Marcia Langton tweet emerges where Voice architect tells Mark Latham he is a ‘white supremacist, far right-wing arsehole’ who ‘deserves a slow, painful death’ and a ‘humiliating obituary’

EXCLUSIVE

Marcia Langton sent a message to polarizing politician Mark Latham telling him he “deserved a slow, painful death” during a heated online argument.

The message was sent via X, formerly known as Twitter, on March 10, 2018, and Professor Langton’s account has since been deleted.

The comment was brought to light on Wednesday amid a furore surrounding the prominent architect of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament this week, after she was forced to deny calling No voters “racist and stupid”.

“You so deserve a slow, painful death and humiliating obituaries,” Professor Langton wrote of Mr Latham.

She then gave two examples of “humiliating obituaries”: “Australia celebrates as the white supremacist, homophobic, far-right asshole finally dies” and “Australians look forward to a life without hate.”

Mr Latham – whose own career in politics has been marred by controversy – hit back at Professor Langton, describing her as “the voice of left-wing compassion in Australia”.

“Indigenous, working at a university, dripping with identity,” he wrote.

‘Political leaders say they are campaigning against online defamation, especially in the education system. But this is guaranteed: nothing will happen to University of Melbourne professor Marcia Langton because she says I “deserve a slow, painful death and humiliating obituaries.”

“If a white man said that about her, they threw the book at him. One rule for the elites, another rule for everyone else.”

Mr Latham recently parted ways with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party to sit in the NSW state parliament as an independent. It follows widespread backlash after he made explicit and widely condemned comments about his parliamentary colleague Alex Greenwich.

Professor Langton was a prolific tweeter and had amassed more than 30,000 followers and 51,000 individual tweets when she suddenly closed her account in early 2023.

It is not clear what prompted her to delete her account on the app after 13 years.

Professor Langton hit back on Wednesday, denying that she called No voters ‘racist and stupid’ following media reports.

Instead, she clarified that she was “explaining how the No campaign uses fears and lies to scare ‘No’ voters into voting No.”

‘The No campaign claims that this referendum proposal will create apartheid and that is why it is very important to answer people’s questions and explain exactly how these types of campaigns work.’

‘I absolutely deny it. There is a recording of what I said at the Bunbury meeting. And what I said is very clear.’

The audio of the meeting shows Professor Langton saying: ‘Every time the No cases make their arguments, when you start to pick it apart you end up with fundamental racism – I’m sorry to say it ends up there – or sheer stupidity.

“If you look at any reputable fact-checker, everyone says the ‘No’ case is substantially false, they’re lying to you.”

Hours after the original claims in the article were vehemently rejected, a video emerged of another panel discussion that Professor Langton took part in in July.

On that occasion, she said: “The wave of racist nonsense is limited to a minority of Australians. Ordinary Australians think, ‘Yes, of course I’ll vote for the Voice’. And that would be, for example, 48-49 percent.

‘Then there are the hard no voters. I hope it’s about 20 percent. And they are the ones spreading racism.”

A No campaign source told Daily Mail Australia: “Yes campaigners have made divisive and inflammatory comments for years.

“They’re in full damage control mode now.”

Over the years, Professor Langton has made no secret of her experiences with racism in Australia.

In a 2012 interviewProfessor Langton recalled people “crying for her” in the run-up to the reconciliation, and assured her they had never been racist.

But she said just telling her that was racist.

“Every Aboriginal person who came across the Reconciliation believers was fingered like a confessional,” she said at the time.

“And you can’t say to them at that moment, because they’re too upset, ‘Why are you telling me, don’t you think it’s an act of racism to tell me?’

‘Why don’t you tell someone in your own family? What can I do with all this information about you?’

In the same interview, Professor Langton categorically ruled out the form of indigenous constitutional recognition proposed by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Mr Dutton would like to see a referendum to recognize First Australians in the Constitution, without the proposed advisory body now known as the Voice to Parliament.

“A preamble (in the Constitution) that does nothing other than recognize Indigenous people would leave out other Australians, so that would be a hopeless proposition,” she said.

“If that were all we would do, the view of the constitutional lawyers we consulted is that we would be doing damage to the Constitution, and in any case it would have no chance of success.”

And in a later interview with former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Professor Langton said she had often commented that people “perhaps unconsciously dehumanize me”.

‘Dehumanize me, degenderize me. They can’t separate the racism, the sexism and the fundamental hatred of me.”

Professor Langton noted that it is ‘not normal to treat people like this’, but said: ‘African women are treated worse than I am’.