Does anyone have a recent team photo of the Opals as a comparison?

Not sure if this is the article OP intended, but in case someone wants more detail: news.com.au article

The second image included Indigenous Rugby Sevens player Maurice Longbottom but Cambage wrote: "Also fake tan doesn't equal diversity."

She seems to always forget she's has equal parts being of mixed race .... and never identifies with one side of her heritage

Is she suggesting Maurice Longbottom is not black enough?

Can people imagine if a white person said an indigenous person is not black enough?

She should be banished now, how much more is everybody supposed to take from her? Thanks for doing all of us a favour Liz.

At what point does it all become tokenistic?

"Hang on better include xx for some diversity"

Part of it comes down to probably the people available there and then in the Olympic team.

You're telling me Patty Mills wouldn’t be in every promo possible if he was around? Or Ben Simmons? Ash Barty? Dylan Alcott?

I get if you’re curating marketing you should attempt a semblance of diversity but the overreaction by Liz is just unhelpful.

Olympics is about stars, the best of the best - doesn’t matter your colour or gender or anything else, if you’re the best you’ll be promo’d everywhere throughout - I’m willing to bet we will see plenty of Mills and Simmons if they play in Tokyo and it’ll be bloody great for basketball!

12 inches taller than avg women

Fans only haha, did you use the Google to find that?

lol that straight response

"Unless any of you are 6'8 black women who have grown up in Australia I'm not sure you (or I) are in any position to judge"

Would you like to add well documented mental health struggles too? In that context, I'm not sure the media should even responsibly report on this story. It's borderline unhinged to imply an Indigenous athlete is just wearing fake tan.

Mother is a CEO and Cambage is in the top 1% of money earners in the world. Massive chip on her shoulders.

Didn't go back to Tulsa in the WNBA because the coach was mean to her and the team expected her to be number 1 player.

Dirty player on the court, yet she complains the most of any player.

This is Cambage's clarification:

"I know who Maurice Longbottom is. He was the one wearing the Indigenous special uniform, clearly. And I wasn't saying he was the one with fake tan on. I’m talking about the rest of the photo. One token POC in a photo is not good enough at. @AOC that’s what I’m talking about.

“It’s sad, the whitewashing is sad. Your black athletes lead you everywhere. Indigenous athletes are some of the best athletes we have. An y’all don’t use them at all. And Jockey Australia, you knew exactly what you were doing. You need me to send you a list of all the black or POC athletes that are trying to make it to the Olympics right now that you could use. I’m not even in the country and I can do it.

“So anyway, to Mr Longbottom, I’m sorry that you got caught up in this. I did not think you had fake tan on, I was never saying that, I was saying that for the rest of the photo."


I wonder if she is willing to state who she thinks has fake tan on and how she made such an assessment.

The Liz Cambage travelling sideshow continues it seems. Because she didn't see her favourite race in a particular set of photos, suddenly it's all racism and all of these organizations start flying out of their asses to appease her. This isn't about equality, it's about power and watching people jump through hoops for her. I am sorry Liz, Australia is 70 percent white. Much of the Olympic team is white. Sometimes they're going to be the majority in some areas in life. If you have a problem with that, maybe you're the racist?

I'd like to her boycott the Olympics. She's calling everyone's bluff right now with this shit. If I was coach I'd be selecting some unknown in her place and riding that train all the way to 8th spot. How dare she put her team hostage because there wasn't quite enough melanin in a photo for her sensitivities?

And no, she wouldn't make a mill off OnlyFans. That only further proves how delusional she is.

"Unless any of you are 6'8 black women who have grown up in Australia I'm not sure you (or I) are in any position to judge. Going by the comments here however, it’s not too hard to imagine where her emotional reaction comes from."

Okay, so unless we are literally the exact person who says or does something, we have no right to judge what they say or do, but that person can judge everyone else?

HAHAHA Nice logic!

I quoted the shorter version of her response. The longer version is, well, even more what you'd expect to come from Cambage.

"Australia, wake the f*** up," she began. "I'm not playing these games no more, I’m not. You can try and twist my words however you want, it’s not going to work. I’m not taking any media, I’m not doing any interviews, I’m not talking to you listen to this. You’re going to pull this and put this in your story, so I don’t need to talk to you on the phone.

“I know who Maurice Longbottom is. He was the one wearing the Indigenous special uniform, clearly. And I wasn’t saying he was the one with fake tan on. I’m talking about the rest of the photo. One token POC in a photo is not good enough at. @AOC that’s what I’m talking about.

“To all the white Australians in my DMs, in my comments, talking s*** about me here and there, I don’t actually care. Your ignorance is embarrassing and it’s sad and I feel really sorry for you that you have literally zero empathy and lack of respect to even try to understand where I, a black woman, is trying to speak out on the lack of diversity in Australia.

“It’s sad, the whitewashing is sad. Your black athletes lead you everywhere. Indigenous athletes are some of the best athletes we have. An y’all don’t use them at all. And Jockey Australia, you knew exactly what you were doing. You need me to send you a list of all the black or POC athletes that are trying to make it to the Olympics right now that you could use. I’m not even in the country and I can do it.

“So anyway, to Mr Longbottom, I’m sorry that you got caught up in this. I did not think you had fake tan on, I was never saying that, I was saying that for the rest of the photo.

“One POC in a photo is not good enough for me. I shouldn’t have to hold the Australian Olympic Committee and their partners accountable from the other side of the world. And yes, I saw the apology. Words don’t mean anything to me. Actions mean something to me. So let me see it because until then, I’m not buying s***. And that’s just how it is. And I’m going to keep talking my s*** because I’m going to do it for the little girls and the little boys who are people of colour.

“Asian, black, Indigenous — wherever you are from in this whole world, it’s important to see people who look like you in the media. And white Australia, you would never understand that, because you’ve never had to deal with it.

“Anyhoo, I’m going to wrap this up. Maurice Longbottom, I’m so sorry from the bottom of my heart that things got twisted today and the media used you as a tool to defer from the real issue that Australia is ignorant, it’s so ignorant and it’s embarrassing. We have a diversity issue, we have an inclusion issue and we have a visibility issue for kids growing up that don’t look anything like them in magazine, on TV, on the news, anywhere.

“And Australia, if you have an issue with my words, you are the issue. And ... you can kiss my black a***. I don’t give a f*** about what you have to say about me. And on that note (kisses the screen), goodnight Australia.

“Oh, and one more thing, for all those people who are saying I’m upset because I’m not a Jockey ambassador, I’m a bit busy with Savage X Fenty if you haven’t noticed. Anyway, goodnight y’all.”

I am sorry Liz, Australia is 70 percent white.

Wasn't she born in England.. typical pom.. having a whinge....
Any chance she acknowledge English contribution...
More respect for indigenous and cultures who make / live in Aust... first or last .. we all are one....

Percentages mean little when an increase of 1 or 2 would change the percentage substantially.

Why would it reflect national population anyway? I can't imagine the Olympic team reflects the population?

We are in a hyper-socially conscious era these days, we aren’t the 50s. I suspect it was very much about logistical availability and just getting a photo done.

If you over-think it, you start to get paranoid and draw cynical conclusions.

Like if Patty Mills gets featured a lot during coverage some idiot is going to say "he’s only there for diversity" despite if/when he does it’s because he’s a god damn star for Australia.

Her "boycott" can't come soon enough ...She is an absolute disgrace at every turn , always the brat /victim mentality, and again she’s just got the attention she craves, very unhealthy attitude to have within any sporting group, let alone our national squad .
Her comments are derogatory towards other athletes who work their backsides off for their chosen sports, and don’t need to cause a scene to garner attention.

Cheese.

So the photo in question doesn't have any controversial athletes in it like Bernard Tomic or drug cheats etc in it yet we aren't supposed to support these guys or be glad that they are representing us at the Olympics?

There are definitely different athletes that they could have selected (the beach volleyball tandem with the indigenous lass and her Brazilian team mate would have been great - Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar) but you can't always get every athlete you want months out from an Olympic but you do have to wonder what Liz would have thought had Taliqua or other female indigenous athletes were in the team photo.

Personally I love the photo and how we have disabled and able bodied athletes in the same photo.

Cambage is just another celebrity with a Twitter account, and like some other celebrities she is seriously unhinged (other examples Pete Evans, Magda Szubanski)

Don't pay her too much attention. If she boycotted an Olympics over this it would hurt her more than anything, because the public reaction to her would not be kind. Aussies might finish 7th or something instead of the usual 2nd - 4th but that's alright. No need to appease the craziness.

The female Mundine.....

Identity politics is always nasty as it is built around victimhood, some say the goal is to use that "victimhood" to manipulate others to get free stuff, or an advantage.

I find the "fake tan" comment highly offensive as well as comments like "I DO NOT CARE FOR A WHITE MAN'S OPINION ON RACIAL ISSUES. NEVER HAVE. NEVER WILL". Now, being offended doesn't necessarily mean you are correct, but saying an indigenous person has "fake tan" is like saying a lesbian has "fake love" for her partner.

To neglect "white people" as a race and to diminish their opinions purely because they are "white" is racist itself.

If Cambage wishes to boycott the Olympics over a PR photo, then that is her choice. Considering she is half Nigerian and half English, she also has the luxury and benefit of access to citizenship in those countries and the luxury of representing them as well.

Making threats without follow through is pointless .

I'd hope that a productive discussion is possible if you apply a bit of benefit of the doubt here to distill the issue. i.e.,

- that she wasn't referencing the indigenous athlete with the fake tan remark
- that she would have legitimate feelings about an issue like this
- that the media feeds off opinionated hotheads

Which probably leaves:

- whether she had a fair complaint
- whether it's the ideal way to go about it

The photos including an indigenous athlete and Paralympic athlete show they made some effort but arguably could've gone a touch further. They admitted as much in their response. I like seeing diversity in these sort of promos. As someone said, if Patty Mills was around, he'd probably be a given inclusion as one of the best Australian role models.

As for her approach, well, it's not new for her and looks a bit over the top given it wasn't a complete whitewash. Something like "Hey AOC, you should've used x and y in those promos - they would've been a perfect fit and show the breadth of people we have representing Australia" would've been better. But then, those statements may get made every day and never make the papers because they're not outrageous, and you could argue that you need the brash loudmouths to make social progress.

On the other hand, uncharitable, over the top reactions to things create an echo of reaction which likely dampens a cause, this thread being an easy example.

- whether she had a fair complaint

- whether it's the ideal way to go about it

Is Liz going to jump out on social media when the Nigerian Olympic team produces it's team photo. Or is it just one sided.

Most times there is a pretty fair issue at the core of Cambage's outbursts, and most times she does a horrible job of getting the buy-in that the issue may deserve.

If she truly believed in "You can't be what you can't see" - which IMO is a pretty decent rule of thumb - then maybe she would put herself in the shoes of a young aspiring olympian that happens to be a POC, rather than just putting herself in the shoes of herself.
In terms of living proof that a person from any background can make it if they're talented and work hard, surely there is no better and more visible example than being seen by the whole world on the olympic stage. How many young players are inspired by some random photo shoot compared to how many are inspired by watching the games themselves?

So seeing a worthy issue and then immediately jumping out of the gate swinging the sledgehammer of boycott ... all that does is paint herself into a corner.
Liz has a very big platform on Instagram. Everything she puts on there is seen immediately by a lot of people, including people in high places.
Surely she could have conveyed her message a lot better without the boycott thing thrown in (and without the fake tan distraction too for that matter)

Because the way it looks now is that she is happy to remove herself as a role model and a performer who is in the top handful of players in the world, and take that visibility away from billions of people, all over some photos that very few people gaf about.
Is that really the ideal way to achieve POC representation?
I would have thought that her point could have still been made very strongly such that the desired change was still made, without exposing the fact that it was not really a deeply considered position that had purely altruistic intent.

Nice post Luuuc.

but if she raised the issues with the PR Dept of AOC, they would probably just laugh at her and not listen to her.

And is she thinking at all about the impact on her fellow team-mates so close to the Games? Is she trying to get them to come out in sympathy with her, or positioning herself above them?

Either way, it's a distraction they probably don’t need

Liz raises some great points. I can understand not liking the way she brings it up - she certainly isn't interested slow change or coddling those that are on the fence - and I think thats fine.

Love what she does. She won't always get it 100% right but who does?

Comparing her to Pete Evans is laughable.

Comparing Magda to Pete Evans is even funnier and just shows LVs politics.

But then, those statements may get made every day and never make the papers because they're not outrageous, and you could argue that you need the brash loudmouths to make social progress.