Justin Smith: Eric Andrè risks credibility with Melbourne Airport ‘white supremacy’ accusations

US comedian Eric Andrè has likely experienced many instances of racism but what he experienced at Melbourne Airport wasn’t one of them.

It doesn’t take much to get taken seriously on social media. And even less to be taken too seriously.

This week, American comedian Eric Andrè arrived at Melbourne Airport, and before he had the chance to ask questions such as “why doesn’t a major city have a train into town?’’, he was posting on Instagram about racial terrorism.

Andrè complained to his 2.9 million followers that after flying 25 hours, he was racially profiled, detained on arrival, pulled out of a line and sniffed by a dog.

He then warned that Qantas and the airport were targeting “black, brown and Indigenous” people, while tagging his post with #whitesupremacyisterrorism.

Well to start with, the flight is 25 hours because the US is far away. It’s not designed as a punishment or deterrent. It’s just geography.

Secondly, when people arrive, we check them out. We don’t like drugs and weapons, or food that can carry disease.

And thirdly, many people get sniffed by the dogs at the airport. They’re not chased naked through a field of barbed wire first, they just stand there and get sniffed.

So even in its broadest possible definition, I wouldn’t call what happened to Andrè “detention”.

I’m no fan of Qantas, or government agencies that care more about rules than reality, but when you sling “white supremacist” without evidence, you detract from the real problems with race and bigotry in Australia.

Like truth-telling commissions where the truth is ignored, Senate inquiries into murdered Indigenous women that fall well short of justice, violent anti-semitism,rampant Islamophobia, an Opposition Leader who wants to ban genuine refugees from one particular place, and a Prime Minister whose failed referendum did far more harm than good for black Australia.

It’s a long and embarrassing list, but it doesn’t include a comedian getting sniffed.

Perhaps he’s just one of those tourists who thinks his arse should be kissed on arrival, and is disappointed when not a single lip touches a single cheek.

But I have no doubt that as a black man in America, Andrè has suffered true racism many times, and sadly there’s a good chance it could happen again while he’s here.

If it does, we should want him to call it out, but after his airport accusations, he might have trouble being taken seriously.

Even on social media.