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Boos feed the moral high horse that only wants to eat, not race

Emre Kruse new author
Roar Rookie
2nd August, 2015
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Emre Kruse new author
Roar Rookie
2nd August, 2015
43

The past week has provided the Australian public with a small window into Australia’s massive race issue – something of which many were unaware.

It has been far too easy for the long list of media personalities to point the finger at others and blame them for inequality, without actively attempting to eliminate the existing cultural diversion themselves.

The boos that Adam Goodes has been receiving all season are underserving and childish. What fully grown man feels the passionate desire to heckle someone by making a ridiculous sound whenever he comes into possession of the ball?

Nevertheless, booing exists and it has become a problem, which climaxed last weekend when Sydney visited Perth to play West Coast. As we are all aware, the Eagles fans continued what has become a common theme of 2015, booing Adam Goodes.

For media personalities such as Mark Robinson, Rohan Connolly and Peter Hellier (to name but a few), to cry out and typecast the large crowds of booers as being ‘racist’ – whether they have literally done this, or implied it – has been as cowardly as those who have been subjecting Goodes to the boos with racist intent.

Firstly, I have no doubt that some ‘booers’ have malicious, racist intent, as evidenced by the West Coast fan’s taunt of “go back to the zoo”. However, for some to have the arrogance to assume that they know of each individual booer’s intent, and then to ignore all of the variables that exist within the four walls of each individual’s head which may make them boo, is mind-boggling.

How easy is it for them to sit behind their computers and typecast good people as racists! Never mind that these ‘racists’ are the ones paying their hard-earned to support Australia’s unique football code, and that the critics have never met, seen, or heard most of them.

It’s such a high horse, isn’t it? I would love to see many of these critics become involved in proactively doing something to end racism. I wonder how involved Mark Robinson is in the Recognise campaign? I wonder how much money he donates to remote Indigenous communities? I wonder if he has ever visited them?

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It’s all well and good for these people to sit behind their desks each day and night writing and speaking football, but if you’re going to begin incorrectly typecasting your fellow citizens as racists, at least prove that you are not! If you can argue that people who boo are undeniably racist, I can just as easily say you, who refuses to bridge the gap between inequality in this country, are also a racist.

So instead of being a reactive (and over-reactive) cog in a media-driven, sensationalising movement designed to split the community and sell papers, why not slow down, disembark from your moral high horse, and attempt to be a part of the solution instead? Actions speak louder than words.

The Adam Goodes issue is minuscule in comparison to the centuries of abuse the traditional owners of our beloved land have had to endure. But it depressingly took a footballer’s feelings to awaken the social conscience of mainstream media.

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