Play Nice Racism within the AFL

[Scotland]

Reading the thread title I didn't realise there was a degree of racism scale...

Of course there is.

 

[Helfarch]

I agree, I suppose the dutch/ south African grab me as two races that is extremly reacist, although I dont know if they mean to be its just the way the communicate, they say it how it is and travelling through europe Im not sure sometiomes if countries like italy or france are racist or just plane rude. China is another country which appears to be very racist

Unless you mean black South Africans you're talking about the same people as the "two" and if I used Facebook logic I would be highly offended having Dutch grandparents. Yes... Oma did dress as Black Pete on more than one occasion she didn't really see the fuss but then she did also put alcohol in everyone's coffee, God rest her mischievous soul. The Dutch are blunt and no-nonsense which is often misconstrued as condescension. Old person talking about their latest medical procedure directness (or rudeness if you like) is common however it's perfectly fine to be just as direct back ending that line of inquiry or topic with no offense taken.

Communication and custom does make for a lot of unwarranted offense. Like blowing your nose in Asia, everyone around you probably thinks you are one gross human being while they spend all day sniffing over and over and over and over...I may work with some Asian and sub-Continent guys, one may be sniffing right now... however I have educated myself on the why rather than being offended.

 

[Helfarch]

Lets be real, the guy probably had Chinese take away the night before, couldn't distinguish the runner from his delivery driver and that's why it came into his head rather than a more generic "your actions have enraged me, acknowledge my wrath!" expletive.

The guy doesn't need a life ban from football, he needs all the light 'n' easy advice from Hodgey he can get.

 

[JackOutback]

I find it interesting that due to living in Australia many view the world as if there is little racism, usually while thinking Australians generally are super racist and or "casually" racist. The truth being much closer to Australia being one of the least openly racist and most tolerant societies in the world it's just that we have become hypersensitive to it in many sectors.

Everyone has racial bias no matter how hard you try it's part of your base biological friend or foe mechanism. When someone is upset, angry or just plain stupid it can influence their reactions to things.

Aboriginal Australians face living conditions that are the equivalent of the poorest Third World nations, life expectancy rates decades lower than white people, incarceration rates many times the average, poor education rates etc. It is amongst the worst treatment of an indigenous population in the Western world (the standards by which we compare ourselves) and is a national shame. Of course Australia has a problem with racism, but it's easy to ignore if you live in a city and never really encounter the disadvantage that is wholly present in this country.

 

[Helfarch]

Aboriginal Australians face living conditions that are the equivalent of the poorest Third World nations, life expectancy rates decades lower than white people, incarceration rates many times the average, poor education rates etc. It is amongst the worst treatment of an indigenous population in the Western world (the standards by which we compare ourselves) and is a national shame. Of course Australia has a problem with racism, but it's easy to ignore if you live in a city and never really encounter the disadvantage that is wholly present in this country.

What's this worst treatment business? It was near Colonial standard practice for every European nation. Australia certainly isn't "special" in that regard.

Australia definitely has some serious issues to tackle but solutions are often derailed by the selfish and or shrill idiots with no idea about unintended consequences. People are too busy shouting racism to bother fixing issues inherent in living in rural and isolated communities.

 

[JackOutback]

What's this worst treatment business? It was near Colonial standard practice for every European nation. Australia certainly isn't "special" in that regard.

Australia definitely has some serious issues to tackle but solutions are often derailed by the selfish and or shrill idiots with no idea about unintended consequences. People are too busy shouting racism to bother fixing issues inherent in living in rural and isolated communities.

Worst refers to the fact that our indigenous population has worse health, education, incarceration and life expectancy statistics than equivalent indigenous populations in other Western countries, such as the US and Canada. And I'm not interested in blame or deflection, I am merely pointing why Australia has a perceived racism problem; it's because the treatment of Aboriginal Australians is shocking and we don't seem to be going about making it better.

Then there's the issue of refugee treatment, a policy with no equal in the rest of the world. So it's not that difficult to see why other Western nations look at Australia as highly racist.

 

[Brasher]

Of course there is.

Please explain...you either look, treat or feel differently about someone because of their racial background or you don't pretty clear to me....or are there different types of equality?




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[Dazb86]

Is it racist to call Australians racist?

 

[Scotland]

Please explain...you either look, treat or feel differently about someone because of their racial background or you don't pretty clear to me....or are there different types of equality?

It's a scale, no different to sexism or any other prejudice. You can be 5% racist or 70% sexist or 42% homophobic... It's not a binary thing.

If I say Todd Goldstein probably invests his salary wisely and spends frugally does that put me on the level of Hitler?

If Brian Taylor calls Harry Taylor a NTTAWWTter on TV does that make him homophobic and everyone who didn't call Harry Taylor a NTTAWWTter on TV not homophobic?

Everyone has prejudices, and only naive and sanctimonious deny this.

 

[Brasher]

It's a scale, no different to sexism or any other prejudice. You can be 5% racist or 70% sexist or 42% homophobic... It's not a binary thing.

If I say Todd Goldstein probably invests his salary wisely and spends frugally does that put me on the level of Hitler?

If Brian Taylor calls Harry Taylor a NTTAWWTter on TV does that make him homophobic and everyone who didn't call Harry Taylor a NTTAWWTter on TV not homophobic?

Everyone has prejudices, and only naive and sanctimonious deny this.

Now your just confusing how people act out their prejudices or bigotry with how they feel about people who are different to themselves.

But your right, we all have prejudices, does that make us all racists, homophobes and coulrophobes?

 

[CatFan79]

People are too busy shouting racism to bother fixing issues inherent in living in rural and isolated communities.

So true. Adam Goodes, Stan Grant a good place to start.

...and it's basically impossible to help people who don't want to help themselves.

 

[jatz14]

Is it racist to call Australians racist?

No

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[Hollow Knight]

Is it racist to call Australians racist?

Why would it be? "Australian" is a nationality not a race.

 

[Frank Bunn]

This was very disappointing. Despite some progress, we have a loooooong way to go as a community and as a football code before we are truly inclusive.

You completely missed my point. Some idiot in the crowd made some stupid comments, which were not heard by the intended recipient. But by The Age giving the comments publicity, they made the comments known to the intended recipient. The Age claimed that racism wounds people and hurts communities but it was actually their choosing to click bait the story that might have caused anyone to be 'wounded' or caused 'hurt' to communities.

 

[marty36]

You completely missed my point. Some idiot in the crowd made some stupid comments, which were not heard by the intended recipient. But by The Age giving the comments publicity, they made the comments known to the intended recipient. The Age claimed that racism wounds people and hurts communities but it was actually their choosing to click bait the story that might have caused anyone to be 'wounded' or caused 'hurt' to communities.

That's because one thing takes precede over everything in this world, where morals don't come into it

 

[Mutt]

You completely missed my point. Some idiot in the crowd made some stupid comments, which were not heard by the intended recipient. But by The Age giving the comments publicity, they made the comments known to the intended recipient. The Age claimed that racism wounds people and hurts communities but it was actually their choosing to click bait the story that might have caused anyone to be 'wounded' or caused 'hurt' to communities.

I wasn't commenting on your point - I was commenting on the incident....which was reported widely on various social media. I knew about it and don't read The Age.

 

[MarkCatsFan]

I work with a girl who is unbelievably racist, and the sad thing is it is pure ignorance and not malice, she sits across from a guy with Indian heritage and there are constant comments "there are soooo many Muslims and Indians in my suburb. Muslims are pushing their ways on us blah blah blah" not even realising that what she is saying is wrong. Incredibly uncomfortable to be around. And it just shows the attitudes that are so deeply embedded into people, obviously brought up around ignorance and continuing the tradition.

2 weeks ago I was at the bus stop and across the road a white guy, probably intoxicated was yelling with no shame at a black man "GO BACK TO ******* ADRICA". The very next day at a different bus stop a woman was yelling at a girl "******* ASIAN **** GO BACK HOME". 2 in 2 days. I grew up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and have acquaintances who the moment they get on the piss bring out the tired old anti"Lebo" bullshit. I see Facebook posts from high school friends about "get these baconless [sic] bastards out" and these people are not 50, they are in their late 20s they grew up in the 21st century and still this is the ignorance that stuck with them.

Racism is bad in this country, if you don't see it you live under a rock.

 

[NMFCMUFC]

I'm a first generation ethnic, the amount of little digs or barbs I've copped while playing/watching Australian Rules football is countless.

I did stop watching AFL for a couple of years because I was disillusioned with it all, until I found a couple of mates who had similar experiences and we sit together at games.

Not bitching or moaning but its out there, has been for a long time probs will for a long time but it can't be ignored.

 

[Ok Boomer]

Will improve significantly when racist baby boomers move on and more enlightened generations come through.

 

[NMFCMUFC]

Will improve significantly when racist baby boomers move on and more enlightened generations come through.

Yeah not gonna lie I never copped it from anyone my age, it was always those in that age group, which made it harder for me to do anything especially as a teenager.

 

[david addison]

No excuses for it, but I reckon some of the slurs are not from racists. It's just tall poppy syndrome. The journos keep turning the indigenous players into cult heros, and as we all know, the highest profile players cop the most abuse. The public hate it when players seek publicity. A player can find himself in the paper for any reason, maybe his family dies in a plane crash, and I guarantee he'll still get abused for going on 'media street'.

The most racist thing I've seen in footy, was in the 2002 granny when channel 7 kept the camera on Leon Davis who was sitting on the bench. Yes he was kickless. But there have been plenty of players kickless in grannys over the years who escaped the scrutiny. The inference, from 7, was 'here's an indigenous player lost in the big smoke'. Disgraceful. I wonder if the networks are any more enlightened these days.

 

[Cats408]

No excuses for it, but I reckon some of the slurs are not from racists. It's just tall poppy syndrome. The journos keep turning the indigenous players into cult heros, and as we all know, the highest profile players cop the most abuse. The public hate it when players seek publicity. A player can find himself in the paper for any reason, maybe his family dies in a plane crash, and I guarantee he'll still get abused for going on 'media street'.

The most racist thing I've seen in footy, was in the 2002 granny when channel 7 kept the camera on Leon Davis who was sitting on the bench. Yes he was kickless. But there have been plenty of players kickless in grannys over the years who escaped the scrutiny. The inference, from 7, was 'here's an indigenous player lost in the big smoke'. Disgraceful. I wonder if the networks are any more enlightened these days.

First of all that was channel 10. And how is that racist?? You are the one bringing race into it by assuming they were doing that because of him being Aboriginal. Turn it up.

 

[Bostonian]

2 weeks ago I was at the bus stop and across the road a white guy, probably intoxicated was yelling with no shame at a black man "GO BACK TO ******* ADRICA". The very next day at a different bus stop a woman was yelling at a girl "******* ASIAN **** GO BACK HOME". 2 in 2 days. I grew up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and have acquaintances who the moment they get on the piss bring out the tired old anti"Lebo" bullshit. I see Facebook posts from high school friends about "get these baconless [sic] bastards out" and these people are not 50, they are in their late 20s they grew up in the 21st century and still this is the ignorance that stuck with them.

Racism is bad in this country, if you don't see it you live under a rock.

Very true, the Asians don't like the blacks at all.

 

[Helfarch]

Worst refers to the fact that our indigenous population has worse health, education, incarceration and life expectancy statistics than equivalent indigenous populations in other Western countries, such as the US and Canada. And I'm not interested in blame or deflection, I am merely pointing why Australia has a perceived racism problem; it's because the treatment of Aboriginal Australians is shocking and we don't seem to be going about making it better.

Then there's the issue of refugee treatment, a policy with no equal in the rest of the world. So it's not that difficult to see why other Western nations look at Australia as highly racist.

Eh that's a bit of number fudging, Native Americans living on reservations are considered third world and have similar outcomes mostly due to the same factors - lack of access to services. An Aboriginal and a Native American born today actually have similar expected outcomes (still not as good but not bad by world standards). Remember our overall life expectancy is actually very high. Interestingly Native Hawaiians also have a lower life expectancy (6.2 years) than the state average which is one of the US highest but that is basically because of sugar and spam - diabetes, obesity and heart disease are the biggest killers.

The US is probably not the best example with the largest prison population on Earth filled primarily with minorities.

It's not like there aren't people trying to solve issues Aboriginals face or that there hasn't been an obscene amount of money seemingly wasted with a lack of truly positive outcomes, which is very disappointing. Not too many people want to face the facts of the tyranny of distance in Australia though and just bemoan how expensive things are. Rural and isolated communities do have positives but their negatives are focused around services, health and ultimately life expectancy no matter what colour you are or what country you are in.

The refugee situation is pretty terrible, I mean we already take in more immigrants per capita than anywhere in the world and we are very easy to get into by OECD standards (non-fiscal tool to prop up a stagnant economy). So detaining people here or elsewhere is over the top. However I rarely see someone come up with a way to combat people smugglers (you know to stop people dying) or how to deal with someone deemed unfit to enter our society but will not be accepted back by their home country.

I work with a girl who is unbelievably racist, and the sad thing is it is pure ignorance and not malice, she sits across from a guy with Indian heritage and there are constant comments "there are soooo many Muslims and Indians in my suburb. Muslims are pushing their ways on us blah blah blah" not even realising that what she is saying is wrong. Incredibly uncomfortable to be around. And it just shows the attitudes that are so deeply embedded into people, obviously brought up around ignorance and continuing the tradition.

Education is a big issue. There must be something pretty offensive in the blah blah blah though because the quote is barely past an observation especially if there is no malice. There may be a lot of Muslims and or Indians moving into her area, eh so what. Why she feels that Muslims are pushing their ways on "us" is probably an important point to explore. It may simply be she feels uncomfortable around Muslim men that she believes force their female relatives to cover themselves in public. So again, education. You must also acknowledge that there can easily be elements that could be dismissed as prejudice that are based on fact but perhaps are being incorrectly applied due to ignorance. "Unbelievably racist" should probably be reserved for situations that are actually beyond belief, like Darfur (yes, still a thing) or any of the other ongoing genocides.

2 weeks ago I was at the bus stop and across the road a white guy, probably intoxicated was yelling with no shame at a black man "GO BACK TO ******* ADRICA". The very next day at a different bus stop a woman was yelling at a girl "******* ASIAN **** GO BACK HOME". 2 in 2 days. I grew up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne and have acquaintances who the moment they get on the piss bring out the tired old anti"Lebo" bullshit. I see Facebook posts from high school friends about "get these baconless [sic] bastards out" and these people are not 50, they are in their late 20s they grew up in the 21st century and still this is the ignorance that stuck with them.

Racism is bad in this country, if you don't see it you live under a rock.

Ahh public transport and low socioeconomic areas...

Very true, the Asians don't like the blacks at all.

Chinese versions of film advertising and trailers are a great example of this.

 

[Bostonian]

Chinese versions of film advertising and trailers are a great example of this.

I can't recall what film blog I saw it on but it mentioned that a big reason why more blacks aren't used in Hollywood leading roles is because the Asian market for films is so big these days they kind of dictate who gets what roles for a lot of films. Apparently the Asians want white leading actors not blacks.