Qantas apologises after giving tickets to blackface fans
Qantas has apologised after selecting two fans who promised to wear blackface as the winner of a Twitter promotion to win tickets to Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup game.
The pair promised to dress as Radike Samo after the Qantas Twitter account asked fans what they would do to win the tickets.
Qantas selected as the winner of its #GoWallabies contest a tweet from @Pek_Anan saying:
“@QantasAirways We will dress as Radike Samo. Complete with Afro Wig, Aus rugby kit and facepaint #GoWallabies”
The pair had their photo taken with the Fiji-born rugby playe, who has since made public ghis appreciation of the gesture.
However, the blackface created a backlash on Twitter. In 2009 a Michael Jackson tribute act on the Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion created furore.
Over the weekend the Qantas Twitter account issued a number of apologies.
Meanwhile, Charles Butler, who tweets as @pek_anan, posted his own apologies saying that the blackface was a tribute to Samo, his “favourite player”.
Qantas told Mumbrella that it had run the competition with its own inhouse social media team and that it had not involved any of its roster agencies.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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im sorry but am i missing something – how is this racist? ridiculous preciousness
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So if Radike has no issue with it (great try by the way) who was it offending?
In fact he was so unoffended he has made clear his appreciation of the gesture.
So which victim mentality morons are being apologised to and why?
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Samo doesn’t look unhappy!
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What’s with companies bowing to the insane ranting of a handful of politically correct nitwits in social media? I will provide support and custom to the next company that proudly pushes back in relation to these sorts of non-issues when all the PC whingers appear next time something offends them.
And just to be clear so they don’t hate on me – racism and racial vilification are bad, m’kay – but this was done with all the best intention as a tribute to the guy, it’s not negative towards him at all. Hey, guess what, Radike is black and has an afro, not offensive, just a fact.
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A joke…. this isnt racist!! QANTAS shouldnt bow to this pressure. Australia has become over sensitive and fast going backwards to beocmming like America.
There was no slur, and no intent… not even the big guy himself gave a toss!! Go the Fro, whatever colour you are!
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Context is everything. There was clearly no ‘racial’ intent so there shouldn’t be a problem – but one again we seem to have imported the American association between putting black makeup on a white persons face and racial hatred. We haven’t had much of a history of ‘blackface’ in Australia (blackface is a specific theatrical device and is different to just putting makeup on – there are negative racial connotations) which is where the American sensitivities come from, so those who were truly offended are either too sensitive or have spent too much time watching American television.
Dressing up or impersonating someone means you take on that person’s physical characteristics – big ears, red hair, etc. If we accept a blanket ban on pretending to be a person of a different skin colour then we effectively close off an area to people like performers, impressionists and comedians who use satire to bring attention to an issue. Should a white comedian be able to lampoon someone like Robert Mugabe? Absolutely.
If the intent of the makeup on the two football fans faces were to ridicule or demonise an entire race then the objections would be fair enough, but it wasn’t, so people need to get over it – there are far more important things in the world to get upset about.
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It’s PC gone mad, and people jumping to the defence of those who don’t need it.
These guys didn’t offend anyone, they were not out to be racist or anything but because they’ve painted their faces all of a sudden we’re back in 1890 at a Blackface show.
Give me a break, he happens to have darker skin and big boofy hair. I think they hit the nail on the head. Qantas seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place again
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This apology is another example of poor judgement on Qantas’ part, just like most of the other decisions they have made in the last year. No wonder they can’t run an airline.
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I 100% agree that this isn’t offensive in my opinion, and the player at the centre of the issue wasn’t offended either.
Sadly, the PC brigade have meant that from a PR perspective, QANTAS were always in trouble as soon as that picture was posted.
Sad, but that’s now the hypersensitive world we live in.
Dont get me wrong, I dont for a nanosecond pretend to understand the racism that went on in the past directed at people of african, aboriginal or islander descent, but I am half european, half asian, and have been taunted when a kid by asians for being half white, and by whites for being half asian, and when I see Chris Liley on TV doing the Asian guy on “We Can be Heroes” or the Japanese mum on “Angry Boys”, do you know what I do? I laugh, because he’s got them down pat, and its satire.
Funnily enough, no uproar on him doing the Japanese mum, but I heard murmurs about his “S.mouse” charcter because he wore dark skin colouring…
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Its not racist, its a look a like competition?
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Blacked out faces is considered particularly offensive to many in the black community.
Maybe we’ve just got to accept that its a ‘No-No’. And let’s be honest, the wigs alone would’ve done the trick. But ……. i feel for the winners – they’re obviously not racists and nor was Radike offended.
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@just thinking i don’t disagree with the sentiment, but what gets me is the pale-faced PC brigade who lead the charge to brand things like this offensive. maybe if you’re not part of the potentially-offended group you don’t get a say.
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Perhaps not racist, but Qantas lacked in foresight to think this was ever an acceptable idea.
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Gaaaaaah, this story frustrates me so much. I knew as soon as I saw that tweet yesterday that a host of uber-PC nanas would be on their soapboxes moaning about it. What I think I find most ridiculous about it is that Samo himself has said he isn’t offended by it and doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. Then why are there so many people getting offended on his behalf when HE ISN’T EVEN OFFENDED! Sorry for shouting 🙂
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agree @Trish and guess what we all focus on after the politically-correct numbskulls take to the airwaves? that the guy is black!!!! had they just shut the hell up we wouldn’t be spending all this time talking about his skin colour, which furthers the divide
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When are corporates going to have the balls to stand up to the mamby pampby do-gooders who squeal like stuck pigs anytime has some fun?
They should have simply told them to stick their complaint when the sun doesn;t shine. And we would have all respected them much much more…
We are so vanilla.
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It’s not racist at all to me, but as someone earlier mentioned blackface for some reason is a taboo in the USA, and as an international brand, Qantas really had no choice but to apologise once the story went wild.
Gotta consider the American market.
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Just to be clear, the start of this article is misleading. They awarded tickets to fans who promised to wear ‘facepaint’ – to me that suggests green and gold facepaint, not black. Obviously they then tweeted the image which implies they didn’t see anything wrong with it (which I agree with), but to say they awarded the tickets to fans promising to wear blackface is wrong and unfair to the brand. I’m sure had the fans promised to ‘wear blackface’ Qantas would not have awarded them the tickets, so perhaps you should keep your reporting a little more factual next time… they are already copping a hard enough time as it is.
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not only is it not racist it is also not funny. Its more like a kindergarten attempt of humour!!
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