I’ve been told that there are certain stories or moments in a journalist’s life that shape how they report on the world. I’d thought this was a bit extreme, a bit too serious.
The other night, staring at the end credits and listening to Paul Kelly, it clicked. Following a restless night of internal debate on the ground-breaking documentary The Final Quarter, I thought I’d learnt something.
Then I had a look at social media, and a different lesson shone through in brutal coldness.
The reflection on the latter stages of Adam Goodes’ career had severely challenged me. I remember the incidents mentioned. I remember hearing he was ‘staging’, acting, sliding in with the knees. A pitiful excuse for a tirade of boos. Is there a more negative sound than an aggressive and hostile boo?
But at the time, I knew no better. I agreed that some of his actions weren’t great, and I was blinded by a nation of hatred. Watching the documentary, guilt racked me. Took me over. Despite being barely a teenager, I was a part of an ignorant collective who provided no respite.
Throughout the remaining hours of the night, questions and answers flickered through my mind like an intense press conference. Why did no one think the booing, even if intended for non-racist reasons, would look terribly like ignorant discrimination due to its timing and duration?
Were people aggravated by Goodes celebrating with a traditional dance because it was directed straight at the Carlton cheer squad or because it was a defiant display of cultural pride? The way I kept coming to my answers told me I’d learnt a lot about perspective.
Every answer was ultimately decided by wondering what the reaction would be if a white man did the same things. It’s something I’m glad I know sooner rather than later.
All I could feel was immense sorrow for Goodes. He should be remembered as a champion of the game. One of the best. Two Brownlows, a swagger of Best and Fairests and two flags is just a small part of a wonderful list.
Add to that an Australian of the Year and he should be one of the biggest personalities Australia has ever seen.
His level-headed demeanour would be perfect for a political scene in need of some logic and diversity. But now he will be eternally shrouded in controversy, of a delayed apology that can never heal his heartbreak and disappointment.
The let-down of an Australian society that is now showing the façade of acceptance it places up over a coat of racism.
With this clarity and whirlwind of emotions, social media changed it all. Seeing just the average reaction to the situation on a range of pages and groups was horrific.
So many people who refused to watch the documentary, labelling Goodes a sook, an attention seeker, a child abuser. It then hit me pretty hard that Australia is up there as one of the most racist countries in the world.
How people can decide this is a time for more abuse shocks me.
Firstly, calling Goodes a child abuser just upholds the racism so heavily entrenched in our society. Goodes pointed out a 13-year-old girl who called him an ape. The following day he spoke with clarity that he held no anger towards her, as she was reflective of Australian people as a whole.
How could he have just stood there and said nothing? He should have been praised for not just letting it go, for challenging it and teaching a young girl an important lesson.
It could have been anyone, and Goodes’ message would’ve been the same. So how is it abusive to point a child out for saying horrific things when in the long run it will only help her?
Calling him an attention-seeker doesn’t sit well with me. Waleed Aly summed it up so well when he said our society is accepting until the minorities challenge their position. That’s exactly what Goodes did, and he got relentlessly abused and booed for the last two years of a superb career because of that.
Just because you tacked on later with the booing because he dived for a free kick or two doesn’t absolve anyone. We all should’ve been aware what it would look like to Indigenous people, and the victim of Goodes.
Believing the boos can be separated into racist and non-racist boos just reiterates the ignorance that is problematic for us.
Lastly, the worst thing that was a constant in comments was questions about why Goodes was the only Indigenous person booed. If they only abused Goodes, then it couldn’t be racist. So many people (and mainly ones who were too lazy to watch the documentary) held this view.
If you think about it, Sydney Stack recently did a war dance at the Dreamtime at the ‘G match with the same spear-throwing action as Goodes did in 2015. He was praised, lauded. When Goodes did it, he was aggressive. Goodes was the only Indigenous player booed because he was the only one confident and courageous enough to challenge Australian society.
As an Australian of the Year, he rightly worked to introduce a constitutional change that would stamp out racism and ignorance. To make our nation a better and harmonious place. But the white majority didn’t like being put in their place, and unleashed on Goodes in a manner that put him out of the game.
Seeing comments like these even on Collingwood pages made me feel sick. For the first day in my life, I felt ashamed to barrack for the club that had so many people upholding this abhorrent racism. To everyone too lazy to watch, to those people relentlessly abusing Goodes still; you are racist.
You are backwards and you cause immense pain to an Australian of the Year and our Indigenous culture. Just because they want to be accepted.
If there’s anything this whole situation has taught me, it’s that Australia can be both a wonderful yet shockingly terrible place. And it’s a place in need of a change from the younger generations who are increasingly aware of perspective and acceptance.
Wes P
Roar Rookie
Do people like you know. Anything. Are you aware of the 'domestic violence', substance abuse and sexual violence that occurs in indigenous communities? Don't trust me or take my word. But don't take an exploitive doco as Gospel. Find out for yourself. I and my friends have lived and worked among these people. Don't be shamed by a scam. This country is good, it used to better. That's why illegals want to be here. Kinda obvious. But mainstream media humiliate and ridicule the same culture that has afforded them a reasonable life. I don't know why, you need to ask them. But just because it was on TV doesn't validate it's assumptions. F@ck the Vietnam war was live for a generation. Didn't make that valid either now. Did it.
Wes P
Roar Rookie
Mate, don't let it bring you down. But if you insist you will. Goode's a top footballer chose to make a spectacle. No one is guaranteed a response, nor should they. Let's face it and I'm NEARLY certain of this. If those boos where all cheers, the same people would be writing how brainwashed we all are. For me, it's a crap doco on a vague topic that'll be forgotten soon.
Pelican
Roar Rookie
There are many sides to Eureka stockade. The white miners were not only wanting the removal of mining license fees they also wanted the Chinese miners removed. Takes a bit of the shine off the moment.
Gee
Roar Rookie
Eddie Betts dropped this week, when can we expect the doco about how he was a victim of a flawed society?
Republican
Guest
.......more power to you penguin.
clipper
Roar Rookie
If you want to be on the right side of history, make sure you take the opposite view of Alan Jones, Miranda Devine and especially the vile Andrew Bolt
Zlatan
Roar Rookie
I'm not sorry as I had nothing to do with it.
danny
Guest
not sorry that their children were taken from their parents? why?
Holtymeyer
Guest
What is RWNJ's? I know that AOTY stands for Aussie of the year.
LongTimeBurn
Guest
Because he was AOTY. This really annoyed the RWNJs so Goodes had to be taken down. Nothing to do with him or what he said.
penguin
Roar Rookie
Good article. Thank you. And to change the future you need to understand history. The Melbourne media were very responsible for what happened to Adam. Sorry for reposting this but it may help... Here’s a comment I posted earlier… As a disclaimer, my son, who is a dark kid, and I, an old white male, set up the “Adam Goodes Stand” sign at the SCG. The Goodes booing occurred from mid 2013 onwards. It became normalised after Eddie’s comments in mid 2013, even though Goodes missed the last few months of 2013. |Originally I think that it was partly a joke, but then it became as much about bullying as about racism. It was obvious that it affected both Adam and the Swans so it continued. It became more racist throughout 2014 after Goodes was named Australian of the Year. His speech in January 2014 was that of a proud Indigenous man upholding his culture. But it became part of the newly reinstated culture wars, and was politicised by the Murdoch press opinion writers. Goodes was an ambassador for the Australian Human Rights Commission, and was roundly supported by Gillian Triggs, amongst others. I also remember the outcries from the alt_Right websites, and the racist memes that followed. The worst example I saw was at a pub in Balmain during the 2014 GF. My family and I could not get tickets to travel to Melbourne. The Hawks destroyed us. Yet there were several Hawks supporters who constantly booed Goodes in that game in the pub, one calling him a “vicious dog”. When I asked him “why”. his answer was that he was a dirty backsniper who played for frees and slid in knees first. What codswallop! Throughout 2014 and 2015 Goodes was subjected to the worst racism against an individual that I have ever seen. It was systemic bullying, with only the Swans coming out in support of Adam. The AFL was complicitly silent, as was the Melbourne media. And not once was Adam Goodes cited or suspended. Why did this happen? Partly because of the times – the free speech warriors and the “It’s ok to be a bigot” idiocy. Partly because of the rise of the alt-Right and its influence on social media. Partly because of the weakness of the AFL hierarchy in not calling it out. Much because of the blatant bigotry of News Ltd, Sky and its followers. Watch the documentary. There is no commentary at all, just archival footage of what happened. Sam Newman is a coward with a platform, as are Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine. Eddie is just a casually racist idiot who does some good things but blots his life with a moronic need to be liked. Mark Robinson and Gerard Whateley got it, as did Caroline Wilson. Gill McLachlan is the worst AFL CEO in living memory, as can be seen from the current behaviour scandal. Here was a proud man speaking out for his people and we Australians didn’t like the truth that he was telling us, or to be reminded of our past treatment of Aborigines. I can’t do anything about what happened in the past, but I can try to change the future and I can help Adam and the GO Foundation make a better life for our indigenous kids. And I can call out racism when I see it, which is often. And to change the future you have to understand the past.
Sean Mortell
Roar Guru
Actually much like your grand daughter I learnt it by myself and my own way, I'm sorry I just took a more tolerant and empathetic path
Sean Mortell
Roar Guru
So just because I saw a different version of events unfolding to you means it's lazy journalism? Turn it up. It's this type of rudeness against people who disagree with opinions that caused Goodes so much harm
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Simon, a bit cold in your ivory tower. Racism is not black and white. If you say that you have never had a racist thought, you must be Budha or not intelligent enough to recognise prejudging. Australia does vary in its level if racism across the country but nowhere is it anywhere near the level of the USA. Now your labelling other posters as Racist is surely prejudice of the worst kind. But why do it? Will it change their view or does it just feel good to label somebody.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
He definitely wasn’t the only one. Look at Winmar. Perhaps he stood up rather than just be considered a freak player. A bit uppity for a bf.
Peter Warrington
Guest
Jones. what a coward tried politics once. ran in my seat of Earlwood. a 10% swing against to him. to the Wran Government. in a by-election has talked abut politics endlessly since, but not once put himself back out there Earlwood 1978 picked him early. what an awful, bitter, empowered man he is.
Peter Warrington
Guest
bring back the lagerphone
Republican
Guest
......we are a nation of denialists to be sure. Our Federation is a dysfunctional, disparate impediment to any progressive sentience. Our aspirations for our nation are purely rhetorical when you consider that we vote as individuals moreso than ever before. We aim as high as the status quo is set, no further than that. We split hairs in order to avoid taking any responsibility for our actions. We are a nation living a cliche, believing in a tired old mythical narrative, while disregarding anything that challenges the conservative sacred cows, that have defined our jingoistic ideas of 'nationhood'. This has been to the depravation of any cultural transcendence. We are indeed team 'Austerica' and as our current PM recently stated, we see the world through the same eyes as the USA, a fact that we have sanctimoniously denied for way too long, so we are also hypocrites of the highest order. Our ignorance is worryingly endemic, our altruism and egalitarianism superseded today, by our obsessive affluence. We are a people that knows the cost of everything and the value of naught. I no longer invest any currency, expectation, sentiment in the construct i.e 'Australia' while I feel less and less affinity with the place I was born and have lived now, for 63 years.
Nate
Guest
I'm sure you're so proud of her, I wouldn't be.
TWLS
Guest
Another article that puts down the basic Australian Character. Have to wonder where the Author gets his opinions from - was it at home from parents who told him the black armband of history version. I will tell the readers a story about what happened to our grand daughter at Uni. In her last semester at Uni before graduation 2 years ago out of the blue a new lecturer turned up. Hi he said I am ----- from the local Noongya Tribe and I am here to explain what happened to the Aborigines when the whites arrived. He then went on to tell stories about the bad things that happened to them. Now we have 16 young women 20 yrs old with little contact generally with Aborigines, listening to all of this and should be generally sympathetic to those past events. Anya our GD stood up and said -Well we are not responsible for what happened all those years ago so why try to hang it on us. Just try and improve yourselves and stop blaming us (Our generation) for your current position. We had never discussed Aborigines before with her - Very interesting comments along similar lines from most of the Women in that group it appears.