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Australian actor Meyne Wyatt supports Black Lives Matter with powerful monologue on racism on Q+A
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- Title
- 'I don't want to sit down': Actor Meyne Wyatt delivers powerful speech on racism on Q+A
- Published
- Jun 8 2020
- Word count
- 996 words
The video clip in the article wasn't working for me.
Here is the clip on youtube if anyone else has the same problem.
That was a powerful speech! Thanks for sharing it.
Yeah, seriously. It legit gave me goosebumps. Thanks for sharing this @Algernon_Asimov, and thanks for the mirror as well pvik.
You're welcome. I saw this, and felt it was worth sharing (obviously!).
It's filled with Aussie references (such as Adam Goodes), and the situation of blackfellas in Australia is different to that of black people in the USA (our black people got invaded and dispossessed, rather than captured and enslaved), but the core message is relevant everywhere.
I distinctly remember being at a family dinner with my mum and some family friends. All white, middles class Australians. My aunty was a cop for 30 years, retired this year. My grandfather was a cop. My brother is a lawyer for the federal police.
Adam Goodes (mentioned in the speech) came up, and my mother said something to the effect of "he's just looking for attention", and others concurred.
More than I have before, I cracked it at them. Said it was unacceptable that they'd express that view and basically that they should cut that shit out. She's hardly what you'd call a bigot, either. She fits with the mould of 'the average Australian'.
If that kind of thing happens again I'm just going to call it out and leave. For people like me having racist parents, or a racist uncle, or racist grandparents is merely socially uncomfortable, for some even uncomfortably amusing, but that's it. That's the extend of the damage their racism does to us. We don't like it, but "we're family" so usually let it slide.
It's been a big couple of weeks, and just watching all of it from the sidelines, just that tiny window into an unprivileged world, has been maddening and heartbreaking. So it's time enough for me.