Rumour Jeremy Finlayson under investigation - 3 game suspension

[Bostonian]

This is completely untrue. We certainly did.

Back a few years ago, Queensland went through its database and found it had 10 place names that used the N-word (N-word Creek, Mount N-Word, etc).

I remember a furore about a stand in Toowoomba being named the "N-word Brown" stand, after a player's nickname, based ironically on his pasty white skin.

Absolutely we used that word in Australia. It's not a stain on you, or me, as individuals, but collectively we can't pretend it didn't happen.

Absolutely we did not use it in the way the Americans used it.

We had other far far more common words used towards the Aboriginal population in the way back when.

The N word was not one of them.

 

[iameviljez]

Absolutely we did not use it in the way the Americans used it.

We had other far far more common words used towards the Aboriginal population in the way back when.

The N word was not one of them.

We used it as a highly derogatory term for black people, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the way that Americans used it.

 

[Underarm]

It started to be introduced into the local language when Gen X starting handing around pirated cassettes of NWAs Straight Outta Compton at school.

That was late 80s.

Do you mean the 1880s? Because that's when Essendon were running around as the blood stained N*****s

 

[LordLucifer]

Finlayson will get off with a severe reprimand, the fact that he fessed up on the field etc will work in his favour.

 

[Consolaçao]

This is such a weird take, like you'd rather be conflict averse than tackle issues in society?
Why do you think gay people have to be so mentally tough? Because they go their whole lives experiencing homophobia and internalising it. Of course you're just gonna roll your eyes if someone is throwing around words like f****t, if you're gay are you really going to open yourself up to being dehumanised like that by speaking up against it? Or have someone start treating you differently out of guilt because they realised they weren't speaking into a vacuum?

Conservative society is actually doing a pretty good job at making it taboo to be gay again. Labelling gay people as 'groomers' or 'pedos' or whatever. Then they cover it up their covert discrimination with 'I'm not homophobic but they're rubbing our faces in it'.
I'd much rather call these campaigners out than be complicit in it.

I had a mate who was in the closet right up until the last year of his life. His parents didn't find out till after he killed himself. Just cos they roll their eyes and move on doesn't mean it doesn't effect them.

That’s sad for you and your mate, i’m sorry to hear it.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Okay but sometimes it does.

Suicide is higher in length kids than it is lbgt adults.

Is that homophobia driven, or is it kids struggling to find support?

 

[Elixuh]

Unless there is a pressing reason to the contrary, his apology should be accepted and he should be given a 3 week suspension, suspended pending no incidents like this happen in the next five years.

Pretty logical, no?

 

[Bostonian]

We used it as a highly derogatory term for black people, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the way that Americans used it.

Nope. Never heard a single person use that term back in the day.

Our most commonly used words started with A, D and B.

 

[Bostonian]

Do you mean the 1880s? Because that's when Essendon were running around as the blood stained N*****s

No I mean the 1980s.

Anyone suggesting that it was a commonly used word are wrong.

We had our own local terms that were used in the majority of cases.

 

[Underarm]

Suicide is higher in length kids than it is lbgt adults.

Is that homophobia driven, or is it kids struggling to find support?

I assume that's a typo?

 

[Underarm]

No I mean the 1980s.

Anyone suggesting that it was a commonly used word are wrong.

We had our own local terms that were used in the majority of cases.

Not sure why you're so hung up on this. Maybe it wasn't common, but there's plenty of recorded instances of it being used to slur Aboriginals.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

I assume that's a typo?

Autocorrect

 

[iameviljez]

Nope. Never heard a single person use that term back in the day.

Our most commonly used words started with A, D and B.

No I mean the 1980s.

Anyone suggesting that it was a commonly used word are wrong.

We had our own local terms that were used in the majority of cases.

Just because you didn't hear it in the 1980s, doesn't mean it wasn't used in anger in Australia in our recent-enough past (i.e. the 20th century).
I don't think anyone is saying it was a common word in the 1980s, even in America that word was taboo in the 1980s. Hell, it was even taboo in the South by the 60s/70s. To quote Lee Atwater, a Republican strategist: "You start out in 1954 by saying, “N-word, n-word, n-word.” By 1968 you can’t say “n-word”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract."

 

[Bostonian]

Not sure why you're so hung up on this. Maybe it wasn't common, but there's plenty of recorded instances of it being used to slur Aboriginals.

Because this is how society becomes dumb and believes too much made up nonsense.

One person goes around saying yes, it was said all the time to people out here then some dolt believes it and keeps spreading the nonsense to other people with no idea.

 

[Bostonian]

Just because you didn't hear it in the 1980s, doesn't mean it wasn't used in anger in Australia in our recent-enough past (i.e. the 20th century).
I don't think anyone is saying it was a common word in the 1980s, even in America that word was taboo in the 1980s. Hell, it was even taboo in the South by the 60s/70s. To quote Lee Atwater, a Republican strategist: "You start out in 1954 by saying, “N-word, n-word, n-word.” By 1968 you can’t say “n-word”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract."

I'm old enough and travelled enough to know this wasn't a word being used by our local populations to describe the Aboriginals, even when being negative or racist towards them.

We had our own local words for that.

The original reply was to someone who suggested we used that word commonly to direct at Aboriginals. Simply not true.

 

[Consolaçao]

Suicide is higher in length kids than it is lbgt adults.

Is that homophobia driven, or is it kids struggling to find support?

I appreciate this one’s a sensitive topic, but always good to check priors against the actual data.
AIHW data from 2019 shows pretty clearly that the rate at which gay men have ‘suicidal thoughts’ or make ‘suicide attempts’ is less than the rate for men as a group.

Suicide & self-harm monitoring data

Suicide & self-harm monitoring data page on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website

www.aihw.gov.au

 

[iameviljez]

I'm old enough and travelled enough to know this wasn't a word being used by our local populations to describe the Aboriginals, even when being negative or racist towards them.

We had our own local words for that.

The original reply was to someone who suggested we used that word commonly to direct at Aboriginals. Simply not true.

I’m guessing you’re not 90 years old, though.

I think you are strawmanning a little here. Yes, we had all the words commonly found on a Kevin Bloody Wilson tape. But saying that we didn’t also use the n-word is frankly ridiculous, and given that it’s been taboo even in the US for sixty years, it’s not really a personal experience argument.

 

[Bostonian]

I’m guessing you’re not 90 years old, though.

I think you are strawmanning a little here. Yes, we had all the words commonly found on a Kevin Bloody Wilson tape. But saying that we didn’t also use the n-word is frankly ridiculous, and given that it’s been taboo even in the US for sixty years, it’s not really a personal experience argument.

I'm not, but my Grandparents and Great Grandparents I got to spend a lot of time with were of those generations.

I get it, today's young generations look down on the older generations and care not one bit how they grew up.

When I grew up however we had a far different outlook on that kind of thing.

People rarely used it not because it was taboo, it's because it wasn't part of our common vernacular.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

Because it's said as a slur. This isn't complicated.
If someone come up to me and said, I didn't realise you are married to a woman I thought you were gay, I would not be offended in the slightest. If they called me a f***** because I cut them off in my car, I would find that offensive to gay people, though I would personally not be offended.

History is littered with gay men married to women, they even had children.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

Wasn't there some furore about a plaque for a black dog being named exactly that about a decade ago?

It was a grandstand at a footy oval in Toowoomba and it was also the name of a black labrador in the movie, The Dam Busters.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

This is completely untrue. We certainly did.

Back a few years ago, Queensland went through its database and found it had 10 place names that used the N-word (N-word Creek, Mount N-Word, etc).

I remember a furore about a stand in Toowoomba being named the "N-word Brown" stand, after a player's nickname, based ironically on his pasty white skin.

Absolutely we used that word in Australia. It's not a stain on you, or me, as individuals, but collectively we can't pretend it didn't happen.

You can't count Qld, they're a different breed up there.

I grew up all through the 70s and 80s in Vic and a couple of years at the end of the 80s in WA and the word was never used.

I lived in Cairns and Toowoomba in the 90s and the only time I ever heard it used was as the name of grandstand.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

It started to be introduced into the local language when Gen X starting handing around pirated cassettes of NWAs Straight Outta Compton at school.

That was late 80s.

I still never heard it then, it just wasn't part of the vernacular.

 

[Terrafirma]

I think team culture is at the heart of this incident.

Let the punishment fit the crime, Underwood to commentate every port game for the rest of the year.

That's punishment bigtime to all of us and not Jeremy LOL..! That's the death penalty IMO.

 

[iameviljez]

It started to be introduced into the local language when Gen X starting handing around pirated cassettes of NWAs Straight Outta Compton at school.

That was late 80s.

That was the resurgence of the term through music and as part of a particular subculture. I think the rest of us are talking more about its traditional use, in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

 

[iameviljez]

I'm not, but my Grandparents and Great Grandparents I got to spend a lot of time with were of those generations.

I get it, today's young generations look down on the older generations and care not one bit how they grew up.

When I grew up however we had a far different outlook on that kind of thing.

People rarely used it not because it was taboo, it's because it wasn't part of our common vernacular.

Just because you didn't hear it, and your (great) grandparents didn't either use it or use it in front of you, doesn't mean that it wasn't used at various points in Australian history against Aboriginal people. Bluntly put, personal experience doesn't prove a negative. Here's an example of a paper looking at how the word was used in Australia over a period from the gold rush through to roughly a century later: https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/items/b65403cb-eb2e-5187-ae68-aedd6029d57b

There's more than enough artefacts (such as place names and eyewitness accounts from the time) to show that the n-word was used in Australia in a derogatory sense, particularly in the era of local people being used as slaves.

I don't think that anyone is of the impression that the n-word was part of our common vernacular in, say, the 1960s. But it did certainly exist at various points in our national history.