Heritier Lumumba accuses McGuire, McLachlan off throwing ‘two Black women’ under the bus

Heritier Lumumba has accused Gillon McLachlan and Eddie McGuire of forcing “two Black women” to take their bullets.

Heritier Lumumba has accused AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire of “pathetic leadership” and “cowardice” in the wake of the Magpies’ damning racism report.

In his latest social media commentary on the issue, Lumumba said it was “shameful” the AFL and Collingwood had “forced” Magpies’ board member Jodi Sizer and the league’s general manager of inclusion and social policy Tonya Hosch to front the media on the subject.

Declaring that “systemic issues” started at the top, the former Collingwood player said McLachlan and McGuire needed to “front up” rather than letting other people take “their hits”.

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McGuire addressed the Magpies’ report at the press conference last Monday in which he came under fire for describing it as a “proud and historic day” for the club before he apologised for his choice of words at the club’s AGM the following night.

McLachlan was questioned and responded to the Magpies’ “Do Better” report at a press conference last Tuesday.

1/ It’s shameful that both Collingwood and the AFL have forced two Black women - Jodi Sizer and Tanya Hosch respectively - to front the media for the past week, instead of Eddie McGuire and Gillon McLachlan.

— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 7, 2021

2/ Systemic issues start at the top. The people at the top need to front up and face the media, instead of getting others to take their hits. This is pathetic leadership and a clear case of cowardice.

— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 7, 2021

3/ Jodi Sizer has only been at CFC for 2 years. Why should she have to answer for McGuire’s 20 years of failures, with respect to racism? These Black women should not have to answer for the incompetence & indifference of privileged white men with major institutional power.

— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 7, 2021

Lumumba said Sizer and Hosch should not have to “answer for the incompetence and indifference of privileged white men”.

“It’s shameful that both Collingwood and the AFL have forced two Black women - Jodi Sizer and Tanya Hosch respectively - to front the media for the past week, instead of Eddie McGuire and Gillon McLachlan,” Lumumba wrote on Twitter on Monday.

“Systemic issues start at the top. The people at the top need to front up and face the media, instead of getting others to take their hits.

“This is pathetic leadership and a clear case of cowardice.

“Jodi Sizer has only been at CFC for 2 years. Why should she have to answer for McGuire’s 20 years of failures, with respect to racism?

“These Black women should not have to answer for the incompetence & indifference of privileged white men with major institutional power.”

Lumumba has continued his assault on McGuire and McLachlan.

The AFL declined to comment when contacted about the comments on Monday.

McLachlan last week lauded Collingwood for looking inward in an attempt to do better in the future.

“It’s going to require a whole football club to deliver on this,” McLachlan said.

“This is a serious undertaking the Collingwood Football Club board’s embarked on and it’s going to require the whole board, the whole club, the footy department.

“And it’s made a commitment on behalf of its supporters.

“This has never been about an individual and needs to be a whole club approach, and frankly a whole industry approach.”

Lumumba’s attack came after he last week took a fresh swipe at Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and also labelled an open letter of apology from the Magpies’ playing collective as a “tool for damage control” by the club.

Gillon McLachlan is in Heritier Lumumba’s crosshairs. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty

Eddie McGuire was forced to apologise for his comments after the AMG. Picture: Wayne Taylor

McGuire apologised at the club’s AGM for the way he initially sold Collingwood’s reaction to the “Do Better” report.

“I said it was a proud day for Collingwood, and I shouldn’t have,” McGuire said.

“I did not mean we were proud of past instances of racism and the hurt that it caused.

“It’s been interpreted widely that way, and I regret that deeply.

“I’m sorry that my error has acted as a distraction from the importance of the findings on racism and the work that lies ahead.

“Under the pressure of the day the use of the word ‘proud’ was wrong.”

Lumumba’s bitter online nickname row

Heritier Lumumba has jumped into an online war of words between ex-Collingwood teammates after one of them claimed the 2010 premiership star had “made up” a racist nickname.

Lumumba also dismissed an accusation by former Magpies player Simon Buckley that the 2010 premiership star never complained “when he was winning flags and getting a kick himself”.

“As I have consistently stated over the past four years, the nickname ‘Chimp’ began in 2005, during the pre-season and, no, I did not make it up myself,” Lumumba wrote.

Two days after the Collingwood Past Players Association publicly backed the “Do Better” review into “systemic racism” at the Holden Centre, former player Buckley launched an extraordinary attack on Lumumba.

Heritier Lumumba has been heavily critical of the Magpies and the culture issues at the club.

“He made the nickname up for himself,” Buckley wrote on Facebook.

“He was all for it when he was winning flags and playing well. He would refer to himself as chimp. He all of a sudden 10 years later wants to be a humanitarian (sic).

Lumumba has continued his assault on McGuire and McLachlan.

“He never complained when he was winning flags and getting a kick himself and calling himself that name. Now all of a sudden he’s out of the media and wants to be back in the limelight and get a few bucks. Weak as piss.

“If he wanted to preach about racism, he shoulda called it out at the time and not run with it and calling himself that for a laugh.”

Buckley, who played 26 games with the Magpies, posted the comments on a Facebook page belonging to Shae McNamara — an American recruit who like Buckley spent three years at Collingwood between 2010 and 2012.

The heated dispute kicked off when McNamara posted an online link to a story in The Australian in which he condemned the treatment of Lumumba at the Holden Centre.

McNamara has publicly confirmed Lumumba was nicknamed Chimp.

McNamara responded to Buckley’s attack by writing the culture at Collingwood was “head down, ass up”.

“Brother he’s a black man in Australia — he got it all the time,” McNamara posted.

“You can’t risk losing good stead … what happened in ’13.

“Shit needs to change — systemically. And now he’s been defamed — ask Leon (Davis) and they how their experiences were. Come on now.”

Buckley, who also played for Melbourne, said that was “completely different”.

“I agree with Leon and all indigenous people. And love them for it,” he posted.

“Harry (the name Lumumba formally went by) has nothing to do with that. He’s Brazilian. And if he cared soo much, he wouldn’t have made the name up for himself.”

In response to a question about how he claimed to know Lumumba made the nickname up himself, Buckley then said “because I played at the club at the time. One of probably 30 people on the universe that actually does know (sic)”.

Buckley during his time with the Magpies where he played 26 games.

McNamara said Buckley and Lumumba “had beef at a bar” and since the former Pies and Dees player came to Collingwood in 2010 “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about” regarding the origins of the nickname.

The two continued to go back and forth, before Lumumba himself decided to respond to Buckley’s comments.

“1. ‘He made the nickname up for himself.’ Although we indeed were teammates, the time that we spend within that paradigm was a mere 20% of the time that I was at the CFC i.e. 2 years out of the 10 years that I was there,” Lumumba posted.

“As I have consistently stated over the past 4 year, the nickname ‘Chimp’ began in 2005, during the pre-season and, no, I did not make it up myself.

“Despite the nickname being overtly racist, unfortunately, it was not the worst facet of the interpersonal racism that I encountered during my 10 years at CFC. Within 2 months of me being at the club, I had already been exposed to a culture where racist ideas, in the form of jokes, stereotypes and direct abuse was prevalent.

“2. ‘He was all for it when winning flags and playing well.’ I’ve heard this flimsy argument thrown around by white people who aren’t familiar with what I have already said on the public record. They are using a reductionist framework to evaluate how racism manifests for individuals.

“I’ve gone on the public record to state that from 2004 up until 2013, I had adopted a “go along to get along” approach to cope with being within the club’s culture. When I was “winning flags and playing well”, during the 2 years you were on the list, I was a young man of 23-24 years of age, and had yet to understand the dangerous implications of the racism that was allowed to proliferate within the club’s culture.

Lumumba made it clear he had Buckley’s measure during their playing days together.

“This culture existed before I was even there; simply ask my brother, Leon Davis, who is 100% in support of me.”

Lumumba continued to say he had always held humanitarian values close to his way of life, had been unsuccessful in the “many attempts” he made to address the club’s “racism from the beginning of my career to the time that you saw me “getting a kick” and “winning flags” and the media attention he had attracted had “made me re-live the severe trauma of the darkest days of my life”.

And in response to Buckley saying he was “weak as piss”, Lumumba said; “I can clearly remember competing with you for a spot for the 2 years you were on the list. Despite all of the challenges that I had to navigate, that you did not, I was still stronger, faster, and more powerful than you.”

Lumumba also said Buckley saying he was Brazilian and this had nothing to do with Indigenous issues “really does show your ignorance” and asked him to not call him Harry as that was not his name.

“If you would like to learn more about the club’s issues and how I was severely affected by the club’s failings, I’m more than open to having a private discussion with you,” he said.

The comments by Buckley were later deleted.

It comes at a time that Collingwood director Jodie Sizer issued an emotional apology to Lumumba.

“As a person of colour I can’t tell you the many instances of ­racism that I’ve experienced and my family has experienced,” Sizer told The Australian.

“I have seen the hurt, and when I hear him speak it aches from within for me … and that clashing of responsibility that I have as a ­director of an organisation to serve in the best interest of all our people and to think the events of the past have had an impact on him.

“I’m sorry to have got to a ­decade later to hear that pain is still there.”