BEN HARVEY: Sam Kerr calling a cop ‘stupid and white’ isn’t racist. I’d know, I’ve been called way worse

Can a middle-aged, middle-class white man question whether a young woman of colour is racist?

At least, can he (meaning me) do it without being cancelled?

Let’s find out.

If you see me signing on at Centrelink on Monday, you know how it ended.

As the entire world knows Sam Kerr was recently in the dock for the not-so recent “crime” of calling a British police officer stupid and white.

The “insult” (I am using inverted commas advisedly given the not-guilty verdict delivered this week) was hurled in the wake of what I hope becomes known in the professional soccer world as chunder-gate.

That nomenclature comes courtesy of what was left in the back of a cab after Sam and her fiancée Kristie Mewis had been on the gas in London in early 2023.

Having lived in London and seen how willing after-hours street life can be, I doubt it was the first time that cop had been “racially” abused.

Sam’s status as a high-profile player at Chelsea is the only reason this case morphed into the spectacular waste of judicial time that it ended up being.

There are a few things I think most of us agree on with this case.

First, Sam should have chundered out the window like a normal person.

Second, the matter should never have gone to court.

Third, the cop was making a political rather than criminal point when he lodged the racial vilification complaint.

What if, instead of Sam calling the police officer stupid and white she called him a white dog c...?

And fourth, Sam’s argument that she thought her taxi driver may have been a Claremont serial killer-esque lunatic was a bit far-fetched, given she was a toddler when Bradley Edwards committed his crimes and also because he wasn’t a cabbie.

So, four things we probably can broadly agree upon and one that’s divided us — is it racist to call someone stupid and white?

Some people argue that if it’s racist for a white person to call a police officer of colour black and stupid then it’s racist for a person of colour to call a white police officer white and stupid.

What’s good for the pale goose is good for the darker gander, if you will.

It’s not just idiots who say “well, Samuel L Jackson says the N-word so why can’t I” that have taken this position.

A lot of people think that way.

For the record, I don’t (ish).

The ish is added because it’s folly to deny that there are shades of grey in this argument about black and white.

I believe words are racist when they are used to purposefully demean and humiliate someone because of the colour of their skin.

Does anyone reckon that cop felt demeaned when he was called white?

And I appreciate the argument that racism isn’t just prejudice; it’s prejudice plus power.

So, on the balance of that logic to my mind Sam was right to be found not guilty.

But . . .

I also understand why some people might ask, who has more power?

A multi-millionaire star at one of the sporting world’s most storied franchises?

Or a police constable working the night shift for 40,000 quid a year?

And what if Barack Obama called me a stupid white journo.

Is that racist?

I mean, he’s infinitely more powerful than I am.

How about this one.

What if, instead of Sam calling the police officer stupid and white she called him a white dog c...?

Surely that’s an open-and-shut case of racial vilification?

Maybe not.

I can give some first-hand feed-back on that one, having been called a WDC many times whilst reporting on Aboriginal matters.

Every time I was abused that way I felt vilified, but never racially so.

The W part of WDC has never been the bit that was offensive to me.

The DC was flat-out abuse but the W was hurled from a place of frustration and rage that it was just so damn easy being me relative to being a homeless teenager in Roebourne (which is where I last copped such an earful).

And to be honest, it was a refreshing change from being picked on for being ginger . . .