THE GOODES AFFAIR

One of the many problems associated with the current Adam Goodes affair is that it forces us to take the proverbial ‘long and hard’ look at ourselves. Such introspection is both severe and unpleasant. 

But first to the diagnosis. YES, what is happening to Adam Goodes is racism. Yeah, I know that there are other Indigenous players in the AFL who aren’t getting booed but so what? That doesn’t prove anything. To suggest this argument shows that racism isn’t a factor is infantile. Adam Goodes is getting booed because he is Aboriginal. What has led to this situation is unclear but, bottom line, his skin colour has crucially helped to accurately define the abuse. 

I also wonder that if those other Indigenous AFL players were asked about racism, would they provide a tabula rasa response? I think not. 

And then there’s the argument about non-Aboriginal sportsmen/ sportswomen getting booed on the nation’s various playing fields. I even heard last night about Wally Lewis being cited as an example of a player attracting howls of dissent whenever he played on a New South Wales arena and, of course, that wasn’t racism. You’ve got to be kidding. A defence of racist spectators based on what happened to King Wally is absolutely irrelevant and just serves as one more nameless avenue that has punters driving towards Total Denial Central.

Let’s put the pathetic arguments geared towards a total absolution from racism to bed. The shock jocks and other opinion-makers can prattle on about this forever but it really changes nothing. 

A good friend suggested to me a couple of years ago that racism can only truly be addressed when we realise that racism exists in the first place.  

Sure, the Goodes example demonstrates overt racism at the ‘champion’ level but the beast takes many forms and is a master of disguise. The covert form is much harder to peg and involves many more perps…………. and I mean many, many more. Its second major characteristic is that it is far more virulent than the former. 

Now here is where racism becomes both personal and uncomfortable. I believe that actively and freely participating in a society that discriminates against minorities makes one a racist. Such a view ticks all the boxes for covert racism. Where does this opinion leave me? Unfortunately, I know the answer to that question.  

If anything positive can be retrieved from the Goodes debacle it is that such elementary questions need to be asked. Maybe then, progress can be made.

 

Posted on f/b on 30 July 2015.