Choc calling the kettle black

"I thought they wiped all the Aborigines from Tasmania out," Anthony Mundine gives yet another indication that boxing is bad for your brain.

 

The Australian Government’s decision to mandate a national curriculum came too late to save Anthony Mundine from his own stupidity.

I’m going to throw it out there and say I already harbour grave doubts about Mundine’s academic career – and that, regardless of syllabus, he probably didn’t pay much attention at school – but his ignorant, hurtful attack on Daniel Geale this week proves that whatever education he did receive currently wallows in the dark recesses of his pea-like brain.

In the wake of his inflammatory statements ahead of a summer bout with reigning middleweight dual-title holder Geale, it seems he’s even forgotten about basic life lessons of mutual respect and morality.

Study of early colonial history in Van Diemen’s Land never stood a chance.

For those that haven’t caught the latest buffoonery from Mundine, you might want to do a little reading and viewing here.

For his part, Geale has refused to bite, preferring to leave Mundine to his base antics by turning the other cheek and taking the high ground. At least for now, Geale seems to have taken the long view on this one.

He’ll let Mundine’s idiotic barbs dig away for the next couple of months and channel the fury he must rightfully be feeling today into a series of blows that will leave more than a mark or two on Mundine’s seemingly thick skin.

And The Man better hope his pelt is at least as thick as his skull – because the admonishment here is going to come from all corners and it’s going to be vitriolic.

His stance in questioning Geale’s heritage based on skin-tone and historical misgivings is beyond ludicrous.

It is an irrefutable fact that there is a community of Aboriginal Tasmanians. They have not been ‘wiped out’, Anthony.

But, yes, their forebears suffered severely during the early years of colonisation.

The Black Line is a shameful chapter in our 19th century history. The impact of European disease and displacement bought untold misery to a proud people.

But so did the institutionalised policies of segregation and assimilation that were rife across the entire country until late in the 20th century.

The scars of our nation’s collective ignorance are still plain to see and much is being done to atone for actions that seem unthinkable in today’s society.

Seem unthinkable, that is, until The Man decides the time is right to stick his head above the parapet and utter the kind of nonsense he did yesterday.

"Where is there a cut-off point?” he asked, priming the room for his views on who can and can’t be an Aborigine. “There's got to be a cut-off point. That's something the government has got to work on.”

"Say my great grandfather or my great, great grandfather is Aboriginal, and then everyone else (in my family) is anglo-saxon … when it comes to me, am I Aboriginal?”

Well, regardless of whether you choose to celebrate your Aboriginal heritage, by even uttering these words you’re shaming your culture.

You’re also putting in doubt the future existence of your people.

As generations pass and heritages become increasingly intertwined – and using Mundine’s logic alone – there may no longer be his kind of Aboriginal Australians.

You know the ones? They're really easily recognised with their dark skin, curly black hair, boomerangs and any other outdated stereotype you may care to mention.

Maybe Mundine thinks the government should institute a policy of forced breeding to make sure indigenous Australians are ‘black’ enough.

Far be it for an individual’s skin to become light enough that they’re mistaken for something other than indigenous. Like Maltese, or Italian. Or ‘Australian’.

You, Anthony Mundine, are not the arbiter on all things Aboriginal.

Remember when you labelled Cathy Freeman a sell-out in 2007 for being too ‘corporate’?

"Aboriginal people don't buy that," you said. "That's what happened to Cathy Freeman. She sold out, toeing the line. And that ain't me. I'm not a fake."

Not a fake? Well there goes any remaining potential for me to give you the benefit of the doubt on this one.

See, I had hoped this was the kind of bluff and bluster so bandied about in your industry – the fight game – to create hype and interest and sell TV subscriptions.

Some news agencies have chosen to go with it, labelling Mundine as no more than an ‘outspoken fighter’.

Perhaps a quick edit is in order because from where I sit he’s little more than a ‘confused fuckwit’.

He’s made a bigot of himself through senseless big-noting.

He’s taken an airy swipe at what he saw as an easy target and missed so badly he practically swung himself off his feet.

By attacking Geale’s right to identify himself as Aboriginal, Mundine has effectively cast a gloomy pall over his oft-vocalised want to stand as a role model for indigenous Australians.

By questioning the right of an individual to recognise their own heritage in a manner they see fit he has shown himself to be of poor character and poor judgement.

Much as Muhammad Ali was admonished for his mistreatment of Joe Frazier in denigrating his status as a ‘black American’ with his now infamous words, Mundine has fired well wide of the target.

The Man comes across as the kind of stooge that might think this press-conference performance puts him, in some misguided way, on the same page as The Greatest.

But that is patently not the case. He doesn’t even belong in the same book.

Mundine is fit to be considered a hero to cretins alone.

 

 

 

Picture courtesy of Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images AsiaPac