Internalized Racism, Western Beauty Ideals and Cambage

The big news in Australia right now is that Australian female basketball player Liz Cambage has had her contract with WNBA team the LA Sparks terminated. You would be forgiven for not knowing who Cambage is if you are outside of Australia unless you follow the WNBA but she has become a household name here due to her ability to make headlines which began in 2020 when she threatened to boycott the Australian Olympic team. This was due to her belief that a team photo had been "whitewashed" because only one of the ten athletes in the photo was black. She also seemingly accused the black athlete of wearing "fake tan" which was kind of weird. She followed this up with - “Y’all really do anything to remove POCs [people of colour] from the forefront when it’s black athletes leading the pack," The Australian Olympic database holds 3562 athletes and apparently only 60 of them have been Aboriginal. There may have been some other non-Indigenous black athletes on the list like Cambage who is half Nigerian but it wouldnt be many. So her claim is somewhat ridiculous but no doubt we have had some great Aboriginal Olympians including Kathy Freeman and Patty Mills. Anyway Cambage ended up changing her mind and joined the Australian womens basketball team for some warm up games in USA before the team headed to Japan. During a friendly scrimmage game against the Nigerian team she got into a physical altercation then allegedly called the Nigerians "monkeys" and told them to go back to their third world country. Cambage does deny calling the Nigerians monkeys but she is the only one denying it. Both players from the Australian and Nigerian team have confirmed that Cambage did indeed call the Nigerians monkeys. So of course this did make headlines and to avoid the backlash Cambage decided to quit the team citing mental health problems. I dont think any of the Australians were too sad about that.. So fast forward to the following WNBA season and Cambage signs a contract with the LA Sparks and then makes comments to the media about how supportive the team in LA is in contrast to the Australian national womens team, the Opals. This did not go down well with the basketball community in Australia and led to her Opals teammates - who up until then had remained silent on the monkey slur - and other figures within the Australian basketball community including Australian GOAT Andrew Gaze speaking out against her and her disrespect for Basketball Australia.

So nobody in Australia is shocked to hear that this self entitled and petulant self-hating racist of an individual has had 'team chemistry' issues with her new teammates at the LA Sparks. Especially since the LA Sparks team includes two stars from Nigeria - the Ogwumiki sisters. And since Cambage has made herself a household name here due to her decidedly failed attempt to present herself as an advocate for 'POCs" the news of her contract termination has been making the headlines in our media today. All of the reporting seems to have a tinge of schadenfreude to them. Personally I take no great pleasure in Cambages troubles but like most Australians Im not shocked. The first time I saw Cambage was while watching a WNBL game years ago. I am a big fan of Australian basketball and from time to like to watch WNBL games - so I turn on the game which has already started and I see this big black centre in the post miss a shot and instead of running back on defense to help her team she just stands there complaining to the refs. So my first impression of Cambage left a bad taste in my mouth and thats Cambage in a nutshell really isnt it? Self entitled and petulant. But why is she this way?

My theory is that the hyper leftism in Australia creates so-called 'POCs' that develop an ingrained victimhood mentality and I think that the affirmative action that they receive throughout their lives gives them an ingrained sense of entitlement. On top of this the left in this country encourages 'POCs' to see white people as the enemy and as a result their activism always seems to come from a place of hate which seemingly intentionally promotes division rather than unity. But I think there is more to the sad condition that Cambage is afflicted with. The only conclusion we can draw from the confirmed fact that Cambage called Nigerians monkeys when she herself is half Nigerian is that Cambage suffers from self hatred and some form of internalized racism.

The left will tell us that 'white' people are to blame when 'POCs' suffer from internalized racism due to social constructs that exist within western societies but I would argue that there could be more to it than that. In my opinion racial stereotypes are often rooted in some level of truth. For example - the Irish are indeed known to enjoy their alcohol but it would be racist to call every person of Irish descent a drunken Paddy. If you were to say that Irishmen all smell like potatoes that would as racist as associating African Americans with watermelons or fried chicken - or Mexicans with tacos - even though there is some historical association there. But modern stereotypes like African Americans being criminally minded, while not being the case for every individual African American - there is some truth to it when you look at crime statistics. So when I think 'internalized racism; I think of the racist, black thug hating black cop in the film Boyz N The Hood. I think that a lot of minority members that do not live up to the stereotype blame their fellow minority members that do and are making them look bad by association - and I think that this probably the true source of 'internalized racism'. Its not so much 'social constructs' of western society as much as minority members that live up to racial stereotypes that are to blame.

Having said that I do believe western social constructs could play a part in 'internalized racism'. For example - western beauty ideals. I think that a big reason why so many African Americans and other black skinned people are so outraged when they see a commercial with a black kid wearing a monkey on it for example is because when they look in the mirror themselves they see a monkey looking back at them due to the fact that western beauty ideals have made them hate themselves. Cambage obviously sees Nigerians as monkeys yet she is half Nigerian herself so she looks in the mirror and what do you think she sees? Its incredibly sad. Deep down in places they probably dont like to admit exist or even know exist people like Liz Cambage wishes she had been born in a body that fits western beauty ideals and who could blame her? It certainly is true that western media does promote the western beauty ideal despite their efforts to be more inclusive and diverse. Someone like Cambage has been bombarded with the western beauty ideal in media and society since the day she was born and it must be difficult for anyone existing in that reality to avoid developing some form of internalized racism. Is it any wonder that she is triggered by a photo thats she considers to be 'whitewashed'? Of course not.

So what is the solution? like I said - 'POCs' that are clearly suffering from internalized racism like Cambage do indeed seem to embrace an activism that comes from a place of hate that generates division and for the most part I do believe that this is intentional. In contract 'POCs' that are clearly proud of who they are like Australian Olympians Cathy Freeman and Patty Mills tend to embrace an activism that comes from a place of love which promotes unity. We are not going to make any progress in multicultural western societies by hating on each other. 'White' citizens must avoid taking pleasure in seeing a person like Liz Cambage or Ben Simmons get what they seemingly deserves. If you promote hate then it is going to come back on you and Liz Cambage and Ben Simmons are prime examples of that. We need to try to understand these people and love them - so that they can love themselves and love their fellow man. I think that understanding internalized racism is key to that.

So what do you guys say? Do you agree that Cambage is suffering from 'internalized racism'? What do you think the cause of internalized racism is? And what is the solution?

Interesting to learn that Australia is now a member of the woke community.

I am so old (85) that I remember when Australia did everything possible to keep out non-Caucasian immigrants, viz., the Chinese.

Hear tell that in 2022 Australia, the Chinese (with their money) are more than welcomed!

TheParser said:

Interesting to learn that Australia is now a member of the woke community.

I am so old (85) that I remember when Australia did everything possible to keep out non-Caucasian immigrants, viz., the Chinese.

Hear tell that in 2022 Australia, the Chinese (with their money) are more than welcomed!

Click to expand...

It wasnt just so-called 'caucasian' people that we considered to be undesirable. Under the White Australia Policy the Southern Europeans ( Italians, Greeks etc ) were considered to be "semi-coloured" and undesirable. We didnt even want Germans really. We wanted British stock. Probably a topic for another day.

If any of you guys are interested the Australian basketball aficionados of hoops.com have a thread on this topic -