Booing of Adam Goodes by fans of Melbourne clubs

[Conor_Dillon]

Really well written Rojo
Have you tried forwarding it to some of the footy journos? Maybe they can have it submitted as an opinion piece

I hope you've got something special in store for post #1000 Snarky!

[Margo]

Are there any aboriginal players for Carlton ? As its indigenous round, maybe we could cheer every indigenous player, ours or theirs, to show the footy community our class.

[magic.merkin]

Jones, Yarran off top of my head not sure if playing

[liz]

Jones, Yarran off top of my head not sure if playing

And Andrew Walker too, I think. Though not sure if he's fit at the moment.

Clem Smith probably won't be in the team.

[AnnieH]

It's also OK to boo a bad umpiring decision (and to keep booing that umpire every time he blows the whistle for the rest of the quarter).

[Plugger46]

I think it's probably racist, but not so much an overt racism. They're clearly not booing him because they hate Aborigines. But they do hate THAT Aborigine.

If Goodes played for another side, he'd irritate me for his speechmaking and to a lesser extent for his staging. I think that, especially since Leigh Matthews called Goodes a "protected species", people feel they have a license to boo a blackfella. In an environment where so much of what is said gets interpreted as racist, sexist, homophobic or whatever, this license provides an outlet for otherwise suppressed opinions. Subconsciously people are thinking, "Well he gives me the @@@@s and what's more, he's a blackfella I'm allowed to boo, so I'm giving it my all."

It doesn't make it right, but a learning from it could be that the AFL realise that people might be getting a bit tired of being lectured to when they're at the footy. Women's round, indigenous round, whatever they're calling the gay round. All worthy causes, but I'm just paying my money to watch my team hopefully win and to let off some steam for a couple of hours. Do I really need to be educated on the latest social issue in my rare time off?

This sums up my thoughts on it pretty well.

It's no doubt a combination of things now and some of them probably don't know why they're doing it. Mob mentality. The stand he made in 2013 was certainly the catalyst though.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Are there any aboriginal players for Carlton ? As its indigenous round, maybe we could cheer every indigenous player, ours or theirs, to show the footy community our class.

Is that not technically racist ?

[DamY]

Is that not technically racist ?

No. Racism is defined in many ways, typically as "prejudice plus power" but also as superiority based on racial differentiation. Supporting indigenous players during indigenous round doesn't imply superiority, there's no segregation of players or some instigation of an "aboriginal players only" round.

[Margo]

Thank you DamY. I am not racist, technically or otherwise. I do, however, feel somewhat superior to those who mindlessly boo a champion person and player simply to make that person feel bad.

[ScottH]

The whole issue with any of these "isms" is that no one fully understands the impact of comments or actions (such as booing) until they have been on the receiving end of it.

do unto others as you would have them do unto you

[Margie]

Excellent post Rojo. Many don't know his back story or what it is like to walk in the shoes of others. Your piece is worthy of being in print on one of the newspaper websites.

[rojo]

We can debate about what racism is and what it is not, whether comments have racist overtones etc. but what I was reading on the Daily Telegraph comments page was downright scary. It was like a torrent of abuse, never mind whether it was racist or not, all directed at or about Adam Goodes, often predicated by, 'I am not racist just let it be known that I just don't like Adam Goodes because ........... so I can express my dislike by booing him and I will continue to boo him as loudly as I can and you can't stop me'. I hope this is the attitude of only a tiny minority of fans, even Hawks fans but to change the metaphor, it was like a watching a small fire growing into a self-combusting bushfire of abuse feeding on itself. This is a bit over-dramatic but it was a bit like a social media version of encouraging the mob to stone him. My thoughts were, Adam Goodes you do not deserve this! No matter how much you dislike someone this is not okay - words can be as damaging as stones.

I can only hope that Adam is oblivious to the fact that in some circles he has become a focal point for such open, even proud offensiveness.