Stan Grant has announced that he will be stepping down from his Q+A program and column after suffering blatant racial abuse following his coverage of King Charles’s coronation.
“On Monday night I will present my Q+A program, then walk away. For how long? I don’t know,” wrote Grant in his final column for the ABC. Grant explained that since the king’s coronation, the media had distorted his words and accused him of “maligning Australia”.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. My ancestors would not allow me to be filled with hate,” said Grant.
“I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land. In the name of the crown my people were segregated on missions and reserves. Police wearing the seal of the crown took children from their families. Under the crown our people were massacred.
“Australia is the only Commonwealth country not to have signed treaties with First Nations people. Under the crown we remain the most impoverished and imprisoned people in the country. We cannot live in the fantasy Australia that pretends we have transcended this history. We owe it to ourselves to be better.”
Grant said that through his Wiradjuri family he learnt Yindyamarra (respect) and that he spoke truth with love. “During the coronation coverage I spoke of Yindyamarra for those who support the monarchy even as I confront the darkness of colonisation and empire. If I did not offer Yindyamarra, my ancestors would be ashamed of me. They would also be ashamed of me if I did not speak up for justice.
“I speak of truth, not grievance. Yet that is not how it has been reported. I can’t speak for what motivates those who hear only hate instead of love. But I know the impact they have.” he said. Grant said that he was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage of the coronation discussing the legacy of the monarchy. And while he was neither the producer nor presenter of the coronation broadcast, every newspaper accusing the ABC of bias featured his image.
“Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough.
“I take time out because we have shown again that our history — our hard truth — is too big, too fragile, too precious for the media. The media sees only battle lines, not bridges. It sees only politics.
“Not everything is politics. Some things are sacred. Our stories are sacred. Yet the media has turned public discussion into an amusement park. Social media, at its worst, is a sordid spectacle. A grotesque burlesque. Lives are reduced to mockery and ridicule.
“I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media. I want to go where I am not reminded of the social media sewer.” he said.
Grant wrote that he felt he needed to write this final column for ABC because the broadcasting corporation hadn’t offered him the slightest of public support.
“I am writing this because no one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure.”
Monday 22nd will be the last time Grant hosts Q+A.
