This issue became front page news in Aus last football season, and wow did it really bring to the surface the still very much bubbling tensions between the colonists and natives in Aus that most (whites) had long denied.
An indigenous footballer (very much celebrity here) called out a spectator at a game for screaming that he was an 'ape'.
The term ape is applied to our aborigines in a negative tone, implying that they are less evolved than us far superior colonists *rolls eyes.
It was a good call on the footballers behalf, however unfortunately the name caller ended up being a 12 yr old girl, who was consequently evicted from the match by burly security and then subjected to police questioning.
The story organically unfolds from there, the footballer becomes a target of hate by those who feel he was being too sensitive about his origins, an thus picking on an innocent child. eventually does a war dance of his people (at an INDIGENOUS match, most aptly) fueling more rage from the predominantly white crowd, and then ends with the footballer retiring in a hell driven flame after being boo'd by pretty much the entire crowd every single time he touches the ball for the rest of the season.
The country divided into 3 parts over this, those who defended our revered footballer and agreed with his stance, calling everyone who differed of opinion a racist.
Those who denied racism at all and declared that suddenly, after 300 odd matches, that our footballer was just a shit player and deserved all the booing.
And then the third group who were just plain racist thugs and didn't seem to care that racial taunts are illegal here.
As awful as this all was at the time, it began a really important conversation here, that too many had let lie for too long
these conversations NEED to keep happening, an never stop, else we descend into apathy and neglect.
Aboriginal Australians have a shorter life expectancy than almost any group of people in the world.
The resources offered them in health and education are sorely lacking.
They are the forgotten ones in a fast moving modern world and the more light we shine on the shameful past we brought them, the better for them.
I'd like to say that I am not racist, but id be naive to claim that, its been etched into my very being to be 'afraid' of those not like me.
And through fighting against that, I've reached a point where my kids claim I can often be racist toward my own people instead, choosing to only see negative in pretty much everything the colonists have done or achieved here.
Talk about lack of self-identity haha.
An indigenous footballer (very much celebrity here) called out a spectator at a game for screaming that he was an 'ape'.
The term ape is applied to our aborigines in a negative tone, implying that they are less evolved than us far superior colonists *rolls eyes.
It was a good call on the footballers behalf, however unfortunately the name caller ended up being a 12 yr old girl, who was consequently evicted from the match by burly security and then subjected to police questioning.
The story organically unfolds from there, the footballer becomes a target of hate by those who feel he was being too sensitive about his origins, an thus picking on an innocent child. eventually does a war dance of his people (at an INDIGENOUS match, most aptly) fueling more rage from the predominantly white crowd, and then ends with the footballer retiring in a hell driven flame after being boo'd by pretty much the entire crowd every single time he touches the ball for the rest of the season.
The country divided into 3 parts over this, those who defended our revered footballer and agreed with his stance, calling everyone who differed of opinion a racist.
Those who denied racism at all and declared that suddenly, after 300 odd matches, that our footballer was just a shit player and deserved all the booing.
And then the third group who were just plain racist thugs and didn't seem to care that racial taunts are illegal here.
As awful as this all was at the time, it began a really important conversation here, that too many had let lie for too long
these conversations NEED to keep happening, an never stop, else we descend into apathy and neglect.
Aboriginal Australians have a shorter life expectancy than almost any group of people in the world.
The resources offered them in health and education are sorely lacking.
They are the forgotten ones in a fast moving modern world and the more light we shine on the shameful past we brought them, the better for them.
I'd like to say that I am not racist, but id be naive to claim that, its been etched into my very being to be 'afraid' of those not like me.
And through fighting against that, I've reached a point where my kids claim I can often be racist toward my own people instead, choosing to only see negative in pretty much everything the colonists have done or achieved here.
Talk about lack of self-identity haha.
