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Because it started when he decided to publicly shame a 13 year old girl. Yes, what she said was racist (calling him an ape) but at that age it's highly likely that the girl has been influenced by her parents or friends. She wouldn't hold that view herself from her life experiences, because she hasn't had any. What Goodes did in saying "Racism has a face. It's a 13 year old girl" was completely irresponsible from a grown man like him IMO. People, myself included, took issue with him heaping that kind of pressure on a young girl rather than her parents or the community in general. Children that age act that way because they have got it from somewhere - and that somewhere is what needed to be addressed - not the girl herself.
So naturally people were pissed off at the way he handled the situation and booed him for it - not because they also thought he was an ape, but because he handled the situation poorly. He then attributed THAT booing again to racism, which is so far from the reality of the situation it's not even funny. I was glad to see him retire, he unneccessarily over politicised the game at the time and his view on the situation couldn't have been anymore off the mark. Yes, we should stamp out racism but that's a pretty poor way to go about doing it. For a grown man who has most likely & unfortunately taken abuse like this in the past, he decided to shine a light on his situation by singling out a child in the process.
So naturally people were pissed off at the way he handled the situation and booed him for it - not because they also thought he was an ape, but because he handled the situation poorly. He then attributed THAT booing again to racism, which is so far from the reality of the situation it's not even funny. I was glad to see him retire, he unneccessarily over politicised the game at the time and his view on the situation couldn't have been anymore off the mark. Yes, we should stamp out racism but that's a pretty poor way to go about doing it. For a grown man who has most likely & unfortunately taken abuse like this in the past, he decided to shine a light on his situation by singling out a child in the process.
by not pointing it out all it does is create a get out clause for racisim ... at what point does a person become old enough to be held accountable for their actions ? 15, 18, 21 ?? honestly the way goodes made his stand while bringing shame to the young girl it also opend up a discussion about how behaviours of parents gets passed down to the kids... the girl in question was looked after and was provided education and support after being called out..
while not ideal that a young girl was put in the public eye i think unless you have been on the recieving end of racial abuse you cant really understand the emotions that flow from it ... im 100% sure Goodes wishes he was never racially villifyed by the girl... but he was... so he had the choice to either a do nothing and in the mind of the girl her coments are acceptable and she grows up thinking thats acceptable or he points it out and cops the critisim of pointing it out...
the follow up booing was mostly racial motivated.. people tryed to excuse it cause he was a dirty player or he was a flog or they just dont like him or as you said he made an example of young girl but for a vast percentage of people booing him it was because he turned a mirror on a behaviour that they felt uncomfortable facing... it put goodes in an unfortunate position because while his community needed him to stay strong on the matter it was causing a divide so while the hopes to push closer to an end of racism it actually put the cause back a few steps ..
to end racism there needs to be a feeling that we are all the same with the goodes thing it gave the power back to the racist to drive a wedge between us all and from my recent footy going experiance the crowd behaviour since the goodes issue has brought the game closer to the era where Nicky made his stand then the era after where we let footballers just be footballers ...

