The attacks on Marcia Langton are not part of a theoretical debate. We know that racism exists

Oscar Wilde invented many things in his time, but one of the most memorable is the verb “to Bunbury”.

His famous character Algernon Moncrieff, an opportunistic fibber, maintains a chronically ill and entirely fictitious friend called Bunbury. Every time Moncrieff wants to dodge a social engagement or laze about in the country, he simply announces earnestly that his poor friend needs urgent attention, and legs it. This device, according to Moncrieff, has a wide field of application.

Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde invented the term Bunburying and it was relevant in Australia this week.(Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“One has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses,” says Moncrieff, played with brilliance by Charles Wu in Sydney Theatre Company’s current production of the play: “Every serious Bunburyist knows that.”

Bunburying, put simply, is the art of concocting a noble-sounding alibi to provide cover for an undisclosed and less-noble objective.

Why is this relevant today?

Well, because senior First Nations academic Marcia Langton has just this week been at the centre of a comprehensive Bunburying. And it all started — oddly enough — in Bunbury.

Here’s what transpired.

‘Do you see my point?’

Professor Langton was addressing a community information session in the WA port city as an advocate for the Yes campaign.

In response to an audience question, she replied:

“What are they [the No campaign] talking about? See, ‘Aborigines are bludgers, Aborigines steal everything, Aborigines aren’t entitled to the compensation that everybody else gets because they’re lying’. Do you see my point? Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism — I’m sorry to say it but that’s where it lands — or just sheer stupidity.”

The Bunbury Herald front page reported Professor Langton’s remarks thus: “Racist or just stupid: Voice author slams the No campaign”. (My italics here, and below).

But by Tuesday, the Australian had trimmed the nuance entirely, with a headline announcing “No Voters Branded Racist, Stupid”.

And the Bunburying began in earnest.

Screeds of analysis unfurled: Was this Marcia Langton’s Hillary Clinton moment? Had she just blown up the Yes campaign by hatefully dividing Australians?

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton swiftly composed an Instagram tile: “No voters branded ‘racist, stupid’ by prominent Voice campaigner Marcia Langton” over a photo with a helpful arrow identifying the offender in question.

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The Australian corrected its headline reasonably quickly and amended its story, but the Dutton post remains unaltered.

The Bunburying was off and away; a virtuous chorus of “more in sorrow than in anger” campaigners and commentators expressing horror that decent Australians should be smeared in this way.

Perhaps The Australian truly does just have a genuine commitment to national unity, a belief that racism in Australia doesn’t exist and is horrified by any Aboriginal leader accusing white Australians of prejudice.

But when — on day one of the referendum campaign — No campaign leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine personally accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of driving him nearly to the point of suicide by “unleashing” racial abuse, it was a different story.

“This prime minister from day one had attacked people who had a different opinion to him, called them names, and that opened up the floor for the whole division to start, with all the horrible racial abuse, with all the horrible, a bigotry that’s been going on out there and it’s all Albo,” said Mr Mundine, at a press conference that was widely covered by many media outlets.

In The Australian, no editorials, no front-page headlines, barely a presence.

The Bunburying continued in parliament

In parliament this week, No proponents Bunburied freely.

In the Senate, deputy Opposition leader Michaelia Cash opened the batting by asking government leader Penny Wong to condemn “Marcia Langton, who is leading the ‘yes’ campaign” for having “attacked fellow Australians who intend to vote no in the upcoming referendum”.

“Minister, will you join with me in condemning that type of attack and acknowledge that on 14 October, many Australians will vote no for good and sensible reasons?”

Politics is politics, of course, and this is a political issue, and thus inevitably susceptible to exaggeration and posturing that is the hallmark of Question Time.

But seriously.

Kerrynne Liddle, Jacinta Price, Warren Mundine and Michaelia Cash at a No campaign event in Perth last month.(ABC News: David Weber)

Did Michaelia Cash really just ask Penny Wong — who as a child had her Adelaide home daubed with anti-Asian graffiti, whose brother was racially bullied and later took his own life — to condemn a 71-year-old Aboriginal woman, who was born at a time when Aboriginal people didn’t have full voting rights, for having the temerity to suggest that racism exists? 

Doubling down on Thursday, The Australian reported that “Marcia Langton has form in ‘racism’ attacks”, while its political editor opined that “Langton has no-one to blame but herself”.

Let’s be honest. Racism has been slopping around this referendum like a foul, rising tide. You don’t believe me? Have a little trawl through social media, or comments under Voice-related stories on the more loosely-moderated news websites.

Remarks about Black women are especially vicious. I’ve seen memes of Jacinta Price photoshopped into an image of Aboriginal people chained together by the neck. Endless barbs about Linda Burney wearing nice clothes, suggesting she’s a drunk, sledging her for being raised by white relatives and therefore not being “really” Aboriginal. Ditto for Lidia Thorpe, who has a white father and thus is routinely accused of not being black enough, along with the routine sexualised commentary that attends female politicians wherever they go, and from which Senator Thorpe is not insulated by her status as a grandmother of five.

Senator Lidia Thorpe, who has a white father, is routinely accused of not being black enough.(ABC News: Luke Stephenson)

Where do the racist tropes come from?

What are the racist tropes that power this filth?

That Aboriginal people don’t deserve nice clothes. That they are drunks. That they make up or capitalise on stories of disadvantage. That Aboriginality is a magic ticket to grifting. That Aboriginal people want more government money, or to charge white people to go to the beach, or to make you feel bad about enjoying yourself on Australia Day. What is the common factor in all of this? It’s the ingrained view that Aboriginal people are the “other”, full of threat or hostility.

And when that’s your point of view — if that’s genuinely where you stand — then perhaps you get to a point where you can talk yourself into the idea that being called a racist is more hurtful or damaging or outrageous than being subjected to actual racism.

This is not a theoretical debate. We know that racism exists. We know what it does to people. Part of the process of truth-telling is recognising and calling out these vile instances of discrimination and prejudice. They are nowhere near a majority view, but even in trace amounts their very existence is a poison and a stain on all of us.

We know, from reports in the Nine newspapers on Tuesday, that some No campaigners (not all, of course, and one hopes it’s a tiny minority) are pushing related tropes.

The Nine story reveals a script given to phone canvassers working for the conservative Advance group’s Fair Australia campaign, which includes misleading information designed to stoke fears about the proposed Voice.

In part, the script states:

“I’ve also heard that some of the people who helped design the Voice proposal are campaigning to abolish Australia Day and want to use the Voice to push for compensation and reparations through a treaty. All of these things raised a few questions in my mind and made me wonder if there was more to it all than meets the eye.”

Of course, there are arguments against the Voice that are not racist in the least. Australians are historically chary of shoving new stuff in the constitution. The most potent argument the No campaign has — that enshrining a Voice in the constitution before parliament has decided on the design creates uncertainty — has nothing at all to do with race.

But to deny that racist arguments are out there and are being oxygenated by those who should know better is naive on the very kindest interpretation, and grade-A gaslighting at worst.

Marcia Langton — whatever your view on the merits of the Voice — cannot be dismissed as a political tool or race-baiter. Much of her work on the Voice design has taken place during the terms of, and in fact at the invitation of, conservative governments.

While Peter Dutton went on Ray Hadley’s program on Thursday to condemn “the hatred that continues to come out of Marcia Langton’s mouth” and warn of her influence should she be appointed to the Voice, one wonders if he held those views when the cabinet of which he was a member appointed her to design the Voice.

Or indeed, whether Mr Dutton held these views when Professor Langton supported the introduction of Tony Abbott’s cashless welfare card; another Coalition innovation which Mr Dutton supported. Professor Langton’s was a rare First Nations voice of support (and she has since reversed her opinion of the card).

Or when Professor Langton backed the retention of Northern Territory alcohol bans last year.

Professor Langton has earned herself a reputation as a courageous, hardworking and apolitical advocate for Indigenous Australia.

The work she has done should guarantee that she is heard with respect, and not verballed, as indeed Voice opponents of good faith should be.

We all deserve better.