Former Magpie Simon Buckley has called out ex-teammate Heritier Lumumba, declaring he is leveraging racial prejudice from his playing days to make money and even came up with the nickname 'Chimp' himself.
Buckley, who is Indigenous, played 26 of his 47 AFL games across three seasons for Collingwood from 2010-2012 alongside Lumumba.
Lumumba has been in the spotlight in recent months over explosive claims that he was the subject of racial vilification during his time at Collingwood.
He has stated that he was nicknamed โChimp' and that the culture around the club caused a negative impact on his mental health and wellbeing.
Buckley took to social media to vent his thoughts on the controversial topic in a now deleted post, responding to a thread by ex-Magpie Shae McNamara.
โHe made the nickname up for himself,โ Buckley wrote on Facebook.
โHe was all for it when he was winning flags and playing well. He would refer to himself as chimp. He all of a sudden 10 years later wants to be a humanitarian.
โHe never complained when he was winning flags and getting a kick himself and calling himself that name. Now all of a sudden he's out of the media and wants to be back in the limelight and get a few bucks. Weak as piss.
โIf he wanted to preach about racism, he shoulda called it out at the time and not run with it and calling himself that for a laugh.โ
McNamara responded by saying that Lumumba "got it all the time" and that "s**t needs to change systematically".
"Ask Leon (Davis) and they how their experiences were. Come on now,โ McNamara wrote.
However, Buckley said Lumumba's and Davis' situations aren't comparable.
โI agree with Leon and all indigenous people. And love them for it,โ Buckley wrote.
โHarry has nothing to do with that. He's Brazilian. And if he cared soo much, he wouldn't have made the name up for himself.โ
The Herald Sunย reports that Lumumba responded to the post, claiming he was first coined 'Chimp' by his teammates in 2005, however, that the nickname was not the worst of the racism he faced.
โ1. โHe made the nickname up for himself.' Although we indeed were teammates, the time that we spend within that paradigm was a mere 20% of the time that I was at the CFC i.e. 2 years out of the 10 years that I was there,โ Lumumba posted.
โAs I have consistently stated over the past 4 year, the nickname โChimp' began in 2005, during the pre-season and, no, I did not make it up myself.
โDespite the nickname being overtly racist, unfortunately, it was not the worst facet of the interpersonal racism that I encountered during my 10 years at CFC. Within 2 months of me being at the club, I had already been exposed to a culture where racist ideas, in the form of jokes, stereotypes and direct abuse was prevalent.
โ2. โHe was all for it when winning flags and playing well.' I've heard this flimsy argument thrown around by white people who aren't familiar with what I have already said on the public record. They are using a reductionist framework to evaluate how racism manifests for individuals.
โI've gone on the public record to state that from 2004 up until 2013, I had adopted a โgo along to get alongโ approach to cope with being within the club's culture. When I was โwinning flags and playing wellโ, during the 2 years you were on the list, I was a young man of 23-24 years of age, and had yet to understand the dangerous implications of the racism that was allowed to proliferate within the club's culture.
โThis culture existed before I was even there; simply ask my brother, Leon Davis, who is 100% in support of me.โ
It comes as an independent โDo Betterโ 35-page report was leaked byย The Herald Sun last week that found Collingwoodย guilty of โsystemic racismโ.
All 150 AFL, AFLW and netballers from Collingwood released an apology letter later in the week in response to the racism report.
