Tahu offended by Johns' "black c***" remark

The unceremonious departure of Andrew Johns from the Blues origin camp earlier this week after making a racist slur about Queensland winger Greg Inglis was met with a unanimous call to address an underlying culture of racism in rugby league. Timana Tahu handed in his Blues guernsey in protest over the slur and has received full support from the likes of ex-player Anthony Mundine, Gold Coast full back Preston Campbell and Maroons coach Mal Meninga.

In a dressing room pep talk, Johns called Inglis a “black c***” and referred to himself as “white trailer trash from Cessnock”. Johns has emphasized that his comments were just banter to fire up the Blues squad and that there was no malice intended. Johns has expressed his remorse about his choice of language to the press and has apologized to Tahu in person.

I think that Joey's comments were probably made in jest. But the fact of the matter is that Johns’ comments were inappropriate and inexcusable, irrespective of their context. Regardless of your intentions, coaches and managerial staff need to avoid any language that could be interpreted as racist or discriminatory in any way. There are definitely better ways to motivate your players than making insulting remarks about the other team.

Nevertheless I find the irony of this media frenzy amusing. To clarify, I find nothing amusing about racism or Johns’ comments. Rather I am intrigued by which part of Johns’ slur that Tahu and others have found offensive, especially when some players’ respect for women has been called into question in the not so distant past. Most women find the word “c***” particularly insulting, but I don’t see any Blues players giving up their spot in the team in protest over this part of Johns’ remark.

While rugby league goes back into damage control to address perceived racism in the sport, perhaps it should also take a good hard look at their re-education programs that encourage players to respect women. If league is serious about improving its public image, coaches and managers need to lead by example and re-education needs to start from the top. Respect for people of different genders and races needs to come not only from the players but also the coaching and managerial staff who mentor them.