Former Socceroo Craig Foster has apologised to Sam Kerr for criticising the Matildas captain after it was revealed she allegedly called a police officer in the UK a “stupid white bastard”.
Foster in a lengthy explanation on X stated he had been mistaken in thinking that any “discriminatory, demeaning or hostile” comment made referring to “any colour” was racism.
Kerr allegedly called a police officer a “stupid white bastard” or a “stupid white cop” after a night out in London in January 2023. She has pleaded not guilty in court to a charge of racially aggravated harassment.
Foster last week urged Football Australia to strip Kerr of the Matildas captaincy if the allegation was proven, to make a stand against racism. He said: “Interpersonal racism against a white person … is still racism.”
But on Saturday he explained that he had changed his mind.
“Like many, I mistakenly thought that comments that referenced any colour and were discriminatory, demeaning or hostile were a form of racism. I apologise to Sam for that mistake,” Foster wrote on X.
“Judging from the coverage, comments and conversations we’re all having, every day, there were major gaps in knowledge about how to deal with situations where the descriptor ‘white’ is used in a derogatory way.
“As many experts and leading anti-racism groups have pointed out, interpersonal comments can be offensive, abusive or inappropriate, however, racism can only be perpetrated against a marginalised person or group, which anti-racism frameworks are specifically designed to protect.”
Foster cited the Diversity Council of Australia’s definition of racism as being when someone “with race-based societal power discriminates, excludes or disadvantages a racially based person” because of their race, colour or descent.
The football commentator said in Australia, definitions of racism “were not designed to protect me as a white, Anglo, Australian male nor a white police officer who has even greater legal and racial power”.
He said he was “not at all surpised at having made a mistake and am very pleased to be able to learn”. Foster said no one should be scared, embarrassed or reticent “about doing our best to understand and confront racism”.
Foster has been an outspoken advocate against racism and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 for his work on multiculturalism, human rights and refugee advocacy.
In his apology, Foster directed readers to a Guardian Australia opinion piece by Alana Lentin and Francis Awaritefe who argued that racism in the context of Kerr’s case was “no longer the ideology that accompanies racial capitalist systems of colonialism, slavery and imperialism; it becomes a matter of individual morality”.
“Race, best understood as a technology that produces and maintains white supremacy as a global system of power, is reduced to bad behaviour,” Lentin and Awaritefe wrote.
Kerr, who is of Indian background, has been backed by various figures in Australian sport and politics, including the premier of her home state Western Australia.
Football Australia and Chelsea, the club Kerr plays for in the Women’s Super League, have supported the 30-year-old.
