Just moments after defying the odds to win $20,000 on the quiz show Tipping Point, an Australian mum was hit with a torrent of vile racist abuse. Her response was powerful.
Seaneen Wallace, an academic, mother, and proud Indigenous Australian, has hit back at trolls who very publicly declared there was no place for her on prime-time television. Wallace was a contestant on Channel Nine’s Tipping Point episode that aired this week, finally succumbing to her father’s persistent encouragement to apply.
“I got very lucky on the day and was able to answer enough right questions and I won,” she told news.com.au. “I went on the show because it’s my dad’s favourite show. He’d always say to apply, and then when I had my son in 2025, I had no work obligations for 12 months and thought, ‘let’s apply and see what happens’.”
As soon as the episode aired, her brother texted her, saying, “Don’t worry about what the losers were saying online.” Wallace hadn’t seen the comments but immediately checked. She found rude remarks on the Tipping Point Australia Facebook page about her Aboriginality.
The most hurtful comment read: “Well done Tipping Point, you pulled the indigenous card today, you lost this original viewer,” finished with a sad face emoji. Another said: “As Aboriginal as Albo.”
“Luckily, a lot of people already had been commenting defending me and going against the racist comment,” Wallace said. She decided to respond directly.
“To dear anonymous. Thank you very much for joining and watching me WIN this evening,” she wrote under the comment. “Yes, believe it or not, Tipping Point cast an indigenous person. We exist and have for more than 65,000 years. In case you would like to know, my grandmother and grandfather were forced to live on a mission in Queensland and not allowed to speak the language they had their whole life, not able to practice culture, forced to work in service jobs with no wage and denied the right to vote until their children were grown, in a country them and their ancestors have lived for years.
“You clearly know nothing about Aboriginal culture (or what happened here) if you’re judging my Aboriginality based on the colour of my skin. Wanting to only watch ‘Australian’ people on a national tv show is wild, racist and highly ignorant. Also very mature and brave posting anonymous. I will not be thinking of you while I spend my 20k.”
Wallace, who works in an academic role at a Sydney university after years in the health sector focusing on systemic racism and equity, said the comments were “upsetting but unfortunately not uncommon.”
“People who don’t fit into the caucasian ‘White Australia’ are faced with racism every day. The scary thing is that it seems to be more prevalent that individuals who hold these racist views feel safer to say such things, and Facebook and other platforms give the opportunity to do it anonymously. As a society and as individuals, we need to not tolerate this behaviour and call it out. We all as individuals need to make sure these people feel that it is not socially acceptable to be like that.”
Channel Nine has been contacted for comment.
