Thelma Plum Calls Seven’s Sunrise “A Bunch Of Racist C***s”

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph recently became a headline unto itself when it printed a head-scratchingly myopic and ill-informed front-page story about the University of NSW’s alleged “whitewashing” of Australian history.

Apparently, the Tele was incensed by the fact that UNSW has a set of language guidelines for students and teachers, suggesting they eschew referring to Captain Cook as the person who “discovered” Australia.

Instead, the “language toolkit”, which it should be noted is four years old, suggests he be referred to as “the first Englishman to map the east coast of ‘New Holland’”, i.e. accurately describe who he was and what he did.

Apparently unfamiliar with what the term “whitewashing” actually means, the Tele accused UNSW of rewriting “our nation’s history to scrub out Captain Cook’s contribution by saying he didn’t ‘discover’ Australia — he ‘invaded’ it”.

As Junkee notes, the Tele‘s story has ignited debate about whether or not Captain Cook, who arrived in Australia after the land’s Indigenous population as well as Dutch navigators and traders from Indonesia, India, and China, really discovered Australia.

Of course, none of it has been particularly scholarly, with the likes of the Daily Mail, Channel Seven’s Sunrise, the Nine Network’s Today Show, and KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands all hosting their own forums on the issue.

It’s Sunrise‘s take that’s incensed Indigenous Australian musician Thelma Plum. During a recent segment, the Channel Seven program invited radio host Alan Jones and Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi on to debate the topic.

It should probably be noted that neither guest is of an Indigenous Australian background. Taking to her official Facebook page, Plum challenged Jones to a “duel” before sharing a few choice words about the host and Sunrise.

“This post is in relation to a segment Sunrise had on their show talking about how Aus Uni’s are now being taught it’s offensive say ‘Captain Cook discovered Aus’ and it should in fact be that he ‘invaded Australia’,” Plum wrote.

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“Fucking A that guy invaded Australia and [Sunrise] if you want to have an actual real discussion about racism, how about not getting three white people (Alan Jones being one of them) to weigh in and decide if it is or not,” she continued.

“[Sunrise] I think you’re a bunch of racist cunts and you should 100% be ashamed of yourselves adding to the issue of thinking Aboriginal people don’t have a voice. Let us decide if it’s racist of not, not some Becky and Alan Jones.”

Plum previously made headlines when she called out two Ballarat men who attended a dress-up party in blackface. Both Plum and Indigenous Australian rapper Briggs spoke out about the two men and how their actions related to racism in Australian society.

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