Opinion Why Adam Goodes is booed and other anthropological discussion

[Moo87]

I am aware of that but does any one know the reasons, are aboriginals turned away from hospitals or not given the care because they are aboriginal?

Is it because alot live in very remote areas where there is next to none health services, so relatively small health issues aren't picked up early and develop into chronic conditions.

What I am trying to get is a few examples of this systematic, repeatable structural racism.

Probably the biggest examples I can think of at the moment would be the Northern Territory "intervention" policy, and more recently inprisionment rates and changes to inprisionment laws again in the NT. Whilst some policies may not explicitly mention race, they are targeted or used nearly exclusively on Indigenous Australians.

 

[edgie]

My mate is a practitioner and says that there are many problems that indigenous people face with health, there isn't a whole lot of reasoning behind it. He just said they are "genetically sick people" and that they have very poor immune systems.

40,000 years + of doing things their way off the land in isolation vs 200 ish of a western influenced lifestyle and international immigration and all the things it brings, unfortunately some bodies just can't adjust to that.

 

[ozph1870]

yes, and what do us poor discriminated whiteys ever get?

besides the baby bonus, first home buyer grants, private health insurance rebates, HECS, small business grants, school kids bonus, superannuation benefits, Medicare, the PBS...we get **** all from the government

All of those are available to everyone, regardless of race religion etc

 

[Ford Fairlane]

As far as employment issues go, the Australian Institute of Family Studies in March 2012 released a discussion paper on increasing Aboriginal employment.

Some of the high-level findings:

What we know

Indigenous Australians have much lower employment rates than other Australians.

• Reasons for the lower employment rates include lower levels of education, training and skill levels (human capital), poorer health, living in areas with fewer labour market opportunities, higher levels of arrest and interactions with the criminal justice system, discrimination, and lower levels of job retention.
• There has been a substantial increase in Indigenous employment over the period 1994 to 2008, especially in the private sector.
• It is important to have policies that both increase the demand for Indigenous workers and increase the number of Indigenous people who want paid employment and have the necessary skills to fill available vacancies

What we don't know

There is only a limited understanding of the causes of Indigenous labour market disadvantage.
In particular, relatively little is known about the following:

• what influences whether Indigenous people seek paid employment and whether these influences are different from the non-Indigenous population
  
• the effects on Indigenous Australians of changes to the income support system designed to encourage work force participation
• the role played by employer practices and policies
  
• the effectiveness of labour market programs that are not specifically aimed at Indigenous job seekers at increasing employment rates of Indigenous Australians
• why more Indigenous Australians are not moving to areas with better employment opportunities
• the extent of labour market discrimination against Indigenous Australians and how to reduce the levels of discrimination
• whether, for some Indigenous people, there is a tension between cultural practices and maintaining paid employment

 

[Chokito]

where was all the uproar from ryder being booed by all the Essendon supporters on Saturday night? isn't paddy aboriginal?

 

[Chokito]

here's what I wrote on facebook...


I boo Adam Goodes if/when:
- he feigns for a free kick
- he antagonises me
- he low blows an opposition player
- he tells security to kick out a 13 year old girl from a stadium...
- he uses his "Australian of the Year" status to tell the whole country that we're racist.

I don't boo Adam Goodes because:
- he is a very good player
- he is a champion of the game and the swans
- he is proud of his heritage
- I am not racist

I feel as though:
- the AFL are turning this into a huge spectacle and THAT is making it a race issue
- booing is a part of all competition and there are those we support and do not
- the ruckus caused by this whole 'issue' is biased... where is the outcry toward the Essendon supporters who booed Paddy Ryder on Saturday night? He is aboriginal!

This whole situation pisses me off. If Adam can dish it out, he's gonna have to learn to take it and not be such a pussy about it and cry 'racism' whenever he's wronged.
For the same reason, and Indigenous woman comes in and attempts to steal an item from my shop thinks its racist that I'm watching her like a hawk. * you, you deserve everything you get if you're going to behave the way you do.

Sincerely,

Chokito (non-Caucasian)

 

[FPPF]

For the same reason, and Indigenous woman comes in and attempts to steal an item from my shop thinks its racist that I'm watching her like a hawk. **** you, you deserve everything you get if you're going to behave the way you do.

Sincerely,

Chokito (non-Caucasian)

White, or Asian, or Indian woman walks in, are you going to be watching her like a hawk?
Most people will be wary of thet Aboriginal in their shop because of the stereotypes about them.

 

[Traveling_Power]

I'll be glad when Goodes retires, so we no longer have to talk about him!!!

x 2

 

[I Dont Care]

I just watch the footy

 

[Ford Fairlane]

There are some pretty pointless and racially charged comments becoming too prevalent in this thread.

for the sake of some posters here who would be looking at a holiday I'm closing this thread down for now.

It's run way off topic.

 

[Number37]

Apologies for intruding on your gameday thread.
If you support this campaign then please show your support by posting this image wherever you can.

 

[Relativity]

Nah, it is a hivemind by and large.

Because everyone that disagrees with you is a racist and everyone that doesn't is, like your good self, the paragon of moral virtue. Bravo. You're somebody's hero. Nothing shits me more than people who reduce a complex issue into black hats versus white hats. It is lazy debating method that does nothing for solving a festering problem.

 

[Dylan8]

Because everyone that disagrees with you is a racist and everyone that doesn't is, like your good self, the paragon of moral virtue. Bravo. You're somebody's hero. Nothing shits me more than people who reduce a complex issue into black hats versus white hats. It is lazy debating method that does nothing for solving a festering problem.

Not really doing at all but alright

People boo Adam Goodes because other people boo Adam Goodes and it's fasionable to boo Adam Goodes. Hive. Mind.

 

[I Dont Care]

I never booed anybody, nor did I invade anybody, but it doesn't matter because I've been stereotyped anyway. It's the way of things I guess

 

[Dylan8]

I never booed anybody, nor did I invade anybody, but it doesn't matter because I've been stereotyped anyway. It's the way of things I guess

What are you even talking about

 

[I Dont Care]

What are you even talking about

What were you even talking about?

 

[Portia]

On Adam Goodes booing:

 

[Janus]

On Adam Goodes booing:

Stirring speech. Can't disagree with anything he says. But you know what? It's exactly that sort of speech that makes divisions worse rather than heals them. If Grant wants to keep telling people how poorly my ancestors treated his ancestors and use that as the reason why an indigenous player was booed, he has misunderstood the entire saga.

No one booed Adam Goodes before 2014 unless he did something dirty on the field. So instead of asking 'what changed' the instant reaction of people was 'it must be racially motivated'. And it was, but only because Adam Goodes made it so.

There was nothing stopping him from having a quiet word to a security guard about the girl that made the racist comments to him. Instead, he chose to grandstand and make a visual gesture because he felt that was his moment to bring the spotlight on himself - in the middle of a match - and make an example of her. But the thing is, when you act like a militant and act divisively, you are going to have others - who may have been on your side - begin to push back. Not because they want to, but because your actions have activated their 'fight or flight' reflex. They can either back down and applaud you for standing up for yourself...or they can resist.

Fast forward to the Australian of the Year award. A perfect opportunity for Goodes to get on the front foot and talk about how he wanted to move forward in a spirit of reconciliation - that he had made his point and how that he believed that using his profile would be able to better educate and engender respect for his brothers and sisters. But instead, he once again used the opportunity to create division and hostility, not to educate, but to empower himself the way the militant Black Power movement did. Instead of Martin Luther King, he considered himself to be Malcolm X - and in Australia, we want to move forward and not keep looking behind. Don't talk to people about what was done, but what needs to be done to fix it.

A friend of mine who is from the country told me once that due to the very practices that Grant is talking about, I and everyone else in this country probably has some black blood in them. My response was that if it was true, I was pretty proud of that fact. Not because of how it happened, but because I would have a connection to a people that have an intrinsic respect for the land and a deep and exotic culture.

As Martin Luther King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

 

[Portia]

If you only respect other people's rights and existence when they're being nice to you, you don't respect their rights or existence. If he's using strong language to describe what has been a series of horrific travesties, that have happened to his own family, and you're thinking negatively about him because of it, keep that in mind.

That speech wasn't divisive if you listen to it the whole way through. You can't move forward if you don't acknowledge the past, and Australia does not do that.

 

[BIG BILLY F]

If you only respect other people's rights and existence when they're being nice to you, you don't respect their rights or existence. If he's using strong language to describe what has been a series of horrific travesties, that have happened to his own family, and you're thinking negatively about him because of it, keep that in mind.

That speech wasn't divisive if you listen to it the whole way through. You can't move forward if you don't acknowledge the past, and Australia does not do that.

I think Australia acknowledges its past better than most...

 

[Portia]

I think I worked out what Janus didn't like, and thats that Stan Grant had a crack at the myth of the noble savage, which I reckon Janus is a bit in love with himself.

 

[PatientMental]

I don't like when people lay blame on living people for what their ancestors did. Ancestors so removed from them that their nearest offspring died hundreds of years ago.

There are wars still going on in the world specifically based on race, religion, and politics, from decisions of dead people.

Humans are so dumb.

 

[Janus]

If you only respect other people's rights and existence when they're being nice to you, you don't respect their rights or existence. If he's using strong language to describe what has been a series of horrific travesties, even if you restrict it only to those that have happened to his own family, and you're thinking negatively about him because of it, keep that in mind.

That speech wasn't divisive if you listen to it the whole way through, but you can't move forward if you don't acknowledge the past, and Australia does not do that.

You misunderstood me. I don't think negatively about him at all. I said that I didn't disagree with any of it. But I do know what someone who is racially motivated would feel when listening to that, and it would be shame, followed by anger at feeling that shame, followed by hatred. That's why it becomes divisive. Every day, you have a choice - you can either make things better, or make things worse. If the end goal is a nation where Aboriginal people are respected the same way as everyone else, with the same mortality rates, the same incarceration rates etc - then what is the point of continually pulling back to go over the same path over and over again? It doesn't help anyone. The Australian Government has already acknowledged the past. The vast majority of people in this country have acknowledged it. The only ones who haven't are the ones he is talking to - the ones that did boo Goodes purely because he is Aboriginal - and to them, his speech isn't going to help at all.

Adding aboriginal recognition to the constitution isn't going to make one scrap of difference to anything that is real, but if you want to do that, go for it. Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I'd rather concentrate on rectifying the things that matter now then worry about some politically motivated wank to make everyone feel better about themselves. Is getting recognition going to solve any of the issues that Grant raised? Not. a. one.

I neither refuse to acknowledge nor dwell in the past. I can't help what happened back then, and neither can any Australian under the age of 50. What I can do is make sure that I don't judge people based on a prejudice - that everyone is given a chance to either be an angel or an arsehole in my eyes. The future is made by those who face forward and not those that look behind. Learn the lessons from them, yes - but continually pulling people back there will eventually make those lessons easy to ignore.

And I'm in love with any culture that has a healthy respect for the land from which they are a part of - the Aboriginal people survived on this continent for thousands of years before white settlers came because of that fact. There is nothing 'savage' about a culture that has it's own laws and religious beliefs.

 

[Portia]

The blame is not on living people for what their ancestors did, the blame is on living people for:

- not acknowledging what their ancestors did
- not acknowledging how the outcomes created by those ancestors negatively affect aboriginal people today
- not acknowledging how the outcomes created by those ancestors directly benefit everyone except aboriginal people, even migrants not directly responsible for those actions.
- not acting on the above and trying to fix the inequity, instead preferring to say `past is past lets move on' without acknowedging how heavily the table is slanted in their favour.

 

[Portia]

You misunderstood me. I don't think negatively about him at all. I said that I didn't disagree with any of it. But I do know what someone who is racially motivated would feel when listening to that, and it would be shame, followed by anger at feeling that shame, followed by hatred. That's why it becomes divisive.

If we're visibly dividing racists from the rest of society then how does that actually hurt reconciliation?

Right now racists have power because they claim to speak for a bunch of silent Australians. If their perceived influence is restricted only to those who are prepared to be visibly racist, thats a huge dip in their influence.