Prof. Deano, No No - No No
Racism and religous stereotyping raised its ugly head when Aussie ex-test cricketer now commentator Dean Jones was heard on air, calling a South African player a terrorist.
When Hashim Amla, who is a devout Muslim, took the catch to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara, Jones was heard to say "the terrorist has got another wicket". He has since been given the boot by his 'terrorist employer' Ten Sports, who, ironically, is also headed by 'terrorists'.
A contrite Jones later said - "I'm gone, I'm on the 1 a.m. flight. It was a silly and completely insensitive thing to say and, obviously, it was never supposed to be heard over the air. I am truly sorry to have caused offence to anybody and the last thing I intended was to be disrespectful.
"Everyone needs to get away from perpetuating the myth, publicly and privately, that beards associated with the Muslim faith are somehow suspicious, and I intend to do exactly that. The irony is that I am great friends with most of the Pakistan team and they are all Muslims.
"I have no end of respect for the Muslim faith - that's why I'm so sorry at making such a stupid comment," he said. "It does not represent who I am, how I think or what I believe. I will be the first person to apologise to Hashim as soon as I get the chance, and I will assure him that prejudice against anybody, on any basis, is unacceptable and not something I will ever condone."
Yeah. Right.
Just one thought though. Ten Sports IS run by the Arabs. Would he still have got the sack if he had said this on Star or ESPN? Or Channel 9? Or BBC Sports? Point to ponder, really.
Riggs
posted by Sweta Jagirdar at 9:30 PM
8 Comments:
Disgusting.
These gora babus and their condescending attitudes. Bloddy lepers.
It is reprehensible what Mr Jones did. But the fact is, we all make discriminatory comments every now and then. We like to tell ourselves that we are enlightened and that our jokes are just jokes. But the fact is, none of us are free from prejudice. It really is a function of time and circumstance and might i say,convenience, when the ugly aspects or our worldview are brought forth to the surface.
The man has made a terrible mistake. And he has apologized. What does calling him and his race "bogotist goras" make us?
Bart Bart Bart,
Yes, at heart, we're all racist bigots.
We'll sit and call all bearded gents like Saaed Anwar and Hashim Amla and The cricketer formerly known as Yousuf Youhana, terrorists.
We'll call Bhaji and Maninder and Monty P 'BarahBajjes'.
And Sachin a 'Tantya'.
And Dravid and Kumble we'll call 'SambarSwamis'.
The entire Oz team will be called 'Convicts' on weekdays and 'bloody Abos' on weekends.
The New Zealanders we'll call 'flightless Haka bastards'.
The Brits we'll call 'spineless bloody Poms'.
Etc.
Fact remains we'll do it amongst ourselves, laugh at it and it will be our little joke.
What we won't do, is say all this on television. Which is what all those other racist bigot commentators won't do either. Just Dean Jones.
hi rums,
Incase, you didn't know, the word gullible isn't in the dictionary.
There seems to be a trend on television. First there was Zidane head butting which people condoned. Now that was an act of rage that had bottled up over years! and suddenly the great footballers emotions got the better of him. A few years from now if Hashim Amla or Sajid mahmood or monty panesar or murli give vent to their anger a-la zidane are they to be blamed?
Today it is Hashim Amla, tomorrow it will be a Dhoni... racism does not stop at any one community. He did well to apologise.
I hope someone says something racial to Dhoni. It will be a joy to watch Dhoni go caveman on the accused!
Boom Boom
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