Some Handy Tips For Prospective Channel 7 Sports Commentators

Here’s some free advice for all the Channel Seven HR execs who I know are reading this: give your sports commentators some dang racial sensitivity training. Just an afternoon seminar! Half a day’s work, max. Share a Google Doc. There are a few basics you aren’t covering, and they really are incredibly simple.

Let’s look at an example of what not to do, helpfully given over the weekend by former Sydney Olympics volleyball champion Kerri Pottharst, who referred to two sand-covered Caribbean beach volleyball players as “human lamingtons” on live TV while commentating the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. An incredibly stupid and also completely avoidable gaffe, right?

The backlash to Pottharst’s comment has been swift, and she has since issued this apology:

“Today at the Commonwealth Games beach volleyball, I made a comment I unreservedly apologise for and sincerely regret. It was 100 percent not meant to offend.”

And that’s… fine. Not the best apology, nor the worst. But what if—and I’m just spitballing here, Channel Seven—you could avoid the entire mea culpa in the first place? What if you just straight up instructed your sports commentators (maybe all of your presenters!) on the basics of not being a big ol’ racist, thus stopping the racism at its source?

It’s just an idea. Because this isn’t the first time this has happened in recent memory. During the Channel Seven Winter Olympics coverage, Australian skier Jacqui Cooper was commentating the women’s ariels in PyeongChang when she implied that Chinese skiers are indistinguishable from one another.

“Very Chinese,” said Cooper, as she observed Chinese competitor Yan Ting. ”They all look the same, they’re very hard to tell who’s who.”

Again: a ten minute conversation before you put her on air. “Don’t racially stereotype the people whose sporting prowess you’re meant to be offering your expert opinions about, Jacqui.” How hard would it be?

The Winter Olympics are over, but we still have a few more days of the Commonwealth Games to go. Plenty of time left to gently remind some white people to think twice before they open their mouths.