I imagine that Goodes put up with a fair lot of racial taunts in his youth, becomes a sporting hero and indigenous role model.
After calling out publicly a slur, he gets criticised for shaming a child and then Eddie smirks his through with something more insulting and pretty much gets away with it, without any meaningful apology.
And Goodes becomes a divisive figure!
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Iāll weigh in.
Iāve been a champion of indigenous equality for a very long time. It started as my best friend from childhood was indigenous. As a kid you donāt think anything of stuff like that. He loved footy as much as I did and he lived 3 doors down. Done deal, Best friends. Heād come down from Alice Springs as part of a program in the 80ās called the Aboriginal co-op they moved families who were impacted by alcoholism to suburbs to allow their kids to get an education. This was the 80ās so its was a different time, and I do believe things are better now than they where then.
So we used to kick the footy every recess and lunch and until it got dark after school. Call it as it is, my mate, Joey was a jet. We had Glen Archer at my primary school and Joey ran rings around him. So I played club footy and I asked him if he wanted to play, he said no, because he didnāt think his family would let him. So I asked his mum, and she said āI donāt think theyāll let Joey play with the white kids, and I donāt want them to be mean to himā I was like heās awesome, he should play.
There was a matter of money with them also, so my Dad offered to pay his subs, and tells his mother he will keep an eye out for him so he comes to the next training.
Heās been on the park for about 10 minutes and the club president comes over with a look of concern on his face, talks to our coach and then wanders over to talk to my Dad. Dad looks ā ā ā ā ā ā off. (Dad was a migrant and took anytime a kid that was different didnāt get a go, he took that sort of thing personally as it happened to him as a kid constantly, its actually the subject of a book https://books.google.com.au/books/about/By_the_Scruff_of_the_Neck.html?id=S97OBwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y youāll see why I think Australia has a culture of racism from this book)
The end result is that the president had decided that before Joey could play it had to be put to vote to the parents of the team, whether they were comfortable with their kids playing with an Aboriginal kid. We were 10 at the time and I had zero idea what the hell was going on. The end result after a lot of lobbying by my Mum and Dad, the then local parliament member and the Rev from the local church. Joey was allowed to play.
Our teams supporters were kind of reserved, his family would watch him play from up on the hill of our local ground and I never saw them set foot near the canteen or anything. People stopped talking to Dad. But where I started to get the brutal understanding of what real racism was was hearing what parents of other kids would yell at this 10 year old kid from over the fence, and the better he played the worse it got. All the team mates started to rally behind him, anytime it was getting brutal we would make a massive deal about anything he did good, if he kicked a goal, not a kid on our team wasnāt stacks on him yelling like we had just won the grand final. If they were going to make him feel ā ā ā ā , we were going to make him feel awesome.
The story didnāt end well for him unfortunately largely due to the fact he didnāt have the resolve or the people around him to help him through it all. As his family felt they needed to move to a more indigenous friendly area than ours after 3 years. Joey has brain damage now. He fell into the wrong crowd and was exposed to Chroming. On the bright site is his nephew plays for Melbourne, he got all the starts Joey didnāt.
What you all need to understand, is while things are better, they are no where near where they should be. From the day Indigenous kids step onto the field, to the last time the leather touches their boot. They will be diminished by people in broad daylight because of their aboriginally. Its the broad reason why all indigenous clubs like Rumbalara are formed. So every single AFL footballer who is indigenous has made it to the game weathering a storm of racial abuse. People tell them to just switch off from it, but itās impossible, and it hurts them to the very core of their existence.
This is a problem still, crowds are awful, its 2019 and still all these guys cop it from pockets of the crowd every game. Trust me, these guys hear it.
I feel like indigenous people after a while just hear all noise directed at them as racist. Due to the fact that 98% of it was well before they give a cheapie or stage for a free.
Im not suggesting that you donāt boo a player who does something against the spirit of the game. Im just trying to get you all to understand why Goodes probably has a hard time processing it.
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Thank you for sharing this part of your life - and Joeyās. I have no words.
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Really great post. Thanks for sharing.
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how do I see this doco btw?
Thanks Ben.
I think when people see "The Australian Dreamā people will learn about what Adam has put up with his whole life.
In 2012 Adam discovered his family was part of the stolen generation and in 2013 he went on a journey to discover his identity. Part of that was calling out things that he had previously thought was just part of being Aboriginal in Australia.
Most people who have seen either film have been hugely effected. Sometimes embarrassed, sometimes ashamed but most importantly they have grown.
Iām hoping these two film get out there and we may start to question our viewpoint on things and hopefully start to understand theirs.
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Iām not sure if itās on TV or at the cinemas but it will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on June 7th.
We had an indigenous team mate for a few seasons during juniors in the 1980ās. Everything said earlier was mirrored at our club. The things adults would say were unbelievable now in hindsight but routine back then. And if adults said it, so did the other players. And so did some of his team mates when he got the better of them at training. It was constant. He just took it. Never said a word. And neither did we.
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There are two.
The first is called āThe final quarterā. Itās playing at the Sydney Film festival and will be out in a few months. This is an account made purely with archive footage. A blow by blow account from the medias point of view.
The second is written by Stan Grant. It features Adam and has interviews with Eddie McGuire, Nathan Buckley, several journos and some great former Indigenous players.
Both are amazing.
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I hope they show the interview that Buckley did with Hirdy where he said that the modern game was passing indigenous players by, just before Anzac Day
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They showed it to the AFL as everyone looks quite foolish.
Blitz: I booed Adam Goodes because of his stray pointy elbows and use of the knees to make the opposition earn it.
Also Blitz: I revere Billy Duckworth and Dean Wallis, why canāt the current team show some mongrel.
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For anyone in Sydney.
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Opinion stated as fact.
Not quite.
I understand why he would have reacted as he did (if you reread my post I said I could understand it).
He needed to apologise not because he hurt the feelings of the people who booed him, but because it promoted racial antagonism rather than reconciliation.
Are you serious? Please, tell about how all the aboriginal players are booed then. There were probably two dickheads who booed Goodes because heās black, everyone else (esp Essendon supporters) had been booing him for years because he was a thug footballer. You canāt win.
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Have you seen the doco on the NT Buffalo team made some years ago? It was on ABC or SBS pre NITV - deserves a re showing
We also reverse Michael Long who had one of the worst hits on a football field Iāve ever seen. Football supporters are hypocrites when it comes to their own teamās players, itās nothing out of the ordinary.
Can you remind me which part of the taunts, boos and abuse is reconciliatory? and not antagonism?
Can you explain why you were so offended by the invisible spear?
In Maori culture war dances are celebrated and have indeed become part of the New Zealand fibre. All the Indigenous players I have spoken to and heard from thought it was deadly.
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No. His feeling doesnāt change someone elseās intent.
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