Who cares if Sam Kerr called a policeman ‘stupid and white’? I don’t

I’ve been in Sam Kerr’s shoes, and not only do I completely understand her behaviour during her infamous exchange with a constable in a Twickenham police station, I don’t have a problem with it.

Many media, sporting and business commentators and, of course, keyboard warriors, are saying one early morning of Kerr’s life, during which she called Constable Stephen Lovell “stupid and white”, should obliterate 16 years of Sam Kerr being the striker her fans from Australia and clubs around the world have come to love.

Nadia Russell dressed as Sam Kerr for Halloween in 2023.

Australian former footballer Bruce Djite said on ABC’s Offsiders on Sunday that “she can’t remain as captain” of the Tillies. Sports journalist Tracey Holmes wrote: “It’s not just Sam Kerr in the dock this week, it’s the entire Matildas brand.” An AFR opinion article ran the headline “Are Sam Kerr’s days as Matildas captain numbered?”

It’s such extreme retribution for a “crime” many believe should never have made it to Kingston Crown Court in London, and especially for one she turned out to be innocent of.

The charge centred around Kerr, a queer woman of colour, calling Lovell “stupid and white”, an exchange which sparked a debate about racism, women, violence and power. Who is really wielding it here? What I know is that if we are going to talk about the power of words in that room, we need to also take into account the power of identity.

I see a lot of myself in Kerr. I’m no professional football player but, like her, I have South Asian heritage, I’m queer-identifying, and I’ve grown up in an Australian capital city. After a lifetime of being asked, “but where are you from, really?”, it’s been warming to see someone who looks like me so respected and revered by the Australian public. I don’t think some early morning name-calling of “stupid and white” to a police officer while already at the station, surrounded by numerous police, is reason enough to lose that.

Lovell was right regarding one thing: Race was a factor in that early morning conversation. Kerr points out that “this is a f---ing racial f---ing thing”. There’s an assumption that racism has to be overt, but the reality is it’s more often subtle. Even in her drunk state, she could see the way she was being dismissed and not listened to compared to her partner, Kristie Mewis, a white American woman.

Kerr and Mewis both testified in court to being scared in the back of that taxi, and that the driver turned aggressive and drove the two women around erratically, off-route and without answers as to where they might be going or whether they would be let out. A lot has been made about the vomit in the taxi (it was Kerr’s – she’d been on a night out, but stuff happens) and the fact that the back window was kicked out (that was Mewis, not Kerr). It’s hard to understand why Kerr’s complaint about the taxi driver wasn’t taken seriously.

In the body-cam footage that seems to have been played on loop, Kerr asks the police officer to put yourself “in a female’s shoes”. This reminded me of a time when I had taken an Uber to work in the early hours of the morning. What was meant to be a 20-minute trip turned into a near 50-minute drive when my Uber driver got lost in the tunnels. He didn’t even realise he was lost until I told him we had missed two possible exits and were heading for Liverpool.

Once I pointed this out to him, instead of apologising for the inconvenience, he turned on me, blaming me for not saying something sooner, swinging his head in my direction in the back seat and being aggressive towards me. For 30 minutes, I imagined the worst-case scenarios and what my plan of action was if something were to happen. It was scary and unnerving but strange rides, with all senses primed, in taxis and Ubers are nothing novel if you are a woman trying to get from A to B.

Nadia’s Uber trip, when the driver got lost.

In the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days. Last year in Australia, we saw 78 women’s lives lost to violence. Two in five women in this country have experienced violence since the age of 15, with men more commonly the perpetrators of violence, both physical and sexual.

Misogyny doesn’t just lie in the way Kerr was being dismissed and treated at that police station, but in the way her male counterparts don’t seem to suffer the same consequences. From tennis stars to NRL, AFL, soccer and more, there’s not enough space to list the male athletes who have been accused – or found guilty – of crimes and then have continued on their successful sporting way without much criticism.

Barrister Grace Forbes, defending Kerr, told the court: “What cannot be captured on camera was what was going on in Samantha Kerr’s head. Intention is very much in dispute.” When Kerr says the words “stupid and white” after a period of frustrating interrogation, it is her pointing out the power Lovell has used against her and his failure to acknowledge it. I know Sam Kerr, I know her story, and I’m on her side.

Nadia Russell is a social media producer at The Sydney Morning Herald.

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