It seems rather odd to claim to represent “oppressed people of colour” when you’re notably on the pale side. Not that that’s ever stopped the likes of Shaun “Talcum X” King, Linda Sarsour, or New Zealand’s own Golriz Ghahraman. I mean, at least Rachel Dolezal slapped on a bit of Rapid-Tan and got a perm.
It’s also rather strange to claim to be poor and oppressed, as does the similarly ghostly-pale Ricardo Menéndez March, when you’re living quite the jet-setting, frequent-flyer lifestyle even before you luck into 160,000 taxpayer-funded dollars a year.
But it’s a strange thing with the woke-left: the paler, richer and more privileged they are, the louder they claim to be as oppressed as a poor Yorkshireman forced to live in a shoebox and work twenty-four hours a day at t’mill for sixpence every four years, on nowt but an ’andful o’ ’ot gravel.
Then there’s Victorian Greens senator and “indigenous woman” Lidia Thorpe.
Lidia Thorpe, who loudly proclaims, no matter how much everyone tries to ignore her, her “inter-generational trauma” and “solidarity with black people across the world”, recently tweeted a selfie from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
For those who don’t know, the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is one of the most exclusive clubs in Australia. It’s like the Melbourne Club, if it were run by a flaming woke Queen, instead of a bunch of stuffy Melbourne squattocracy types.
One does not apply to join the Chairman’s Lounge; rather, one is asked, and one is asked only if one is a very, very important person, for example, someone from a minor party appointed recently to fill a casual Senate vacancy.
Thorpe’s taxpayer-funded salary leaves even El Woko Loco weeping in privileged envy, at a paltry $211,250 plus numerous allowances. That’s Australian dollars, mind you, not New Zealand pesos.
Unkind and ignorant observers have criticised Thorpe for her supposed hypocrisy and boastfulness in telling the world she had been invited to this exclusive den of luxury. This is a mischaracterisation. This Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman was in fact demonstrating her bravery in the whitest of white spaces, and her grin belied the repugnance she must have felt for the invaders’ decadence.
When formally admitted to the Senate last year, Thorpe – having told constituents she “would be a senator for all Victorians” – gave the Black Power salute by raising her right fist. Doing so, she told Al Jazeera, was “a sign of resistance and as a sign of our struggle and in solidarity with black people across the world”.
I do not doubt Thorpe’s determination or tenacity, but I fear her struggle will be a long one. It could mean many Senate terms, many years drawing a parliamentary salary, much tedious reconciling of accommodation and travel allowance claims with the Department of Finance, and many hours resting her derriere on the plush cushions of the Chairman’s Lounge as she thinks of additional ways to convey her incessant grievances.
The Australian
In the meantime, as Australian Aboriginal blogger Dallas Scott might say to Lidia: she can swan out of the Chairman’s Lounge and get a cab.
Lidia Thorpe can also claim to be “Indigenous” and no-one dares question her: when Dallas Scott applied for recognition of his Aboriginality from “Indigenous” organisations, he was knocked back.
Guess he wasn’t black enough, unlike Lidia Thorpe.
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