I think regular readers will know that I am always one to stand up for freedom. The rights of the individual are something of a passion of mine, and this is as true in the sports arena as it is in the fields of politics, the arts or shopping.
This is why I will never give up my ceaseless fight to defend the inalienable rights of the sports fan. These rights are many and nuanced, but they include such basic principles as:
– The right to expensive chips;
– The right to a swearing pensioner within a 20-metre radius at all times;
– The right to genuinely believe no refereeing decision against your team has ever been correct;
– And perhaps the most cherished right of the sports fan is also the most frequently exercised: the right to boo.
SO ADAM GOODES, WHO IS THE REAL RACIST?
In the last few days we have seen that right challenged. We have seen some prominent people in the footballing community abuse their position by urging fans to stop booing one man in particular, a man who I think has been fairly conclusively established as a compulsive troublemaker and probably the world’s biggest racist.
And it is a sad day when the fans’ god-given right to let boos echo joyously from their warm, slippery throats is endangered by political correctness. This must not stand.
I want to assure all booers, young and old, fat and thin, ugly and attractive, that I will always be in your corner. I will always support your right to boo, and I will never so much as advise against it in specific situations. For what is a right if it is not exercised? What is a boo if it is not voiced?
So when you see a man brandish an imaginary spear and find your heart clutched by a nameless dread, you boo for all you’re worth.
When you feel that a footballer dancing on a football field is almost definitely an Manson Family-esque attempt to trigger a race war, you boo your heart out.
I will support your right to do this.
I will support your right to boo when you see an opposition player behaving in a way suggestive of aggression or confrontation or of being on a different team to the one you support. I will support it all the way.
I will support your right to boo any sportsperson who violates the sacred compact between the races that has always existed: the indigenous players provide the magical, whimsical, delightful flashes of ephemeral brilliance, and the white people have opinions. Boo until you’re hoarse and I’ll stand behind you the whole way.
If you quite rightly boo a man who has the gall to suggest that you, or at least someone a bit like you, may have said or done something racist, when in fact you, or someone a bit like you, have never said or done anything racist, I defend to the death your right to do so.
And if that man then suggests that your booing was itself inspired by racial motives, when in fact it was purely and simply sparked by your hatred of staging for free kicks or knees-first slides or a quite reasonable and really extremely chivalrous concern for the happiness of young teen girls, further boos may be justified and I will back you to the hilt.
But don’t think I’m only going to support your rights in cases when racial issues are mentioned even though they’ve got nothing to do with it at all. Because booing is a part of our culture that crosses boundaries, erases divisions, and swims cheerfully through the bloodstream of every real Australian – and it’s something that must be protected at all costs.
So yes I’ll support you when you boo the referee for applying the rules to your team even though you never agreed to that.
Yes I’ll support you when you boo opposition players for being bad at the game, or for being good at the game, or for being seriously injured. You’ve got the right to do it, so you should feel comfortable letting those guys know just how disgusted you are at everything about them.
I guess what I’m saying is: you name it, I’ll support your right to boo about it. Call me a selfless crusader for civil liberties if you like, but I’m not hero, I’m just a simple man who hates injustice. And injustices don’t come much more unjust than people suggesting booing isn’t a good idea.
I hope you will stand with me as I fight for the right to boo. Because if we do not have the right, when confronted with the sight of a person we have never met whose athletic pursuits cause us temporary emotional discomfort, to publicly make cow noises at the top of our lungs, what’s the point of Australia even existing?
For every oppressed sports fan, for every marginalised Aussie battler, for every footy-loving bloke who ever felt unable to fully articulate his frustration at the incredible superiority of professional sportsmen’s lives compared to his, for every ordinary everyday common or garden knockabout larrikin who finds the weekend game the only outlet he has these days to fully express the fact that he is, mentally, about nine years old – I’ll be booing for you.
I’ll be booing for freedom.
Zim Zam
Roar Rookie
Reviewing that - the whole business with the thirteen year old girl, sure, what she said was stupid, but being separated from her guardian and treated like a criminal, that was over the top. Goodes coming out and saying that she was the face of racism, I have to say I find that pretty confronting as well. It was all pretty harsh on a girl who'd have to be in, what, Year 7? Year 8? Can anyone honestly say they didn't do or say something seriously stupid when they were in Year 7/8? Whatever originally inspired it all, the way Goodes has reacted to it hasn't been ... beyond question, for want of a better phrase. I can certainly understand why people would take issue with some of his actions.
Zim Zam
Roar Rookie
Coming from someone who doesn't watch football and so doesn't have a perfect grasp on the situation, I do reckon you've got a point saying that the insistence it's 'nothing to do with race' doesn't seem to hold up. There's always going to be tension when an indigenous player does something controversial because racism is still such a painful and unresolved issue in Australia. If there's so much as a sniff of race relations involved in a situation it becomes massively inflamed very, very quickly. Because it's such a sensitive issue, everyone gets offended very quickly - Goodes is offended because he's getting a whole stadium booing him, which you can understand. People who think the booing is entirely racist are offended because they think the booing is entirely racist. People who think there are reasons for the booing that are not racist are offended at being called racists when they don't believe they are racists. With everyone so offended it's not surprising there's so much heated discussion about it, and all people want to do is point the finger.
Brian Williams
Guest
What would happen if one of the crowd aimed an imagine gun at him and pulled the trigger?
a
Guest
I am loving this
Clavers
Guest
Democracy did not "allow Nazi Germany to kill off the Jews." The Nazis destroyed democracy in Germany and that enabled hem to commit their crimes. The leading democratic powers of the world, i.e. Britain and her Commonwealth, France, and later the United States, allied with the Soviet Union, fought a six year war with Germany to drive the Nazis from power.
Clavers
Guest
How is Adam Goodes marginalised? He is a highly paid athlete, in the papers every week, and has been named Australian of the Year. I would describe him as more "front and centre" than marginalsed.
Jason K
Guest
Yes, you have the freedom to be racist. Do you have the maturity to do the right thing though?
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
No Sarcasm... the use of irony to mock or convey contempt Sarcasm is specifically using it to critique. Plenty of things can be ironic but not be critical.
jax
Guest
@jason Yes I do see that there is a lot more to it than that. I've commented over here if you're interested http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/07/29/if-youre-booing-adam-goodes-examine-the-reason-why/comment-page-2/#comment-4185110
craigo
Guest
The action of throwing a symbolic spear into the crowd. What was the motivation there Patrick. Was Adam just giving us a show and demonstrating the finer art of hunting as it was undertaken before settlement for indigenous round? If so, bravo Adam and more power to you. However he didn't really explain fully his well rehearsed and faultlessly executed performance after the event. Perhaps some people did take genuine offense after witnessing his imaginary display of spear throwing at the patrons at the game. It is now fully known that Adam takes offense to the opposition crowds reaction to him, and he has every right to feel this way. But lets move on hey. The actions and continual bleating about all this by the holier than now journalists and hangers on taking one side or the other with utter stubbornness is sickening. Adam Goodes has to live with his actions, no one else. And if he feels he is in the right and the booing crowds are just racist bogans that know nothing about football or life then so be it. It is his choice to take personal offense at people who boo him. People who he has never met and don't know him personally. But he also has the choice to not let it offend him. The same choice as those who ducked that imaginary spear. Cmon Adam show em who is the stronger person. Forget about the war dances or trying to change the landscape of race relations in Australia. We have thousands of overpaid and under achieving journalists and opinionated blogists to handle that stuff. Go out there and play a blinder.
jax
Guest
ChrisB you can read what it is here and move the conversation over to there if you wish to reply please. I don't subscribe to comment updates so I only go back and visit certain pages and there are too many Goodes threads now. http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/07/29/if-youre-booing-adam-goodes-examine-the-reason-why/comment-page-2/#comment-4185110
jax
Guest
Thanks Richard. That's right up my alley and the point you made is a good one. Nothing is as it seems, it's only our reality.
Cleveland
Guest
I think you mean irony but my comment stands
Abg
Guest
Ahm agree with your sentiment, however have to re-affirm (and refute the baseless staging/diving) that opposition fans treatment of AG did not start from 2015 Indigenous Round against Carlton. GF14 Hawks fans were as prevalent and louder than WCE on the weekend (any one present at the G can confirm this, including the gutless mob). Their uncontrollable Tourettes has spread like a disease. In fact, it surfaced again when they met pre Indigenous round 2015. Go figure, a brilliant team who literally had the GF in the bag end 1st quarter and the fans stuck it to Goodes until his (and Swans fans) ears bled - that may have been his last - appalling behaviour and treatment of an extraordinary AFL star. This crowd behaviour cannot be heard during footage for any round pre the infamous 2013 incident and did not witness mob-like disrespect or booing for AG against Hawks in GF12. He certainly did damage in that game; if only hated for his part in winning the flag, we may be able to understand their outrage and move on. So baffling was the poor sportsmanship witnessed at GF14, I gathered anecdotal evidence from up to 30 Hawks fans pre and post match. Not pretty and race based with the odd stager card, which when probed, believed their club does a better job of "controlling" their Indigenous players and took exception to Goodes speaking "about his issues". They also quoted Eddie McGuire's defamatory racist gag, discounting his contribution as player, hero, legend. There were rumblings in the media following the game, some great articles, mostly support and those not scarred from events surrounding AG that day moved on. Irrespective of when it started, who started it, justification to join in, the dribble of defamatory social commentary, it is unprecedented, unwelcome, baseless (if you are not comfortable with racist) and now seeping into kids bedrooms, playgrounds and around the dinner table. Can you believe a surgeon from Perth stuck the boot in on social media on Sat night and a real estate agent from Tas too when they played the Hawks. What kind of Australia are the haters shaping?
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
Sarcasm my friend. Read Ben's other articles and you'll understand the way he writes.
Cleveland
Guest
I am not sure if Ben is a stand-up comedian but I wonder how far his democracy would go if he was booed every time he got up to do his act...this is a rubbish acticle
Q...
Guest
Oh Roger...
Q...
Guest
You're a really good booer!
Q...
Guest
For some reason I can't reply to Jax's post... http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights/ Have a read here Jax.
ChrisB
Guest
No, never been in a corporate box. Been a guest in the SCG members a couple of times. Rest of the time in the cheap seats. I just find booing a puerile, idiotic response for the hard of thinking. A lifelong belief that has been massively reinforced by this whole Goodes debacle and the attempted justification of it by the "I'm not racist, but" brigade and others.