Race is not black and white

In contrast, The Age newspaper has over the decades differentiated between English and Scottish people coming from the United Kingdom, even though there has never been an independent Scottish state or kingdom in over 200 years. In fact, one Age writer in particular Alan Atwood built a whole shtick in The Age regaling us with his stories of his Scottishness.

I even tried to build my own Alan Atwood shtick or genre: a journalist who went out of his way to differentiate those who came from the United Kingdom but in the same breath as a tennis reporter refused to apply the same principle to 'Yugoslav' tennis players such the ethnic Hungarian Monika Seles (Szeles).

You can read the OLO story here.

More recently The Age's chic looking art critic Gabriella Coslovich, herself of diverse Northern Italian/Slav background, ran a story about the cosmopolitan northern Italian city of Trieste, and the controversies surrounding the various ethnic identities tied to that city.

In the Bolt controversy and Atwood and Coslovich cases, The Age has gone to extraordinary detail over identity but not in Kapetanovski's case.

Why the inconsistency? Why the lack of research? Another response is who cares? We should care.

I wish to point out that "ethnic inaccuracy" brought Kapetanovski and a Melbourne Macedonian Community leader, Aco Talevski, together in 1985-86.

Kapetanovski, as described by Herald Sun crime reporter and author Paul Anderson in his book Dirty Dozen: Reloaded, was a Victoria Police Sergeant who spoke Macedonian as well as Serbian.

A gun nut and attempted cop killer, Pavel Marinoff (Marinov) also known as Mad Max Clarke or the Noble Park Gunman was on the loose in Melbourne.

Initially it was believed, mistakenly aas it turned out, that Marinoff was a Macedonian and was being protected by the local community. The Macedonian community at the time felt it was a slur.

Kapetanovski contacted Talevski, President of the Saint Dimitrija Macedonian Orthodox Church in the nearby Springvale. Kapetanovski revealed to Talevski that he was himself of Macedonian background.

Eventually, it was discovered that Marinoff was not a Macedonian but a Bulgarian.

Talevski had to go on television to clear the good name of his community but in the process built a friendship with Kapetanovski.

"I visited John when he was in hospital after he was wounded by Marinoff," Talevski said.