MasterChef judge Melissa Leong slams Georgia Love after another offensive post
MasterChef judge Melissa Leong has blasted her former Channel 10 colleague Georgia Love after a second offensive post by the news reporter surfaced online.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Georgia Love’s ex-Channel 10 colleague Melissa Leong has criticised the former Bachelorette after a second offensive social media post surfaced online this week.
The MasterChef judge, who is Singaporean-Australian, expressed her disappointment on Wednesday and said she knows Love personally.
“‘Shop attendant or lunch?’” posted on a video of a cat in a Chinese restaurant by someone I know, who also happens to carry a fair amount of influence,” Leong wrote.
“Casual racism from nice people is possibly the most betraying and insidious kind.
“Not angry, just completely bummed that this video exists and that it isn’t the first joke of this kind made by her. Georgia, I really hope your remorse is real and that you grow in the right direction, because this stuff hurts more people, more than you think. We must be allies for each other for a better world for all.”
Leong, 39, was responding to two of the 7News reporter’s social media posts which are being investigated by her employer Channel 7.
One meme was shared in 2013 and resurfaced this week amid backlash over a more recent post.
The old post shows an animal hospital next door to a Chinese restaurant called China Chef and a dog with the words “That’s suspicious”.
She deleted the post after widespread criticism and apologised.
On Wednesday afternoon, an insider told Confidential that Channel 7’s investigation is ongoing and no decisions have been made.
Confidential has contacted Channel 7 for comment.
Asian-Australian, Tarang Chawla, who works as a Multicultural Commissioner in Melbourne where Love is based, said this kind of casual racism is harmful particularly during a time when there has been growing hostility towards the Asian community during the pandemic.
“Racism can be about impact and not just about intent. I think we need to stop making excuses around casual forms of racism and start looking at solutions,” said Chawla.
“I don’t know what she meant by it because I don’t know her but I do know that the impact of that was relying on a harmful racial stereotype about people from certain parts of Asia and then mocking them for that.
“This is a learning opportunity to talk about what casual racism looks like and what it is. I hope that it’s an opportunity for her and others in a position of power and influence to have a conversation around race and ethnicity and learn and understand what the unfortunate physical and mental health impacts are on people of colour as a result of casual forms of racism.”
Love’s offensive post comes after her boss, Seven West Media CEO James Warburton, told staff that racism is “unacceptable and will not be tolerated” after a separate incident involving a staff member who published a racist post on 7News.com.au’s social media pages after the Euro 2020 final.
The post accompanied a story on the site about racial abuse directed at three English players who missed their penalty shots in a penalty shootout that went Italy’s way. The story was initially published with the headline “Three Black players failed in the penalty shootout which England lost 3-2 against Italy.”
It was later deleted and a public apology was issued.
Last year, Channel Seven, former Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage and commentator Prue MacSween were sued for racial vilification over a 2018 discussion on the breakfast TV show about Aboriginal adoption that featured an all-white panel.
MacSween said at the time, “We need to do (the Stolen Generation) again, perhaps”.
Armytage began the segment by saying, “Post-Stolen Generation, there’s been a huge move to leave Aboriginal children where they are, even if they’re being neglected in their own families”.
Activists gathered outside Sunrise’s Martin Place studios demanding an apology.
Media watchdog The Australian Communications and Media Authority later ruled that Seven had breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2015 because the segment “provoked serious contempt on the basis of race”.
Branding expert Nicole Reaney of InsideOut PR said such incidents can be problematic for a TV network.
“Given Georgia is a personality tied to the Seven network there could be some impact,” Reaney said.
“The fact that she immediately responded to the situation with an apology and acknowledged her accountability works in her favour.
“For media organisations where their workforce are personalities in their own right with their own public platforms, it can make it challenging to control individual communications. It’s essential the network communicates directly with Georgia and outlines the culture and values it’s seeking to adhere to, while reminding the broader workforce of its policies.”