13 July 2016

Why Nick Kyrgios stirs white anxieties

| Kim Huynh
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Nick Kyrgios

After Olympic Head of Mission Kitty Chiller said that Nick Kyrgios ‘doesn’t really understand what it means to be an Australian Olympian’, the Canberran tennis hotshot turned to social media for guidance and support. Over 2,400 of his facebook friends offered mostly encouraging comments.

He also reposted a tweet in which he was told to “go home f#&king greek”. This message echoes Dawn Fraser’s call last year for Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic to “go back to where their parents came from”. Kyrgios has been quick to call out racism and express his love for his Malaysian and Greek roots along with his eagerness to play for Australia.

The brouhaha over whether Kyrgios belongs, reveals a good deal about the power and anxieties of contemporary Australian whiteness.

While we often hear about black, Asian, indigenous or hybrid identities, it’s harder to pin down what it means to be white. Moreover, unless you’re a white supremacist, discussing whiteness can be disconcerting because it raises questions about how white culture came to influence much of the world.

It’s the invisible nature of white identity that makes it so pervasive in terms of what Australians and other Anglo-centric countries consider to be fair and acceptable.

Sport can help us understand what it means to be white. In England, cricket and tennis are anchored in age-old white traditions that make for gentlemanly or sportsman-like conduct (gendered terms intended).

Iconic American sports are white in a more technocratic way. Strategic, equipment laden and high scoring sports like American football and baseball reflect an American view that overall, the team that invests the most in terms of money, effort, discipline and planning should win.

White sports emphasise orderly conduct and unambiguous outcomes.

Soccer is thus the world game in part because it’s not predominately white. The soccer aficionado accepts that the best team doesn’t always triumph, that there are plenty of draws and that most games are not action packed. In this way, soccer is a microcosm of real life.

It follows that taking your time to undo and do up your laces and thereby protecting your lead in the dying seconds of a match, screaming and clutching at your face after you’ve been hit on the leg or reminding an opponent of his partner’s sexual history – while by no means reputable – are acceptable and indeed can enhance the beauty of the game-as-life.

Of course few if any sports or indeed athletes are entirely white or non-white. We all take on varied identities. Kyrgios is in complex ways Canberran, Malaysian, Greek, young, seemingly middle class and heterosexual. However, one cannot fully comprehend the furore around him without considering how his blackness stirs white anxieties.

Kyrgios also illustrates how non-whites are as essential to some white sports in the same way that gladiators were essential to the Roman games.

Problems arise when black male athletes in particular challenge the rules, refuse to follow protocol and rattle the bars of their golden cages. They threaten patrons by doing a spear dance, raising a fist at a medal presentation or simply expressing a desire not to play.

Such racially defiant acts resonate powerfully in Australia because the sporting arena is a sacred place where boys become men, where we learn about sacrifice and fairness, and where we seek belonging and glory. Observant and respectful non-whites are welcome. However any deviant behaviour can turn the best and fairest non-white athlete into an ingrate, a sook, a hostile foreigner.

Nick Kyrgios may well need to have a good hard look at himself, but if we accept that Australia is a multicultural society then perhaps we should also examine Aussie whiteness.

Do you think Canberra’s Nick Kyrgios is a victim of racism? Should the furore over him be understood in racial terms? Are there white and non-white ways to play sport and live life?

Kim Huynh lectures international relations at the ANU. He has a pop politics segment on ABC 666 Breakfast and has recently published a (free) collection of novellas entitled Vietnam as if… Tales of youth, love and destiny (ANU Press). https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/huynh-kt

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I think people get over-worked up when a 2nd gen migrant gets labelled as not Australian. Nothing new and doesn’t only happen in Australia, and happens both in real life and sport. I am not white, and when I visited Vietnam a gentleman refused to believe that I was from Australia. I had to use his fellow Vietnamese who migrated to Australia in the 70’s as an example before he ‘got it’, and explained that Australia has a lot of people who have migrated not just from Vietnam but from all corners of this planet.

Allow me to add a bit of fuel to this fire. I don’t think the behaviour and attitudes of Tomic and Kyrgios – or the criticism of them – have anything to do with their ethnic heritage or family background. They are just badly behaved boys, and there’s my point: they are boys. Most unpleasant sports behaviour is perpetrated by young (and sometimes not so young) males. Don’t know whether it’s the testosterone or an excess of competitiveness or an overdose of youthful self entitlement/self regard but something makes some boys involved in sport behave in horrible ways. Blame their parents for not reigning it in earlier. Specifically on Kyrgios and Tomic: you might be inclined to be more tolerant of their antics if they were better tennis players (and maybe they’d be better tennis players if they turned their energies to improving their games) but neither has yet hit the high rankings. They look like second-rate tennis players and they behave like first-rate idiots.

I’m 65, white, could care less about ‘pop-sport’ reporting. Though I follow Rugby League and Cricket.

But I grew up within an activist idealistic family who had guests in our home who were black, brown, brindle and all other shades.

I shared a senior student’s common room with a Ukrainian boy and an ‘islander’ during our common free periods, in the late 1960s. All three of us played football for Gateshead High in NSW. Mick Fuller was a big bloke and the gentlest kindest person. He was also very fast on the wing, and played for the NSW Schoolboys RUnion team as well.

My objection to these two tennis ‘stars’ is their lack of sportsmanship, lack of respect for a great game, their manifest self-obsession, peacock hair, and their bad manners.

I am NOT a fan of either of them, as a result, and that’s called having ‘judgement’ Kim.

To link Hewitt’s behaviour to this is a LONG draw of the bow.

It’s not going to wash.

This article from Kim Huynh is in the same “racist” vein as the recent article about person of African decent being asked to remove their hat in a Tuggeranong club – in accordance with the clubs rules.

Both are a thinly veiled allegations of racism – both of which are incorrect.

Yeah Kim Huyhn, that ballboy last night at the French Open was sure racially oppressing Kyrgios, hey! All his fault, right? Poor Kyrgios, suffering at the hands of a ten-year-old! And there was the umpire – adding to the racial vilification by telling Kyrgios to tone it down. Surely there is an international human rights tribunal that Kyrgios can turn to!

chiflean said :

rommeldog56 said :

Dawn Fraser said “go back where your parents came from” – meaning, you don’t belong in Australia, you’re not one of us. If you can tell me that is not racially motivated, I would love to hear your explanation.

.

I think it was perfectly clear that she was motivated by his *behaviour*.

And I don’t think you understand what racism really is – in Malaysia it is routine for jobs to be advertised to be filled exclusively by the dominant ethnicity. It is routine for university places to be reserved only for the dominant ethnicity.
Most other non-european nations are pretty much the same. In the middle-east to this day, the common term for a person of African origin is a word that means “slave”. The Chinese aren’t even faintly embarrassed to call all foreigners by a word that has the meaning of “barbarian” or “devil”.
In Thailand the national press would be happy to print an article saying that a child of immigrants like Nick Kyrgios could “never be a Thai” because of his ethnicity, because this is a common perception over there. (I don’t even know if that’s even racism).

It is in fact proof of how non-racist our society is that you have to dredge up “colonialism” in order to justify some white-bashing “racism!” hysteria.

In Kenya, Barry Obama is recognised only as a white-fella.

rosscoact said :

My point however is that the standards of fair play and proper conduct in Australian sport and society are racialised. These standards apply to everyone, but are skewed towards whites and against non-whites. Because Tomic is of Balkan descent he sits further along the non-white spectrum compared to say, Hewitt.

If that’s not a racist statement, it will do till we get one.

rommeldog56 said :

Dawn Fraser said “go back where your parents came from” – meaning, you don’t belong in Australia, you’re not one of us. If you can tell me that is not racially motivated, I would love to hear your explanation.

.

I think it was perfectly clear that she was motivated by his *behaviour*.

And I don’t think you understand what racism really is – in Malaysia it is routine for jobs to be advertised to be filled exclusively by the dominant ethnicity. It is routine for university places to be reserved only for the dominant ethnicity.
Most other non-european nations are pretty much the same. In the middle-east to this day, the common term for a person of African origin is a word that means “slave”. The Chinese aren’t even faintly embarrassed to call all foreigners by a word that has the meaning of “barbarian” or “devil”.
In Thailand the national press would be happy to print an article saying that a child of immigrants like Nick Kyrgios could “never be a Thai” because of his ethnicity, because this is a common perception over there. (I don’t even know if that’s even racism).

It is in fact proof of how non-racist our society is that you have to dredge up “colonialism” in order to justify some white-bashing “racism!” hysteria.

John Hargreaves said :

pajs said :

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

“It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white”
Lot of presumption there!

I have never referred, or thought about his race, as he looks Australian to me. Australian is not a race, by the way.

Apparently indigenous Australian is.

By all means we should call out racism where it occurs.

There is no denying that there have been many awful events perpetrated in Australia by people of Anglo-Saxon descent. Hopefully the next generation will continue healing those hurts that have occurred in living memory.

However – to use the term ‘white’ to refer to contemporary Australians is as offensive as the assertion that contemporary Australia is a ‘white’ nation. It’s less surprising that someone would assert that ‘white people’ are actively perpetuating systemic racism or that they are extended some kind of privilege solely on the basis of their skin colour. This is hardly an original concept.

I don’t feel I’ve been a victim of, or witnessed, deeply entrenched or ingrained racism in Australia. I have, however, come into contact with people who are less educated (or more militant) in their views on issues of race or multiculturalism from time-to-time. Because these issues crop up very rarely I’ve chosen to view them as exceptions rather than the norm. I don’t harbour any thoughts that the actions of these individuals are demonstrative of their genetic make-up. That’d probably be racist.

Using labels like ‘white Australia’ and ‘white privilege’ in terms of contemporary experience is not reflective of someone who is interested in repairing cultural divides. Claiming to know what ‘white people’ are thinking is both patronising and alarming.

Calling out racism where it exists is a good thing. To avoid engaging in it is probably more helpful.

farnarkler said :

John Hargreaves said :

pajs said :

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

“It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white”
Lot of presumption there!

I have never referred, or thought about his race, as he looks Australian to me. Australian is not a race, by the way.

Perhaps presumption, but most of the people who refer to the “race card” or who say that racism isn’t something that warrants consideration are white themselves, and therefore haven’t had to deal with systematic racism in the way that people of colour have had to their entire lives, especially in countries Australia.

You personally may not have referred to or thought about his race, but you are also not the one publishing comments referring to his heritage. Comments such as “go home you f##king Greek” etc. should never be thought, let alone tweeted or published – that they were is an example of how ingrained racism can be. It’s not something that can or should be covered up with an apology after the fact.

Out of interest, what does an Australian look like?

farnarkler said :

John Hargreaves said :

pajs said :

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

“It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white”
Lot of presumption there!

I have never referred, or thought about his race, as he looks Australian to me. Australian is not a race, by the way.

Perhaps presumption, but most of the people who refer to the “race card” or who say that racism isn’t something that warrants consideration are white themselves, and therefore haven’t had to deal with systematic racism in the way that people of colour have had to their entire lives, especially in countries Australia.

You personally may not have referred to or thought about his race, but you are also not the one publishing comments referring to his heritage. Comments such as “go home you f##king Greek” etc. should never be thought, let alone tweeted or published – that they were is an example of how ingrained racism can be. It’s not something that can or should be covered up with an apology after the fact.

Out of interest, what does an Australian look like?

Whatever the Australian person looks like. No set look. I tend to think a person is Australian if they sound ‘Australian’ (the Australian accent varies, for instance, as per the education), so whatever the amount of melanin in the skin and hair is, is irrelevant. That I do easily without much thought; however, where a person has not been brought up in Australia and doesn’t have a recognisable ‘Australian’ accent I have to more consciously make more of an effort to acknowledge they could be Australian, as they could be naturalised. That though has nothing to do with race. That person with the foreign accent could be a blond, blue eyed Brit. Someone once said to me that they accepted they may always be seen as foreign because of their accent, but they hoped their children would be accepted as Australian. They were British. The accent is a better guide to a person’s tie with Australia than how they look; although not a perfect tie.
One of my Grandmother’s was born in the UK. I thought of her always as British, not Australian, although she lived in Australia 60 years. I doubt she would have argued with that.

rommeldog56 said :

pajs said :

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple
….. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white

These things are so wrong it’s difficult to know where to begin…

Dawn Fraser made no racist statement that I am aware of – she called him out on his ill-breeding (not his race) and invited him to leave the country.

As for racism – you seem to be suffering from the (common) misunderstanding that because white people’s societies invented the concept of *racial equality*, that white people *invented* racism.

If you want to observe racism, you’ll find far more material by visiting foreign countries – for example Malysia, where your ethnicity and religion is held against you when applying for government jobs or University places.

Dawn Fraser said “go back where your parents came from” – meaning, you don’t belong in Australia, you’re not one of us. If you can tell me that is not racially motivated, I would love to hear your explanation.

As to the rest, just because other countries also discriminate on the basis of race or nationality does not mean that white Australia does not have a huge problem. White people pushed colonialism on the rest of the world; white people took Aboriginal children from their homes and fostered them to “civilise” them; white people are still having problems with recognising whiteness as a race and consistently think of people of colour as Other. If Malaysia has an active discrimination policy, I don’t think that is relevant to the way that race is considered and discussed in Australia. Australia can, and should, be better than what we are now.

The Malaysia argument is the same as the one used to shut down discussions of feminism – “if you think it’s so hard here you should try being a woman in Saudi Arabia”. Why shouldn’t we strive to be a nation of equals, just because other countries might have it worse? As I said, we should always strive to be better and if that means calling out racist comments – even mild ones – then so be it.

John Hargreaves said :

pajs said :

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

“It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white”
Lot of presumption there!

I have never referred, or thought about his race, as he looks Australian to me. Australian is not a race, by the way.

Perhaps presumption, but most of the people who refer to the “race card” or who say that racism isn’t something that warrants consideration are white themselves, and therefore haven’t had to deal with systematic racism in the way that people of colour have had to their entire lives, especially in countries Australia.

You personally may not have referred to or thought about his race, but you are also not the one publishing comments referring to his heritage. Comments such as “go home you f##king Greek” etc. should never be thought, let alone tweeted or published – that they were is an example of how ingrained racism can be. It’s not something that can or should be covered up with an apology after the fact.

Out of interest, what does an Australian look like?

Soccer is the world game but also one of the most racist at local level. 3 of the main clubs are overtly ethnically based and several others have ethnic historical backgrounds

pajs said :

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple
….. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white

These things are so wrong it’s difficult to know where to begin…

Dawn Fraser made no racist statement that I am aware of – she called him out on his ill-breeding (not his race) and invited him to leave the country.

As for racism – you seem to be suffering from the (common) misunderstanding that because white people’s societies invented the concept of *racial equality*, that white people *invented* racism.

If you want to observe racism, you’ll find far more material by visiting foreign countries – for example Malysia, where your ethnicity and religion is held against you when applying for government jobs or University places.

pajs said :

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

“It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white”
Lot of presumption there!

I have never referred, or thought about his race, as he looks Australian to me. Australian is not a race, by the way.

Nightshade said :

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dawn Fraser’s comments were racist, plain and simple. There has been commentary about Kyrgios that has discussed his ethnic background, without any comment on his profession. It’s easy to pretend that racism is something that doesn’t happen any more when you’re white and the only thing similar you’ve had to suffer is people pointing out that being white in Australia affords you certain privileges – which it has.

I think that Kyrgios’s on- and off-court antics are totally inappropriate. But the comments directed at him, referencing or slurring on his race, are even more so.

HenryBG said :

“Kim Huynh lectures international relations at the ANU.”

Kim, there are racists in Australia but they are a very small minority, as your many commenters say above.

How about writing an article about who’s going to employ all the International Relations graduates.

Every second young woman in Canberra is studying IR and racking up a HECS debt someone else is going to have to pay off.

Firstly, nice use of whataboutery.

IR Grads leave university with the ability to communicate, comprehend and write. So AusAID was dissolved, that doesn’t mean that they will never end up working at all – if anything, they’re better prepared for the workforce than say, science grads, because a lot of industries require people who can communicate. Assuming that everyone gets a degree so that they will get a job in their narrow field on the other side is wilfully shortsighted; while most would hope to land their dream job once their Honours is completed, many understand that the job market is not able to provide for that. It doesn’t matter what kind of job they do, their HECS will be repaid one way or another. Earning below the threshold isn’t sustainable for most people. So please, don’t worry yourself about young people learning about international relations – they’ll get jobs eventually, even if they’re not tailor-made.

And if they can’t get a job, there’s always room for postgrad study.

SeanP said :

HenryBG said :

In other words – and I think I am once again about to shock the post-modern relativists here, “white” is good, not bad as this article is faintly intimating.

When was the last time a white man won the 100m event?

No idea. Who cares?

SeanP said :

When was the last time a person of African descent won an Olympic lifting event?

Again, who cares?

I should have thought the important things to think about would be how to produce peaceful, cohesive societies with a highly-educated population and high achievement in scientific endeavor.
Being able to out-run a charging elephant would seem to me to be far less useful than being able to research a vaccine for Ebola. Maybe that’s just me.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. I don’t think people really comment about Nick Kyrgios’s ethnic background when it comes to them having a go at him. They just see someone who perhaps acts like a d$&!head and needs to stop acting like a child. I’ve never watched him, however, I get the impression he does a reasonable impression of John McEnroe.

Sport is a great equaliser amongst people, no matter what their ethnic background is. Why is it Eddie Betts and Cyril Rioli weren’t chastised as much as Adam Goodes? Simple, Eddie and Cyril didn’t act like d$&!heads. Not too many cared that all are indigenous.

SeanP said :

HenryBG said :

In other words – and I think I am once again about to shock the post-modern relativists here, “white” is good, not bad as this article is faintly intimating.

When was the last time a white man won the 100m event?
When was the last time a person of African descent won an Olympic lifting event?

I’m not arguing that slow or fast twitch muscle fibres are better. But there could be other factors that influence which races do well at which sports.

“When was the last time a white man won the 100m event?”
I recall the last mens 100m Olympic sprint was won by a black guy named Usain Bolt but I can’t remember what country he represented and I’ll bet not many others can either.
As I said, it’s about people and not countries.

CaptainSpiff6:57 pm 19 May 16

Funny how it’s the supposed non-racists (typically academics and lefties) who constantly see race everywhere they go, and who amazingly feel perfectly comfortable classifying everyone according to skin colour. White, whiteness, black, non-white spectrum? Really? Do you seriously not think there might be other more important factors at work here?

Time to get over your pet theories and start seeing individuals, rather than races.

The reaction to those two has had nothing to do with race and all to do with their behaviour. Decades ago, the non-white Evonne Goolagong was utterly embraced by crowds. Why? She didn’t bring her sport into disrepute. This article is an egregious (and profoundly racist) beatup.

Queanbeyanite6:41 pm 19 May 16

“Kim Huynh lectures international relations at the ANU.”

Kim, there are racists in Australia but they are a very small minority, as your many commenters say above.

How about writing an article about who’s going to employ all the International Relations graduates.

Every second young woman in Canberra is studying IR and racking up a HECS debt someone else is going to have to pay off.

HiddenDragon5:50 pm 19 May 16

It must be time for a(nother?) Canberra episode of Q&A.

I guess when you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail.

In this instance perhaps the OP may have focussed on issues of race before issues of sport and society. He has found instances of (possible) endemic racism where they may not be obvious to those who aren’t looking for it. I don’t think that the OP is Robinson Crusoe in this respect.

However, I’ll continue to cringe whenever a person posts an article where they stereotype white people or explain why white folks ought to carry a sense of guilt for issues and matters generally beyond their influence or control. Same reaction I have when The Telegraph blames the Muslim community for not doing enough to deter or denounce the actions of extremists.

I do, however, respectfully thank the OP for posting something interesting and controversial.

devils_advocate4:15 pm 19 May 16

HenryBG said :

In other words – and I think I am once again about to shock the post-modern relativists here, “white” is good, not bad as this article is faintly intimating.

When was the last time a white man won the 100m event?
When was the last time a person of African descent won an Olympic lifting event?

I’m not arguing that slow or fast twitch muscle fibres are better. But there could be other factors that influence which races do well at which sports.

Kim Huynh wrote, “Observant and respectful non-whites are welcome.”
Yes, but so are observant and respectful persons of any race I would have thought.
I find it difficult to know how to respond to racist based articles such as the above. The author is contriving to be controversial by digging up racism, where there is no indication of it; complaining it is racist to say someone is badly behaved because their skin is a darker shade. A person should be able to be judged for their behaviour without the race-card being played. When the race-card is played, as here, the person playing it has the problem.

I love when non-white people pass judgement publicly on white people and white culture. Maybe one day we’ll have a country where white people can do the same to non-white people and culture/s without being ignorantly labelled as racist.

For the record, I think tennis is boring, but I don’t like arrogant and childish behaviour in any sport, regardless of the colour of the person committing it. If that means I’m “white” and I have “white values”, then I’ll gladly wear that.

The days of athletes “playing for their country” went out the door when sport embraced professionals.
Today’s “sportspeople” do it for themselves only, selling their celebrity skills to the highest bidder.
Money has ruined sport and the Olympic Games have become a testing arena for the newest performance enhancing drugs.

Sport is not a “microcosm of real life”, it’s a refuge for people who never managed to grow up and get a real job. As such it is pretty much an antithesis to real life. As for people who invest time on a daily basis into learning who these people are and what they do….well…..it’s just sad really…

As for,
“White sports emphasise orderly conduct and unambiguous outcomes.”
Well, gee whiz – white culture is about conduct and outcomes, hence its global reach despite white people representing no more than 15% of global population.
In other words – and I think I am once again about to shock the post-modern relativists here, “white” is good, not bad as this article is faintly intimating.

Why would this “stirs white anxieties”. These are in the minority – just appalling behaviors not supported or condoned by the vast majority.

However, the use in the OP title of :white anxieties” seems to me to be out of context to these very isolated instances – and not helpful.

I don’t follow sport, so I don’t know all that has gone on, but I doubt there is any racism involved; just bad behaviour.

Dear RiotACTers,

Allow me provide a pre-emptive response the following argument: ‘Many Australians criticise Bernard Tomic and criticised young Lleyton Hewitt in the same way that they criticise Kyrgios. It’s not about the colour of their skin, but rather the fact that they are acting like jerks.’

To an extent I would agree. My point however is that the standards of fair play and proper conduct in Australian sport and society are racialised. These standards apply to everyone, but are skewed towards whites and against non-whites. Because Tomic is of Balkan descent he sits further along the non-white spectrum compared to say, Hewitt.

On the way to winning the 2001 US Open, Hewitt demanded the removal of a black linesman who twice foot-faulted him. The twenty-year-old said to the umpire: ‘Look at him (the linesman) and tell me what the similarity is (gesturing towards Blake). I want him off the court, I’ve only been foot-faulted at one end. Look at what he’s done.’ While Hewitt was cleared of racism by the ITF, my view is that his comment deserved far greater coverage and scrutiny in Australia than anything that Kyrgios has said or done. And yet from memory, it wasn’t a big a deal.

For the record, I’m a big fan of Kyrgios, a pretty big fan of Hewitt and not much of a fan of Tomic, judgments made largely on the way they play tennis.

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