She is never one to hold her tongue, regularly speaking out on controversial issues such as immigration, politics and racism, however Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s latest rant has divided opinion.
Discussing the furore over Mark Knight’s “racist cartoon” which was published in the Herald Sun on Tuesday, the outspoken activist said that this kind of racism is linked to the “original sin of invasion” in Australia.
Writing on Twitter, the 27-year-old also shared a link to a news story about the tragic drowning of two Aboriginal teenagers, Jack Simpson and Chris Drage, who drowned after jumping into Perth’s Swan River, whilst running away from the police on Tuesday.
Sudanese-born Australian Abdel-Magied posted: “The original sin of invasion in Australia means that unfortunately, racist cartoons are just one end of a violent and sadly, sometimes fatal, stick. And more often than not, the First Nations people pay the steepest price.”
https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/1039457574398115840
Her tweet garnered a huge reaction on the social media site, receiving almost 300 likes and triggering a flurry of comments, both from those who agreed with Abdel-Magied’s words, and those who thought she was “clutching at straws”.
One wrote: “How can you possibly compare a tantrum by an overpaid tennis player primadonna with a real life tragedy? BTW that cartoon was only a slight exaggeration of the real thing.” While another said: “I’ve never seen a longer bow drawn in my entire life. Realllllllly clutching at straws.”
One user tweeted: “The two events are not even correlated! Raising awareness of an unfortunate fatality is one thing, but relating it to an overblown caricature is, well, making a wide stretch.”
However, others backed Abdel-Magied’s take on the matter, with one writing: “It’s linked because of the unconscious racism in our society. It means we hardly notice the disparagement of folks who are ‘other’. This causal racism falls below our threshold of discomfort, but for the people on the receiving end it makes their entire existence a trial.”
This comment is just the latest in a string of controversial outbursts from the former ABC panelist in recent months. In August she spoke out against “white men” pollies in Australia, describing the recent Liberal leadership spill as “embarrassing”.
Joining the panel on Channel Ten’s The Project, the Muslim author said: “Lols, lols. Like honestly, they are taking the piss.
“Like genuinely, it’s like the Australian politicians are playing some sort of game in their own world and not really taking seriously the fact that they are running a country, and it’s honestly offensive.”
Abdel-Magied also previously came under fire for her Anzac day tweet, when she wrote: “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine).”