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I don't particularly like him either. This isn't about liking Goodes or not for me. It's sorta not even about footy for me. Its about the attitude of our mainstream society. What Waleed said on Offsiders just resonated with me and my experience of the majority of attitudes I have come across with respect to indigenous people and with my experiences and relationships with black fellas. What he said made complete sense to me and expressed the feeling I had been having towards this over the last couple of weeks perfectly.
Even the notion of having indigenous round itself could be seen as further propagating distinctions upon racial lines couldn't it? I mean we don't have a Greek heritage round, and we've had some great Greek players contribute to the game right? However, I think the events of the last two weeks, if anything, highlight the HUGE amount of work there is to be done in this country with regard to even just the status quo attitude. Sure we have come a long long way, but I think where we need to get to is a place where indigenous round doesn't even make sense, because it is just common place for everyone, whites and blacks, to not only tolerate but be proud. Deep down proud, not just platitude proud, of sharing the country we live in with people that lived here for thousands of years. New Zealand had their problems but seem to have done a pretty good job of it i reckon. Seems that they are really proud of their Maori culture. The kiwis I know seem to genuinely know a fair bit about it and a pretty proud of it. Not sure the average Aussie does/would be though. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not.
I know I've gone slightly further (but as you say it's the week after a loss that Roos is blaming on the previous administration like a good politician) but I think for the time being at least stuff like this is happening in indigenous round and causing debate, which is a good thing. Hopefully it at least causes some people to think about it. I know it has had that affect on me.
At the end of the day though, i end up shaking my head and cant get away from the 'this is a whole bunch of (mostly) white people debating over what is or isnt racist and how indigenous people are supposed to represent themselves.' I know most of the black fellas i know would laugh at how uppity people have gotten over this
Even the notion of having indigenous round itself could be seen as further propagating distinctions upon racial lines couldn't it? I mean we don't have a Greek heritage round, and we've had some great Greek players contribute to the game right? However, I think the events of the last two weeks, if anything, highlight the HUGE amount of work there is to be done in this country with regard to even just the status quo attitude. Sure we have come a long long way, but I think where we need to get to is a place where indigenous round doesn't even make sense, because it is just common place for everyone, whites and blacks, to not only tolerate but be proud. Deep down proud, not just platitude proud, of sharing the country we live in with people that lived here for thousands of years. New Zealand had their problems but seem to have done a pretty good job of it i reckon. Seems that they are really proud of their Maori culture. The kiwis I know seem to genuinely know a fair bit about it and a pretty proud of it. Not sure the average Aussie does/would be though. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not.
I know I've gone slightly further (but as you say it's the week after a loss that Roos is blaming on the previous administration like a good politician) but I think for the time being at least stuff like this is happening in indigenous round and causing debate, which is a good thing. Hopefully it at least causes some people to think about it. I know it has had that affect on me.
At the end of the day though, i end up shaking my head and cant get away from the 'this is a whole bunch of (mostly) white people debating over what is or isnt racist and how indigenous people are supposed to represent themselves.' I know most of the black fellas i know would laugh at how uppity people have gotten over this
Re: the last paragraph, everyone can have an opinion on something, and it's an irritating 'tactic' that seems to get used more and more these days. Dismissing what people say on the basis of their skin colour (white, black, whatever) is idiotic whichever way you look at it. I don't think anyone would be similarly understanding if a white player took an aboriginal child in the crowd and gave him/her to a white couple - that's part of our heritage though, right? Why are people getting offended because we're stealing kids again? Very few people are going to think it's awesome if Jake Spencer kicks a goal and starts mowing down opposition supporters with an imaginary machine gun. They're going to think he's a farking idiot.


