The Wallabies taking a knee is a matter of conscience

You're making a huge assumption ... my grandfather fought in syria > back home in shell shock ward > up to new guinea before the 'real' troops could get back ... according to my father he would have supported Kaepernick's kneel ... and certainly not "... be dismayed ..." he was a socialist, anti-racist, honourable man Kaepernick or any of the others that refused to stand did not initiate the riots i suggest the tensions were well and truly there already ... of what faction were those charming us citizens that were planning to abduct a governor ?

agreed, making statements only confuses people....take the knee after you have kicked out your star black player, yep difference in beliefs...indigenous jersey while not attracting aboriginal talent, yep there is plenty of talent there. for the record I believe farr-jones came through Newington, who has been very supportive of PI players in the past especially with Tonga. He has in the past been very supportive of these players including folau.

I hardly think the inner city, wealthy, left leaning elites changed their votes to Liberal and that changed the outcome of the election. Quite the opposite in fact. Bill Shorten’s arrogance of pandering to that exact group while forgetting their original base had more of a swing to the Liberals than any of the left, wealthy inner city elites did. The seat victories clearly show that.

Slavery as am open, legal, government sanctioned institution then,

What on earth does fault have to do with anything ?

All good. . So if we have equality of opportunity, why do some groups in our society seem to have a tendency to make bad choices? . You highlighted Indigenous disadvantage as being caused by bad choices. Why is a disproportionate number of Indigenous people making such bad choices, if opportunity is equal to all? . Fingers crossed indeed for the weather. But with our injury woes I’m not confident no matter the conditions.

Hi BennO In short, the hurdles my wife experienced were mainly cultural and understanding a non-native language. These are probably common challenges, regardless of the colour of ones skin. In terms of education. While there is equality of opportunity, some choose not to take advantage of that opportunity. That is why I highlighted the differences in attendance above. Therefore the lack of education is predominantly due to choice. Thanks again for taking the time to reply and I hope the weather holds out here in Sydney for the game.

The Haka should be respected and it isn't rugby. It isn't happening anyway so it's interesting you're commenting 5 days after my original post

The only respect required in a situation like this is the respect for Rugby

This kneeling, and especially during the singing of the national anthem, will cause far more harm than it will do good. It is not any fault of mine, or yours, that I was born white, and neither is it any fault of mine, or yours, that you were born black.. This knee business is political and already through politics we have lost one of Australia's finest Rugby players. We do not insist that we play Rugby in the houses of parliament while parliament is sitting. So lets keep politics well off the Rugby field. We are here to play the magnificent game of Rugby. That is the only thing we want to do. If you don't like it, please, disengage yourself from Rugby all together. You won't be missed.

Bravo Chris, completely agree. Farr-Jones encapsulates what we are up against to progress as a society. Sincerely hope many Wallabies take a knee

TBH I'm not entirely sure what the correct definition of 'racism is - especially as it relates to instructional racism - so rather than go down that rabbit hole, I'd simply highlight that RA is already investing in first nations program. Do you this that's a good thing? If yes, I'm suggesting that RA take it further and reallocate $ from buying expensive established NRL players, to new indigenous players and ensure they are placed in each team they control. This affirmative action style approach could have a wonderful impact on our culture and the future of the game.

Well why not 2 Australian Lebanese, 2 Chinese, 2 Sri Lanjans etc. What a stupid idea! You get picked on talent, not race. Anything else IS racism !

Slavery has not ended globally at all – it comes in many different forms but still exits in parts Africa – the Middle East – India and China – just to name four – it just no longer is as open as it used to be or thinly veiled or windowdressed as something else for political purposes – but gone? No not true at all – not by a long shot. But do not agree with the Wallabies taking the knee and i am glad they are not.

Ah alas woe is me. I must have chosen the wrong parents.

I meant to say, cheers for taking the time here. I am interested in understanding your view.

No one is suggesting these barriers are insurmountable. Just that they exist and privilege is the position of not having to deal with them. If your wife had to deal with hurdles thrown at her because of her background, that you or I would not have to, that's a simple example of what we're talking about. Regarding the choices vs social determinants question, of course personal effort is required to succeed. There's no doubt about that. But there's a casual step you seem to inherently acknowledge but not accept. Look at your examples above, you suggested education is a key solution to improve people's choices for several of those problems. But we have free access to education here in Australia, as you also point out. If we have equality of opportunity with education as you're suggesting, it wouldn't be a solution because it wouldn't be part of the problem. But if education is the solution to the problems faced by disadvantaged groups, it means they don't currently get the same education the rest of us get, which is an example of privilege, or rather lack thereof.

Hi Poco Loco Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as having a go at you. If I did, then I apologise. My "because I'm white" was addressed more to the author's white privilege comment. While I have little doubt there is racial discrimination of various degrees in most countries (the worse example I found of this was in Fiji), I strongly believe Australia is largely accepting of it's multi-cultural society. Oh yes I absolutely agree there is a lack of social mobility by the poor, but you seemed to have missed my "there are little if any barriers to this movement in Australia". This to me is the key. You state, "How would you like to be in their (the poor) position without any support?". I'm not sure if this was more of a general comment, but here in Australia there is significant support for health, education, housing, welfare and so on. This is a certainly a multifaceted issue that many governments have struggled to solve, and we cetainly wont come near to that here on The Roar. But I wish us well in both of our journeys towards understanding it better.

Hi BennO While I appreciate what you are saying, there are also equally many stories from say brown skinned immigrants from developing countries (including one from my wife) that have shrugged off whatever hurdles that are thrown at them, and succeeded. While some of these hurdles may be interprepreted (or imagined) as racism, this hasn't been used as an excuse for any underachievement. I strongly believe my interpretation of the choice to social determinant (for health and otherwise) casual relationship is correct. Here in Australia anyway. Access to health care, education, transport, employment, housing etc is freely available. Many of the health studies that you have read surrounding this subject will correctly highlight a correlation between social determinants and health. They will also highlight behavioural factors, which for me is the key. Anyway, it does appear we are both coming at this issue from different angles. It seems unlikely we will agree on much but I do appreciate the time and thought you have put into your replies.

Prima facie, you are lost.