British newspapers have revealed the “racial slur” that Matildas captain Sam Kerr allegedly said to a British police officer in January last year, resulting in criminal charges.
According to reports from UK media outlet The Sun, the 30-year-old football star allegedly called the constable a “stupid white bastard” following a dispute involving a taxi driver in Twickenham, south-west London, on January 30 2023.
While many argue the alleged incident is an example of so-called “reverse racism”, Prabha Nandagopal, a human rights lawyer and founder of Elevate Consulting Partners, said this is not the case for Sam Kerr.
“As a woman of colour, mother of a brown son and daughter of Indian migrants, I feel the pain of racism in my bones,” Nandagopal told Women’s Agenda this morning.
“Sam Kerr – a half-Indian woman, has not engaged in racism. Tying up three terrified First Nations children in cable ties is racism – where is the outrage?”
Racial harassment is linked with “interpersonal racism”, where individuals or groups of individuals are targeted based on their race. It’s different to systemic discrimination, but still leads to inequitable outcomes for the individuals targeted.
“It is one of many behaviours and practices that maintain systems of inequality based on race,” Nandagopal explained.
“Because it contributes to this system of inequality, and because it violates a person’s right to equality and dignity, racial harassment is a human rights issue.”
Under the UK’s Equality Act 2010, harassment is defined as unwanted behaviour relating to a characteristic of a person that is intended to violate another person’s dignity, or “creating an intimidating, humiliating or offensive environment for that person”.
“In this context, race is a relevant protected characteristic, and this law applies to people of any race or ethnicity, including Anglo-Saxon people,” Nandagopal said.
“From this perspective, the charge against Sam Kerr could be considered accurate, however, a court would need to consider a number of factors to decide whether racial harassment has taken place.”
Many are calling the alleged incident an example of “reverse racism”, where white people are so-called “targeted” by people of colour. But there’s a flaw in the term, as Nandagopal explained to Women’s Agenda.
“What usage of the term ‘reverse racism’ tends to miss is that racism is always a product and an expression of a person’s relationship to power,” she said.
“In the UK, as in Australia, social and legal systems have been constructed and continue to serve to protect the white racial group’s monopoly on power. This manifests in several ways – for example, through the over-policing and disproportionate incarceration rates of people who do not belong to the white European in-group.
“So we can see that racism is not only a matter of individual prejudice: it is rooted in systemic inequalities that perpetuate oppression and discrimination. Individual prejudices and instances of direct racism tend to be informed by these broader inequalities.”
It wasn’t until January 21 this year, almost 12 months since the alleged incident, that Kerr was charged with a racially aggravated offence under Section 4A Public Order Act 1986.
On Monday, Kerr appeared in court via a videolink to plead not guilty to charges. Her case will return to the courts on April 26, where her legal team will bid for the case to be thrown out.
It is expected Kerr’s legal team will also argue there was an abuse of process by Crown prosecutors, who took almost 12 months to decide whether or not to lay the charges on her.
Kerr, who is one of the most well-known sportspeople in Australia, has the “full support” of her football club Chelsea, according to the team’s manager Emma Hayes.
Should the case proceed to a criminal trial, it is scheduled to take place next February.