- Banned
- #2,976
Australia has a deeply racist history. One of the very first acts of the first Australian Parliament, the White Australia Policy, was a piece of racist legislation.
Indigenous Australians were not permitted to vote in their own country till 1967. That is racist.
Indigenous Australian children were taken away from their parents, never to see them again, for no other reason than that they were indigenous. That is racist, and it is not even ancient history. Adam Goodes' mother was one.
Until Mabo, land title in Australia was based on the lie of Terra Nullius. That is racist.
To anyone with a functioning brain, it is clear that Australian history is utterly shot through with racism.
Yet when an outspoken indigenous sporting star is booed, none of it is racism. None of it. It's anything but racism apparently.
No, not racism. No, how could it be? No, we're not racist! Us? Nah. I mean, just look at how unracisty we are. Apart from the White Australia Policy, and Aboriginals not being allowed to vote, and the Stolen Generation, and Terra Nullius, how exactly are we racists? How could we be racists? Impossible.
Sorry to butt in because I know these comments were directed at another poster but permit me to say a few things.
(1) I don't think you'll find many that will argue with much of what you've said.
(2) I think it's a bit much to say that because Aboriginals didn't get the vote until 1967, and Terra Nullis etc that people must have booed Adam because they were racist.
(3) There have been several turning points that radically changed things for the better for indigenous football players. 1993 was the first real catalyst for change when Nicky Winmar lifted his shirt and pointed to his skin in response to comments such as "go and sniff some petrol" and "go walkabout where you came from" emanating from sections of the Collingwood cheer squad. When a photo of the action made it's way to the Sunday Age under a headline 'I'm black and I'm proud of it', it cast an unforgettable image. Two years later the next catalyst occurred when a Collingwood player wrestling with Michael Long and Che Cockatoo-Collins yelled out “Get off me, you little black c**t” and Long subsequently made an official complaint forcing the AFL to eventually introduce Australia's first sports law outlawing racial vilification. Then in 2005 we saw the start of Indigenous Round.
(4) In 2013 when Brownlow medalist and All-Australian Goodes singled out the naive 13 yo Collingwood girl in he crowd to security and told them to "Get her out, I don't want her here" Australia was a lot different place than what you describe in your post. Yet, Goodes, when criticised for singling her out started justifying his action, the rot (booing) started. Two years later when he charged towards Carlton supporters during a game, he sealed his fate and the booing got worse. Commetti at the time said “Probably best not to do it,” “Won’t stop the booing.” Dermott Brereton summed it up at the time also when he said "To actually run at somebody in a war dance ... it actually signifies ‘I want to be violent against you’,” he said. “No good can come of it.”
Don't get me wrong here, when the 13 yo Collingwood supporter (see a pattern here BTW) said what she said, she made a big mistake. Goodes made the next one, and then two years later, another. He should've been the bigger person and shrugged her insult off. Winmar & Long et al had been through a lot worse and been instrumental in monumentally positive change. Goodes actions IMO, put further positive action for indigenous affairs in the AFL, on hold for a few years.
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