Mega Thread The Adam Goodes Megathread - Now with Added Poll!

[Tiger Toffee]

When Goodes in his acceptance speech for AOTY called Australia Day ' INVASION DAY ' does that make Goodes racist towards non-indigenous Australia or does racism only work one way.

 

[evo]

.

Everyone loves a good boo.

 

[TheKanga]

Just got this comment on my newsfeed on facebook (an article about Goodes missing the game this weekend)

''Wouldn't be the first time an aboriginal got paid for not working''

Racism is alive and well in Australia sadly this comment got nearly 50 likes.
Everyone is up in arms about gay marriage but we can't even get this right.

 

[momentbymoment]

1) What planet are you from? Every person on the planet doesn't have those rights. Everyone knows I could not stand up for my rights against racist abuse from an indigenous girl. Doesn't matter that I'm a woman and usually feminism would try to protect me from abuse. It's a white girl, can't be racist towards them.

So, no, its not everyone's basic human right.

2) I'll remember this post when he runs for office. Adam Goodes. Never political. Except when he's been asked if he wants to and he says its something he can see doing.

Every human has the right to not be subjected to racism.

Perhaps if you really think about it, you will see that it is indigenous Australians who are suffering discrimination and not yourself.

And I doubt very much that Adam will enter politics. Australia is not ready for a strong aboriginal leader.

 

[TheBlue]

Just querying what separates Goodes from a Thomas or Lumumba case? Both players belong to racial minorities and both have been polarising in quite different ways - Thomas has often been labelled (and perhaps rightly so?) as a dirty player and Lumumba has done some relatively polarizing things outside of the footballing community (in a similar vein to Goodes' behaviour, socially outspoken and racially progressive) - yet both have, despite their skin colour - escaped the same vicious and sustained 'booing' campaigns that Goodes has faced in recent months. If the footballing community is racist, wouldn't both Thomas and Lumumba have received the same, sustained treatment under a similar pretence - that they aren't being racially abused but are being booed for their 'dirty tactics' or 'campaigner attitude'. I'm not so much trying to defend the people who boo as I am trying to ask an honest question because its the one thing I can't quite reconcile in this debate (its really the only thing that is holding me back from firmly labelling the boos as racist). If someone could provide a legitimate answer I would be very appreciative!

 

[Hawkers]

Its a game for crying out loud, of course one can clap off an injured opponent-that is part of the deal in a gladiatorial contest-you honour the foe.

Is it 'a game' or a 'gladiatorial contest'. Bit of a difference there.

Either way, I don't clap injured players off. I hope they are ok though - is that acceptable to you?
I also don't boo, but I have absolutely no issue with those that do - is that ok as well?

I hope you and others didn't have a good old laugh with Roo crying on the bench after coming off injured in his first game as captain.

 

[HoopsAhoy]

Ethnic groups are (by definition) groups. Claiming to be part of an ethnicity generally is not enough - it also generally requires some form of acceptance by that particular ethnicity of your 'belonging' - in addition to self identification.

In other words it's a social construct.

I cant recall ever being biologically tested to determine my ethnicity. It was a question of whom I was raised as, am accepted as, and accept myself as. Biologically determined appearance (skin color, height, eye color etc) may influence that acceptance and self identification to some extent. If my father was black and mother white, and I was darker or lighter in skin color, I may identify stronger with one over the other. Same can be said if i was raised to favor a particular ethnicity over another (for example if my mother was Jewish and my father was black African, and I was raised Jewish by my family, I'd be far more likely to identify as Jewish than as a black African - regardless of the color of my skin).

There aren't any biological discreet 'races' - the lines of demarcation and the categories themselves are defined socially, not biologically.

For the record, I personally have distant Aboriginal ancestry - however I was not raised as such and nor would I be likely to be recognized as such by Aboriginal people (physically, I take after my English mother); accordingly I do not identify as such. That's a choice I make myself - It would be no different if I had (for example) a Greek great grandfather; unless I was raised as such I wouldn't consider myself 'Greek' in anything other than a technicality. It's entirely possible that with a similar lineage, and a different upbringing, I could have gone a different way. I also have dual citizenship with the UK but do not consider myself 'British' in anything more than name. Statistically this means I probably have Angle, Celt, Norman, Saxon, Pict (through my Scottish side), Danish, Roman, Aboriginal and likely dozens of other ethnic groups floating around 'in' me. To say I am one or the other based on 'genetics' is meaningless and futile.

You are who identify as, and are accepted as within that ethnic group. It's a question of context, social acceptance and self identification.

Thanks for the fair and reasonable interpretation. I guess I'd generally consider myself Australian - being born here and sixth generation on one side, largely of English and Scottish western highlander extraction, although on the other side I am second generation central European. But I do enjoy doing the genealogical research. And I am not particularly interested in my DNA soup since Europe has been a pot well-stirred for millenia.

 

[sherb]

Exactly right. Goodes and the AFL have themselves to blame for the treatment goodes gets from the crowd. No-one else. Goodes has dished it out but obviously doesn't have the mental strength to cop it when he acts like the villain.

So those booing have no responsibility for booing whatsoever? They don't have the will or the capacity to stop booing?

Are they programmed machines?

 

[Dacksaredown]

Not when the AFL website is running with graphics like this:


View attachment 157372


Gee whiz, nothing polarising in that.

It is polarising. Twats like you on one side. Goodesy and associated legends of footy on the other.

What has he "dished out" exactly?

Have a look through the thread. Some
gifs of him decking people behind play.

 

[Malifice]

Not at all

'A white man punching a black man in the face while wearing a white sheet =/= racism.'

Anything can be racism when done within a certain context or intent. Denying a person a job. Refusing to speak to someone. Forcing someone to sit on a particular seat on a bus. Making stereotypical assertions and assumptions based on appearance or ethnicity.

Booing in and of itself is not racist. The current booing (to some extent) clearly is racially motivated. Feel free to debate the extent of that racial motication, but you certainly cant debate its existence.

 

[Reg Grundy35]

When Goodes in his acceptance speech for AOTY called Australia Day ' INVASION DAY ' does that make Goodes racist towards non-indigenous Australia or does racism only work one way.

this would have to be the most repetive inane piece of knuckle draggin claptrap that there is in this debate and that's saying something!!!

 

[Scotland]

It's his actions against racism and his cultural pride that has clearly pissed people off. Not that he is indigenous. We all know white Aussies love a good softly spoken indigenous person! It's that he cares about equality that's annoying!

Aussies might warm to him a bit more if he stopped trying to divide us into black and white.

 

[TheBlue]

Just querying what separates Goodes from a Thomas or Lumumba case? Both players belong to racial minorities and both have been polarising in quite different ways - Thomas has often been labelled (and perhaps rightly so?) as a dirty player and Lumumba has done some relatively polarizing things outside of the footballing community (in a similar vein to Goodes' behaviour, socially outspoken and racially progressive) - yet both have, despite their skin colour - escaped the same vicious and sustained 'booing' campaigns that Goodes has faced in recent months. If the footballing community is racist, wouldn't both Thomas and Lumumba have received the same, sustained treatment under a similar pretence - that they aren't being racially abused but are being booed for their 'dirty tactics' or 'campaigner attitude'. I'm not so much trying to defend the people who boo as I am trying to ask an honest question because its the one thing I can't quite reconcile in this debate (its really the only thing that is holding me back from firmly labelling the boos as racist). If someone could provide a legitimate answer I would be very appreciative!

 

[romeohwho]

Is it 'a game' or a 'gladiatorial contest'. Bit of a difference there.

Either way, I don't clap injured players off. I hope they are ok though - is that acceptable to you?
I also don't boo, but I have absolutely no issue with those that do - is that ok as well?

Yessirree bob.

 

[Doss]

200+ pages of arguing, flat out racism and name-calling.

What is this thread achieving?

Not one poster has conceded their point of view/opinion since this began.

Could we close it and be done with it?

I'd love nothing more than for this issue to just go away. It's circular, it's ugly, it's sad and it brings out the worst in a lot of people.

Unfortunately, it's also incredibly current in this media driven, public relations obsessed world we now inhabit. If this was to be closed, new threads would sprout quicker than death caps after a tropical downpour.

I just have to reiterate the same thing while this whole issue is so hot.

Do not play the man. Report obvious trolling. Any racist material will be hit very, very harshly.

 

[sherb]

I do show them respect, I understand what happened to the Aboriginal people.

But some yobbo who's turned up at the footy doesn't deserve imaginary spears thrown at him for what happened in the 1800's.

It's about time yobbo's toughened up, got on with it, stopped sooking and moved on.

Have I missed any?

 

[MagpieJo]

Who the hell is Anthony Modine?

Oops, can I blame my iPad, Mundine!

 

[Ischenko]

So he was constantly bullied?

Not the issue. Players get booed - that's part of footy. I booed Milne (and still would) due to his unsavoury behaviour and 'cos he was a gun small forward, who as I'm sure you're aware are often hated.
Goodes is being booed because he calls out racism. The booing highlights how much racism still exists below the surface of Australian society. The bullying thing is a side issue really - I would think more that he despairs that this is still an on-going thing in the 21st century. Seems to me you're being wilfully obtuse.

 

[Malifice]

People boo Judd too. Not sure he ever made a big song and dance about it though.

WCE fans did. North fans too for a while after the chicken wing.

No racial element to it though.

 

[Footy Is The Win]

A week should suffice. Happens again then we do it again.

I'll round up a few dozen of my mates and get them to harass you at your workplace.

Fairly sure you'd speak up at some point.

People show up at my work and harass me all the time, they are called customers, and without them I wouldn't have a job.

 

[momentbymoment]

I do show them respect, I understand what happened to the Aboriginal people.

But some yobbo who's turned up at the footy doesn't deserve imaginary spears thrown at him for what happened in the 1800's.

Perhaps aboriginal players don't deserve to be sent 'back to the zoo'.

Personally, I would take the fake spears ahead of the very real racism.

 

[bugalugs213]

So how about banning booing for everyone, no booing allowed ever.

Every player has a racial background, and every time a player is booed it can be considered racist

Nonsense. Stop talking crap.

 

[BILC]

Not quite as easy as that. I was called wog all my childhood. That term was a fighting word from my end. Playing football, if I got called wog, I would ensure that I targeted and punished that person. I was a ruckman and would be in a position where I could hurt that person. And in almost all cases, I did. They called me wog once and once only. I used to take great delight in hurting those who called me wog. The mental and physical torment gave me an enormous amount of satisfaction. If a supporter called me wog, it fired me up on the field. I would always ensure the crowd knew that every bit of good play on my behalf was due to their verbals. After my first couple of years playing in the comp I did, people just stopped with the name calling. Amazing how you smash one of two players, kick a few goals and the masses move on to an easier target.

Goodes is an easy target as the masses have picked up on the fact that he is affected by it and now give it to him in spades. And everyone from the CEO, to presidents to the players telling the masses to stop won't work. Aussie culture doesn't take to well to being told what to do.

Turning the other cheek though as you suggest...nah not for me. I prefer to confront it head on. And I'm not a fighter. Not at all. I don't need to let people off the hook though for their stupid views.

Fair enough.

We all react differently I suppose.

 

[GWBogan]

Thread certainly picked up now.

 

[DERIBERATE]

OMFG! Well there you go,
He's going out with a bang, there won't be any poor old Judd limped off, poor old Ablett limped off, (and I actually cried for both). Nope, there you go, his first political billboard.

Dunno though, those bitches in parliament will make mince meat of him.

Aint that the truth. I've got 4 words for ya Goodesy:

Question Time
Parliamentary Privelege