Viewers have been left outraged after âThe Projectâ ignored calls to acknowledge a resurfaced 2017 segment in which its hosts Peter Helliar and Waleed Aly dismissed Heritier Lumumbaâs experiences of racism at the Collingwood Football Club.
This week, as a leaked report found evidence of âsystemic racismâ within the club, Twitter users demanded that âThe Projectâ and Aly apologise on air for not believing Lumumba when he shared that his teammates had called him âchimpâ and âslaveâ.
Lumumbaâs account of a âculture of racist jokesâ at the club, where he played 199 games from 2005-14, prompted the recently leaked report.
âThe Projectâ and its hosts have been condemned for âdiscreditingâ and âgaslightingâ Lumumba in the 2017 segment when he tried to go public about racism at the club. While Helliar has apologised on Twitter, viewers are demanding more action.
Melbourne-based comic Aamer Rahman told HuffPost Australia the program had âan active role in covering for the clubâ when Lumumba came forward, and its failure to acknowledge that now âis hypocritical and dishonestâ.
In a thread of 25 tweets from July last year, Rahman dissected the 2017 segment that he said âunderminedâ Lumumbaâs experiences, left important details out of the final edit and echoed Collingwoodâs PR messages that tried to disprove Lumumbaâs story.
Rahman pointed out that, at the time, Helliar had questioned Lumumbaâs account of being subjected to slurs like âchimpâ by saying, âWe canât find anyone who would speak to us who knew of that nickname over a playing career of 10 years.â
âEven if you have to name names, take us into your experience. Paint the picture so we understand it more. Because if you donât do that, then it just sounds like youâre smearing an entire club.â
Aly then corrected himself and Helliar, admitting on the panel that Andrew Krakouer had confirmed the âchimpâ nickname, but then dismissed Krakouer as a ârare personâ. Krakouer is a First Nations man.
On Monday, Helliar, who has worked with Collingwood as its âStrauchanieâ character, tweeted an apology to Lumumba, saying: âI should have believed you.â But many say itâs not enough.
âI donât think Helliarâs attempt to apologise is insincere, but itâs still inadequate,â said Rahman.
âLumumba was discredited on a nationwide, prime-time program with millions of viewers. That broadcast significantly damaged his reputation - a proper and meaningful acknowledgment or apology can only happen on the same platform.â
âThis takes more than just promising to âdo betterâ in a tweet.â
Many other Twitter users agreed with Rahman, asking why the segment wasnât addressed again on Wednesdayâs episode.
An independent review this week found âsystemicâ racism within the Magpies and called for the problem to be addressed.
Collingwoodâs president Eddie McGuire on Tuesday was forced to backtrack on his disastrous comments describing the reportâs release as âan historic and proud dayâ for the Magpies. The review found that racism had resulted in âprofound and enduring harm to First Nations and African players.â
âThis is the first time anything like this has happened in the history of the AFL, and itâs happened because of Lumumbaâs unwillingness to back down from his claims,â Rahman added.
âThe 2017 Project interview had a devastating effect on the momentum and public support he was starting to build since leaving football. It took him another three years before he could publicly pursue his claims again.â
Rahman is calling for Aly to acknowledge the 2017 coverage.
âI do think there may be a certain calculation on the part of the Project and other presenters where they think that allowing Helliar to apologise might contain the criticism on Twitter. If anything, itâs just made it worse,â he said.
Network 10 declined to comment.
You can watch the controversial 2017 segment of âThe Projectâ in full below.