Serena Williams? Political Correctness? An Oxymoron, From A Breath Of Fresh Air

In a world where Baa-Baa is now a "Rainbow Sheep" and where your kids sports days are bereft of winners because everyone has "participated" it's refreshing to know that there are still people out there willing to throw Political Correctness out of the window and tell a good old fashioned joke, without diluting the target at all for fear of causing offence. There are many comedians out there who have made a career on telling edgy jokes; Jimmy Carr, Jim Jefferies, Frankie Boyle to name but three. However, there's only really one who achieves it as a reflection of their true personality; Kevin Bloody Wilson. Well, actually two, because his daughter Jenny Talia From Australia does it too. The apple clearly doesn't fall far from the tree and there's something about that uniquely Australian personality that makes you just want to get to know them as people, not just entertainers.

Last weekend Serena Williams lost the US Open Final to Naomi Osaka in New York, and the Japanese youngster's memorable victory was overshadowed by Serena Williams' atrocious behaviour. Arguing with a sports official will never make them reverse a decision, especially when you use an irrelevant argument to try to reason why they should. Docked a point for receiving coaching (which is against the rules and the coach admitted to coaching), Serena said that because "I have a daughter, I would never cheat" as if that was some sort of justification? OK, well I have a sister so therefore the umpire shouldn't give me out in the next game of cricket I play. Baseless argument.

Serena smashed her racket and received a code violation, correctly. She then aimed a diatribe at the Umpire, including calling him a liar. Questioning an official's integrity is against the rules in tennis, so she was docked another point. Correctly. Her behaviour warranted all of the sanctions she received, yet somehow it was "sexist" to give her this punishment. What a crock of shit. Grow up, Serena. Perhaps show that daughter of yours that throwing tantrums gets you nowhere.

The "offending" cartoon

The Herald Sun released a cartoon of Serena Williams jumping on her racket and throwing a tantrum, while the umpire in the background asked Osaka "Can you just let her win?" and it was denounced as racist by "self-appointed censors" around the world, including JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Racism is defined as "the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races." I cannot see what was racist about this cartoon. It depicted Serena's tantrum, it was a caricature which always exaggerates a persons features. If it is racist to depict one's features, it is racist for the person to even have them. A ridiculous argument, right? Perhaps the only mistake in the cartoon was to omit Osaka's features and give her blonde hair. Racist?

The Herald Sun stood up for their
cartoonist, which is refreshing!

These days people throw racism in front of anything. JK Rowling shared a post about someone in parliament being told to "go back to Italy" and denounced it as racist. I am an English man living in Australia, I have had people tell me to go back to England. Is that racist? Frankly, no it isn't. Being English is a nationality, not a race. Is drawing a cartoon of Serena Williams throwing a tanty racist? No it isn't, unless you were to suggest she threw that tantrum because of her race, or that you are
superior to her because of her race. That's where people get confused. Here in Australia if you call an aboriginal a "coon" then you're a racist, but it's also the name of a brand of cheese. It's also the surname of some people I know. Context is the key.

And so that leads me nicely to Kevin Bloody Wilson and Jenny Talia. Kev in particular has been labelled as a racist several times over the course of his 35 year career and strongly refutes the suggestion, and quite rightly. His best friend, Nigel, is a full-blooded indigenous Australian.

"Some of the best Aboriginal jokes I get, I get direct from Nigel. He tells it, it's piss-funny. I tell the same joke and I'm fuckin' racist!"

Historically, humour has been used to disarm some of the worst crimes imaginable. Telling a joke based on race is not necessarily racism, depending on the context of the joke, and the direction of it. The same joke can be hilarious if told to one person, but if told to someone who you know will take offence to it then it is wrong because you are trying to illicit a bad reaction, rather than laughter. Humour can disarm any joke, but only to the right audience.

During an appearance on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton in the late Noughties, Kev states: "Racism is born out of hate. If I was a racist I wouldn't have Aboriginal artwork on my guitar. I love Aboriginal artwork and for the most I love the culture. Hitler was a racist, and his stuff was born out of hate. None of the stuff I do is born out of hate, I'm just not that sort of person.... I can't see that what I do is racist... People make jokes about the differences."

Over the years millions of people have bought his albums, attended his shows and listened to his songs so clearly there is an audience for the material he produces. One of his more recent songs is called "Common Sense" and the lyrics could almost be written for the Serena Williams debacle, as well as the world today:

Common Sense ain't that common anymore.

Seems common sense is past tense, just like the dinosaur.

Political Correctness has got a lot to answer for,

Cos common sense ain't that common anymore.

Political Correctness. What a crock of shit.

If it's political, it ain't correct, those two words don't fuckin' fit!

Nor do military intelligance, friendly fire or Holy War,

Cos common sense ain't that common anymore.

And one section later in the song is particularly relevant:

"Racist", there's one overused word that's laced with toxic venom,

Spat out by every do-gooder and minority group when you don't agree with 'em!

With the advent of social media being at everyone's fingertips and people's default position being outrage, we're rapidly losing sight of the importance of enjoying our lives. I wrote a blog a few years ago about a time I was accused of racism, and I made the argument that there shouldn't even be categories of race; we're all human beings. The way to end racism is to stop dividing people into different racial categories, and see people as people whether they're black, white, brown, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or whatever.

Smartphones allow people to express that instantaneous outrage on multiple platforms and removes the possibility of rational thought dictating a point of view rather than momentary emotion. So perhaps it's about time you relaxed a little bit, go to see Kev and Jenny in concert, and "Stick that fuckin' phone up ya fuckin' arse!"

Kevin Bloody Wilson and Jenny Talia

Editor's note: Thank you very much to Kevin Bloody Wilson and Jenny Talia. Kev has actually taken the time to read this and shared it on his Facebook page. It means a lot to me that he has shared this and you may well be one of the people who clicked on his link. Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed my writing.


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