Mother Of All Disgraces: Mum Sends Son To Book Week Parade In Blackface. And He ‘Wins’.

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Never in the history of the spoken word did anyone ever predict a mother would utter the phrase “… So I grew a set of balls and painted my boy brown and he looked fanfuckingtastic.”

And yet, that’s precisely what has happened… hence the picture (above) which is doing the rounds on social media this evening….

And here’s the story that comes with it… apparently not content with exposing just herself to widespread disdain, an Australian mother has decided to drag her son down as well, sending him off to a ‘book week parade’ dressed as the little fella’s favourite AFL star, West Coast Eagles’ Nic Naitanui.

Naitanui has Fijian heritage, but was born in Sydney. And yes, he has dark skin.

The woman explains her son doesn’t, and so that’s why she decided to paint him up in blackface… and then share her story on Facebook.

“… My son had book week parade today,” she writes.

“He wanted to go as his idol Nic Naitanui from the west coast Eagles (sic(.

“I was a little worried about painting him (so many politically correct extremists these days) he is pastey White and if I just sent him in a wig and footy gear, no one would tell who he was.

Blackface-kid“So I grew a set of balls and painted my boy brown and he looked fanfuckingtastic.

“After being told by everyone on Facebook not to do it and it’s a horrible idea etc, my son won the fucking parade!!!! Parenting win!

“I’m celebrating by having a wine before 12pm. Love love!”

The woman (who we can’t name because it will identify her son) hails from Perth.

She told New Matilda in a written message this evening, “All I have to say is the text has been taken way out of context. When I said I grew some balls and did it. I did not mean I chose to offend anyone. I meant I chose to stop trying to get my son to choose any other book character, as he has just as much right as ANYONE else to go as who he wants. And that is his idol.”

Blackface incidents have plagued the nation for some years now, and racism more generally has plagued the AFL in particular, which has reeled from racism scandal to racism scandal (over the weekend in Adelaide, a fan was banned from the Port Power club for throwing a banana at Aboriginal star Eddie Betts).

Aboriginal rapper and comedian Briggs has provided a response (and appears to have broken the story) on his Facebook page.

“Again and again. This is the attitude we face every moment. This was such an obviously reckless, racist thing to do – I thought it was a set up. This mother has acknowledged what she was doing was wrong but decided she was going to ‘grow some balls’ and do it anyway with complete disregard to whoever she was going to offend. Can’t let a little bit of racism get in the way of ‘Book Week’.”

Honestly folks… where do we go from here? Comments below.

The writer Facebooks here, blogs here, and tweets here.

  • This story was updated with as comment from the boy’s mother at 9:15pm, and references to the issue potentially being a hoax removed.

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Chris Graham is the publisher and editor of New Matilda. He is the former founding managing editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker magazine. In more than three decades of journalism he's had his home and office raided by the Australian Federal Police; he's been arrested and briefly jailed in Israel; he's reported from a swag in Outback Australia on and off for years. Chris has worked across multiple mediums including print, radio and film. His proudest achievement is serving as an Associate producer on John Pilger's 2013 film Utopia. He's also won a few journalism awards along the way in both the US and Australia, including a Walkley Award, a Walkley High Commendation and two Human Rights Awards. Since late 2021, Chris has been battling various serious heart and lung conditions. He's begun the process of quietly planning a "gentle exit" after "tying up a few loose ends" in 2024 and 2025. So watch this space.

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