Australia has a serious racism problem.

I’ve lived there, and watched people of colour be denied entry to bars for dress code reasons, only to watch white peeps stroll in moments later wearing shorts and flip flops.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that they slaughtered the country’s Indigenous population, tried to breed them out by stealing their children, and that whole chestnut.

The above is actually relevant when talking about Mark Knight’s cartoon for the Herald Sun, especially when you consider how the outlet reacted to the worldwide uproar.

If you missed all that, we covered the cartoon, as well as Martina Navratilova’s reaction to Serena’s behaviour, yesterday.

Fast forward a day, and they’re not backing down. Below from the Telegraph:

Mark Knight, who drew the picture, was forced to deny his image was racist and shut down his Twitter account amid the growing clamour.

Despite the outrage, the paper reprinted the cartoon alongside unflattering caricatures of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attempting to portray the controversy as an effort to curtail free speech.

The front page in its entirety:

Interesting way to react to being called out for racism.

Knight was in full defence mode:

“When I drew that cartoon, I wasn’t thinking of racial politics in America. I simply saw the world number one player having a dummy spit.”

He added: “I’m not going to say I’m not going to draw that because it’s a no-go area”.

The Herald Sun’s editor, Damon Johnston, also leaped to his cartoonist defence saying the sketch “rightly mocks poor behaviour by a tennis legend”.

The spitting of the dummy is fine. The drawing of Williams with exaggerated lips and a butch physique – less so.

More on the backlash:

In a searing piece, The Washington Post’s cartoonist Michael Cavna said the “racist” sketch was reminiscent of the “vile imagery” popularised during the era of racial segregation in the US.

“Knight draws facial features reflecting the dehumanizing Jim Crow caricatures so common in the 19th and 20th centuries,” Mr Cavna wrote…

America’s National Association of Black Journalists called the cartoon “repugnant on many levels”.

“[It] not only exudes racist, sexist caricatures of both women, but Williams’ depiction is unnecessarily sambo-like,” the organisation said in a statement.

The Story of Little Black Sambo was a 19th Century children’s book which featured derogatory racial depictions such as characters with thick red lips.

Perhaps Knight wasn’t thinking about this at all when he drew the cartoon – it’s believable – but when confronted with the criticism, he continued to lash out.

More of his defence via the LA Times:

 “It’s a cartoon about poor behavior. It’s nothing to do with race.”

“People said I’m a racist because I drew Serena as an African American woman,” Knight said. “I drew her as this powerful figure, which she is, she’s strongly built. They say I’m racist because I drew Naomi Osaka in the background with blond hair. Well, she does have her hair dyed blond.”

He added: “I think these days, I don’t think you can, it’s called punching down. You can’t punch down these days. And what that means is you can’t criticize minority groups for poor behavior. You just can’t go there. But I’m a cartoonist and I comment on all topics.”

Wrong.

Comment away, because Serena’s behaviour has been widely condemned and criticised, but don’t use offensive imagery historically rooted in dehumanisation.

It’s really not that hard.

[sources:telegraph&latimes]