Rita Panahi: We should listen to Warren Mundine on Kennett-Rioli racism claims

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has mocked the notion an incident involving Jeff Kennett could be construed as racist as he slammed the rise in cancel culture.

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has rubbished claims that Jeff Kennett’s comments to Cyril Rioli’s wife, Shannyn, had any racial overtones.

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has rubbished claims Jeff Kennett’s comments to Cyril Rioli’s wife had any racial overtones. The former ALP national president said it was “ridiculous” such an innocuous comment was perceived as racial and deemed worthy of a front-page story. According to Shannyn Rioli, Hawthorn president Kennett criticised her designer ripped jeans, and offered her loose change in order to sew them up. She told The Age the incident which occurred in 2018 left her feeling “belittled and humiliated”.

“The club kept saying I was overreacting, but they were portraying me as the angry black woman,” she said. The exchange was the catalyst for Rioli’s early retirement. “It was the final straw. It opened my eyes seeing how distraught she was and defending her and seeing how they were to us,” Cyril Rioli said.

In the aftermath of the revelations there have been calls for Kennett to step down and for Hawthorn to launch an inquiry. But Mr Mundine has mocked the notion the incident could be construed as racist and should lead to any sanctions.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett and Cyril Rioli before the incident. Picture: Michael Klein

“I grew up with stoic, strong, powerful Aboriginal people who copped real racism, and I mean brutal racism,” Mr Mundine said on The Rita Panahi Show. “They were tough and they fought for change and they made changes.”

He decried the modern cancel culture phenomenon and the eagerness to paint any incident as racially motivated. “All you got to do is make an allegation, whether it’s true or false and then the lynch mob comes out,” he said.

Any incidents of genuine racism should be called out and condemned but seeing every interaction through a racial filter and being hypersensitive is neither healthy nor rational. The tragedy of this incident is a supremely talented footballer walking away from the game early over a little joke that most of us would have dismissed as harmless banter.