which he addresses the embattled cricketer in a faux-Jamaican patois to teach him a lesson in respect. 
Just to be clear, Malcolm Knox hasn’t just cooked it with today’s column; Malcolm Knox has chucked it in the microwave on the highest setting, fired a rocket-propelled grenade at it, and then nuked the entire site from orbit.
The apparent aim of his piece, a stunningly ill-conceived exercise in “ironic” racism, is to educate Gayle in “decency and courtesy”. Knox’s method of doing this is to talk down to Gayle in a super patronising and racist tone and seeing how much he likes it.  
You can read the whole thing here, but if you just want a little taste:
“I didn’t take offence when you were charming ole sparkly eyes, because me didn’t have the foggiest idea what was comin’ out you mouth. Is you even speaking English? Me rasta brethren too – me spend seven days and six nights on a Qantas Holiday at Negril one time – so me jive talk better than any white man, cha! But the Universe Boss go too fast even for the I. So no offence taken!” 

Then:

“And your newspaper columns, too. They don’t make no sense. All that in-joke gibber between you and KP, all that fun about you being the best batsmen in the world, cha, me didn’t take no bombocloth offence to that neither. But see, I’m different from your average Australian. Me understand cultural differences. Unlike dem Australians wit their BS about PC, me know where you comin’ from, brethren. Me know you got a good lovin’ heart like all we Jamaican brethren. And Mel whatshername, she’ll come around, just you wait. Any woman be flattered to be asked out for a drink by you, boss. Just wait till she understand cultural differences. I’d go weak at the knees if you noticed my sparkly eyes, Chris. Some would call them penetrating.”
After several more cringe-worthy paragraphs, Knox ends off by taking the whole thing back, and asking Chris Gayle:

“How about I … think about how you might before I open my mouth? How about I use the language of decency and courtesy? How about I respect your position as a working professional?”
Yeah, nah, m8.
Twitter is currently tearing strips off Knox, for adopting a super racist tone in an attempt to teach somebody a lesson sexism, and Fairfax and the Sydney Morning Herald, who somehow thought it was a sensible idea to publish this. 

In 2007, Knox published a book called Jamaica: A Novel which was about a group of men holidaying in Jamaica, that “examine[d] masculinity and male friendship in Australian sport.”
He and Fairfax have not yet responded to the current shitstorm. Peter Fitzsimons has been steering hard into “it’s a parody / my mate Malcolm Knox doesn’t have a racist bone in his body” territory, though:

Photo: Darrian Traynor / Getty / Twitter

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