Ben Simmons’ sister Olivia slams Australia’s racism

The controversy surrounding the NBA star’s visit to Crown Casino has been given a second life on social media after his sister unloaded.

Ben Simmons’ sister, Olivia, has added her voice in support of her brother’s exposure of what he perceived as racial profiling during a visit to Crown Casino.

The Australian NBA star made international headlines when on Monday night he posted a since-deleted video to his Instagram page in which he suggested his treatment by security was impacted by his skin colour.

Olivia Simmons, who is the closest of the six Simmons children in age to Ben and has described him as her “best friend”, said her brother wasn’t aggressive and wouldn’t lie about his experience.

The Melbourne-based mother and basketball coach posted a series of tweets in which she discussed racism in Australia and her brother’s situation.

“I live in Melbourne so I stand by anyone who says they feel as though it was racial,” Olivia wrote. “Chances are it was. Australian racism is silent and because we have nobody to represent us (people of colour) on TV, apart from Waleed Aly, when stories break they’re always biased and one sided.”

She responded vigorously to entertainment reporter Peter Ford, who is covering the story. “My brother doesn’t lie,” Olivia wrote. “Yet again another white man discrediting a black man’s experience. I would say walk a mile in his shoes but your teeny tiny feet wouldn’t fit into his shoes.

“I’m tired of old white Australian men saying things aren’t racist when they are. You don’t know what it feels like to be the only person to have (your) bag checked when leaving a store or being denied entry for the colour of your skin. This country needs a serious change.

“This is an amazing country and I love it here but they forget about the genocide they committed and wiped out most of the indigenous people. They think they’re the only people to live here. When in actuality our indigenous people suffer everyday from what happened.

“I think Australia is such an amazing country … what cannot be denied is we have a racism problem out here but it’s silent racism so people just sweep it under the rug.”

Ben Simmons with his sister Olivia.

She also took aim at Ford’s comments about Simmons being paid by the Victorian government’s tourism arm to promote the state on his social media while he visited Australia.

“The stench of your privilege and serious lack of knowledge when it comes to the commitments this young man has and the impact he has in his community is genuinely flabbergasting,” Olivia wrote. “Cant wait till he helps the youth of this country and you look silly for trying to tear this young man down.

“You’re just coming for him for no reason. He does really good work in his community back home. Does volunteer work and does a lot for under privileged youth. Nobody else is in a similar deal because he’s been blessed with a lot of influence because of his athletic gifts.”

The stench of your privilege & serious lack of knowledge when it comes to the commitments this young man has & the impact he has in his community is genuinely flabbergasting. Cant wait till he helps the youth of this country & you look silly for trying to tear this young man down

— Liv Alice Simmons (@livvalice) August 7, 2019

The Philadelphia 76ers superstar returned to Australia despite pulling out of the Boomers squad for their warm-up games ahead of the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

He visited Crown with a group of friends. “I find it so crazy that the only guy who doesn’t get checked to go into the casino is this guy,” Simmons said in the video, before turning the camera on a white person.

“I get checked, Mike gets checked and Tys gets checked. Thank you Crown Casino, damn, and they didn’t let me in, or him or this guy. Wow, we got a long way to go.”

Crown has denied there was any discrimination and that its security asked for identification because they believed the group were under 25.