Andrew Bolt: ’Racist’ label must unite us against evil, not divide us over the trivial

Allegations against Collingwood chief Craig Kelly suggest he may have been blunt and foul-mouthed but we must distinguish between being rude to someone who happens to be Aboriginal and rude to someone because they are Aboriginal.

How tiresome. Another “racism scandal” at the Collingwood Football Club where evidence seems weirdly elusive.

Sure, there are allegations against chief executive Craig Kelly which suggest he’s been a dickhead. If true.

But racist? We really must distinguish between being rude to someone who happens to be Aboriginal, and rude to someone because they are Aboriginal.

So let’s look at what Kelly allegedly did, according to Mark Cleaver, who identifies as not just gay and non-binary but Aboriginal, and headed the club’s First Nations strategy for six months until he was dismissed because of conduct issues unrelated to his complaints made against Kelly.

Cleaver is now suing Collingwood for unfair dismissal, and in court documents claims he was in a meeting with Kelly and another club executive when Kelly said they had to create a “cultural room”, complaining the president “has been on my a--e about it”.

There are allegations against chief executive Craig Kelly. Picture: David Crosling

Cleaver allegedly responded: “The next step is to go through all the cultural artefacts …”

Kelly then allegedly “picked up a marngrook (a ball made of possum hair supposedly used by Aborigines to play the original football) … and said ‘I don’t give a f--- what you put in there, put this shit in there’ and forcefully threw the marngrook at Mr Cleaver.”

Cleaver claims Kelly added: “I don’t give a f--- if you put a live f---ing possum in there, just get (the president and Indigenous vice-president) off my arse.”

So here’s Kelly, a former player, being blunt, foul-mouthed and rude in demanding action.

But racist? Because he didn’t treat a possum-fur ball as a holy icon when insisting it be displayed? I suspect Kelly is dismissive of many things.

Mark Cleaver, head of First Nations strategy and programs Picture: Supplied

Indeed, there’s a second allegation that Kelly criticised a female “Indigenous elder” who ticked him off for saying – trying to be respectful – he really cared “about our Indigenous people”, only to have it thrown back in his face: “You don’t say ‘our’, we don’t belong to you”.

Hmm, isn’t that insistence on “we” and “you” a bit, well, racist?

Anyway, when Kelly left that meeting he allegedly said: “That dumb old bitch was really angry but I got her to come around.”

Again, is that racist? Ageist, maybe. Rude and sexist, yes.

But I reckon Kelly would have said the same of a white woman who had needlessly embarrassed him.

So let’s keep the word “racist” for something that really is, so it unites us against an evil, not divides us over the trivial.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: ’Racist’ label must unite us against evil, not divide us over the trivial