Andrew Bolt Just Attacked An Indigenous Woman For… Talking About Being Indigenous

We regret to inform you that Andrew Bolt is at it again. Earlier this week, he uploaded a blog post criticising Victorian Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe, who is a Gunai-Kurnai and Gunditjmara woman, for…wait for it… talking about being Aboriginal in her campaign material.

Bolt’s post, titled “Vote For Her Because She’s Black, Black, Black, Black”, criticised Thorpe’s new campaign ad, which points out that she could be the first Indigenous woman elected to the Victorian Parliament.

“Is this Greens ad for the Northcote by-election the ultimate expression of identity politics?” is how Bolt responded. He went on to criticse the ad’s “pleading to cast a vote on racial grounds” and “the surprising reveal at the end”.

Given that the end of the ad is where Thorpe herself appears, this “surprising reveal” appears to be that Thorpe does not look how Bolt expects an Indigenous woman to look. He then implies that she has chosen to identify as Aboriginal, asking how the campaign would hold up “if Lidia Thorpe chose not to identify as Aboriginal”.

Greens candidate in the Northcote byelection Lidia Thorpe has been attacked for being Aboriginal. pic.twitter.com/9uCx7jssro

— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) November 9, 2017

Bolt also returned to the topic while interviewing Greens leader Richard Di Natale on The Bolt Report last night, asking Di Natale “what’s race got to do with it?” in the case of Thorpe’s campaign. When Di Natale began to explain the importance of having people with lived experience of being Indigenous in Parliament, Bolt cut him off to note “but she’s an urban Aboriginal”.

Pretty bold for a guy who’s previously lost a court case for breaching the Racial Discrimination Act, but who among us really understands how Andrew Bolt’s mind works?

When Di Natale asked if Bolt was saying that “you can’t be an Aboriginal person and live in the city”, Bolt said he was being misrepresented.

Thorpe herself has released a powerful Facebook post responding to Bolt’s comments, writing that “yes, Bolt and friends, I’m a black woman. A proud black woman. My culture and family made me who I am. My community made me strong, vocal, and they taught me how to fight for what’s right.”

“Being Aboriginal is not all I am, but it’s the centre of who I am. I’m a mother, a business owner, a community leader and someone who believes in fighting for what’s right. I can’t separate my culture from my politics and I won’t apologise for it, it makes me a better representative for my electorate.”

Good on her for shutting him down, but it’s a real shame that she had to. You can view the campaign ad Bolt was so offended by below, and find out more about what she stands for on her website.