When a crisis strikes its very natural to try and hide behind some sort of a defensive statement. Yet that statement needs to be meaningful and not just a fashionable clich posing as a moral fig-leaf.

This is not who we are" has become the latest go-to defence in the face of a reputational crisis, and it really needs to be retired.At best it could bea sincere statement of hopeful self-delusion.At worst its simplydesigned to avoid any real contrition (like that other old favourite “Mistakes were made”).

When video surfaced recently of an Indigenous teenager lying unresponsive on the ground outside the emergency department at St Vincents hospital in Sydney, with staff reportedly refusing to help,CEO Angela Nolansaid: This is not who we are and not what we are about at St Vincents.

Similarly theAustralian Trucking Associationsaid This is not who we are when a Victorian truck driver videoed himself taking what appeared to be drugs in the cab of his vehicle. So did theAustralian Anti-Defamation Commissionin August after racist taunts were hurled at rugby league players.And so too did theUniting Churchregarding revelations at last years Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The same unhelpful phrase seems to be particularly popular in the United States. Countless politicians,commentators and celebrities in the Age of Trump have told us This is not who we are in relation, for example, to reports of looting during protests, or locking children in cages on the border, or unprovoked police killings, or white supremacists.

When African-Americans at a GM plant in Toledo Ohio complained last year about widespread racism in the workplace where nooses and white only signs were hung the companys VP of North American manufacturingtweeted; We have zero tolerance for discrimination this is not who we are. Yet nine employees are suing the company for allowing an underlying atmosphere of violent racial hate and bullying.

And, in an earlier incident, when fraternity boys atOklahoma State University were filmed singing racist chants on a bus trip, the university President and national Sigma Alpha Epsilon both said This is not who we are despite former SAE brothers coming forward to say this was par for the course in the Midwest and South.

As one Americanlegal news siterecently wrote in a headline: This is not who we are said someone with no knowledge of U.S. history.Or asGuardian columnistTim Dowlingsuggests:This is not who we are isAmerican for This is sort of who we are.

Indeed, Chicago Bears coachMatt Nagyeven tried using this explanation afterhis teams loss to the Green Bay Packers at the start of last season.

There are rare occasions when a politician uses the phrase and actually means it. New Zealand Prime MinisterJacinda Adernwas clearly speaking for the nation after the Christchurch mosque mass-shooting in March last year, which saw 51 killed and 40 injured. “This is an act that has absolutely no place in New Zealand thisis not who we are.”

However, the same could hardly be said for Australian Prime MinisterScott Morrisonwhen he declared the panicpurchase of toilet rolls and hoarding of groceries during COVID-19 was un-Australian. He added: This is not who we are as a people.Unfortunately, supermarket shelves stripped bare across the country and video of shoppers fighting over scarce supplies were stark evidence of how wrong he was.

So next time a politician or crisis manager is tempted to say This is not who we are perhaps try This is not who we want to be or This is not who we are going to be or “This is not who we aspire tobe.” Maybe then just a little credibility can be restored.