Cori Schumacher

Ignorance and blindness are the foundations upon which racism is built. Plenty more houses are built upon ignorance and blindness, like sexism and homophobia. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of racism, sexism and homophobia is that cruel intentions are not a requirement for racist, sexist or homophobic acts to be perpetrated.

In addition, one doesn’t need to be a racist or a misogynist to make statements that are racist and/or sexist. There is the Ku Klux Klan and there are folks who think they are saying something benign, but because of their privilege, remain ignorant of how racist their statement is. One of these is arguably the more pernicious because of its lack of theatrics and its constant presence in the everyday. Hint: it isn’t the one wearing the sheets.

In other words, some otherwise nice folks can say stupid racist or sexist comments without attempting to be intentionally cruel. Does this mean that the act or the statement is any less racist or sexist in its impact? No. What it does highlight is how privilege keeps one blind and deaf to the experiences of those on the periphery, on the margins of the norm, which in surfing is anything other than the experience of the middle-to-upper class, white, heterosexual male.

When Nathan Myers recently described Indigenous surfer Otis Carey as “apeish” while expecting “little more than Cro-Magnon grunts [to come] from his mouth” in an article in Surfing Life, it was little surprise that there was such an immediate and strong reaction. Readers of the article picked up on what the editor of Surfing Life did not.

Likening a non-white person to an ape or a monkey has a rich, well documented history as arguably the oldest racial slur on the planet. Such descriptions were used as “…a central tool in justifying efforts to colonize, enslave, and even exterminate people.” But hindsight is twenty-twenty. What we know today as dangerous bullshit was once normal, accepted, well-intentioned even, if you understand that the dominant perspective revolved around the white man. 

This is what readers understood when they read, and largely rejected,the official apology of Surfing Life. And this is what Otis Carey understood and why he chose to stand up to the ignorance using the only language Big Surfing responds seriously to: litigation.

In response, Nathan Myers has gone on the record to discuss his feelings about the litigation on Tracks Magazine and in an open letter posted on The Inertia (TI also posted an article in support of Myers using an “accidental racism” defense after the original article emerged, which was really confusing since the guy who wrote it also wrote an exceptional piece about racism in surfing back in 2011. Needless to say, the “accidental racism” article didn’t go over well with other surfers of color I spoke with).

Myers is not helping his cause.

In an interview in Tracks, he attempts to blame his ignorance on the fact that he is a “Seppo” (Australian rhyming slang for American surfers, as in yanks who surf in septic tanks)

“In my Seppo ignorance, I learned that this is the grave offence [sic] to a person of aboriginal descent.”

Correction: It’s a “grave offense” anywhere in the world.

Myers and Tracks Magazine later attempt to parallel “seppo” with “apeish” by attempting to give Seppo a racial context.

TRACKS: “Australian surf mags refer to American surfers as Seppos all the time. Harmless or racist?”

Seriously? “American” is not a race, guys. How can an intelligent conversation around racism happen in an environment where folks don’t even know what race is?!

In his beneficence, Myers graciously accepts this “racial slur” and admits he has been called it

“In print, even. It doesn’t bother me a bit.”

Staggering, given that “seppo” is as innocuous a slang for an American surfer as “fridge” is for refrigerator. The point being, there is no centuries long, historical mass oppression associated with the moniker “seppo”.

Myers alternates in his diatribes between touting his peace loving nature

“I believe in peace. More than anything in this life: PEACE.”

to shaming

“Is this how you want to be remembered by surfing? The man who killed the magazine?”

and even sounds threatening at times

“And, you do realize of course, that surf magazines are how freesurfers like you make your living, right? Talk about biting the hand that feeds.”

Instead of listening to the privileged white blokes responding to this scenario as they ignore the racism and orient their attacks on the man who dared say “ENOUGH!” to what is clearly not simply an issue Surfing Life or Myers have, I took to listening to folks who have to deal with this ignorance every day. And those are the folks Tracks and The Inertia should have given more space to rather than Nathan Myers’ ridiculous diatribes (rather than simply baiting the audience for comments) if Otis did not wish to go on the record. These are the voices that matter, not more of Myers in surfing. (Read a brilliant piece on the surf media bias in this situation on Mission Control here.)

From a surfer of color commenting on insipid comments by the privileged that Otis is simply a money-grabber (Myers alludes to this in his diatribes as well):

“There comes a time when one has to take a stand. And money talks, especially when a court of law orders it out of the offender’s pocket. Labeling Carey a money grabber is the way white privilege in the surf world is excusing itself. ‘Forget that what we said or thought was racist. Look at how he’s just trying to use those words to get money.’ Well, he can’t unhear that ‘apeish’ comment, so it’s fair to unburden the writer and the magazine of their money in order to try to right that wrong. It won’t even the score, but it works, hopefully, as general deterrence to the rest of the surf world to watch what it says.”

I give credence to the experience of those who receive this nonsense, those other indigenous folks, black folks, brown folks who are too few in the water and whose voices are silenced as the parade of privileged white males offer their opinions of the situation.

Privilege does not listen; it steamrolls. It professes lame apologies when there is a backlash, then wants to sweep it all under the rug and move forward (a “forward” that doesn’t ever change much because privilege tells you what your experience is rather than listening). Well, the history of surfing is filled with this pattern and it’s high time someone steps up and says enough. It’s time to pay the piper.

I stand with Otis Carey.