Antiseptic, " Goodes is a large man, in the prime of his life, valued for his talent and skills, well paid, seen as a role model by young men"

In our society, his celebrity, wealth and status advantage him above all men and that is especially so with women.

He is a professional footballer who is very fortunate to be playing in his 34th year in a game where any player approaching 30 is seen as an expensive liability to the club. His contract is to the end of 2013. Goodes has said he wants to continue.

Adam Goodes must be paid in the vicinity of $1 million annually plus benefits. Coincidentally a couple of years ago he won the Skilton footy award named after 'Chimp' Bob Skilton, who was a triple Brownlow Medal winner.

Adam Goodes moves in social circles. He has all of the social contacts and glittering prizes that wealth and celebrity can bring, including the beautiful blonde girlfriend hwo could easily be a model.

http://tinyurl.com/Goodes-girlfriend

There is a gulf of Grand Canyon proportions between the sophisticated and fortunate Adam Goodes, the man the media and the AFL have built up as a superhero (now hugely wronged) and the naive adolescent minor who did not even understand what racism was and imagined she was describing him as large and hairy (as footballers are, especially to barrackers from the opposing team).

Dear onthebeach,

If you can't cop it, and you can't take a joke,
you're humourless and politicall correct. If you
complain about it and ask that it stop, you're
guilty of perpetuating the "new racism," whatever
that is.

But it takes the person who walks around in that
skin to tell us what life is like from their
perspective, and they are not making it up and they
are not being oversensitive when, like Adam Goodes,
like Harry O'Brien, like Linda Burney, MP, they tell us
they live with discrimination every day.

As Virginia Trioli in her column pointed out, "It took
the sight of a 13-year old girl guilessly flinging an
insult around to wake many up to this. She didn't
understand what she had said - and that should horrify us."

As Trioli says, "Australian racism is rarely vicious or
spiteful or dangerous: we just aren't that angry a people.
Instead, it is casual, and joking and light-hearted. And
for those who ache to be seen as every bit a member of
Australian society as everybody else, it is not funny -
it is an unending sorrow."

Dear Lexi, I think you will find 'racism' in any country and in any culture, should you look just beneath the surface. Eradicating something that is apparently inherent makes about as much sense as trying to lift a bucket up when you are standing on it.I am a migrant to this country, from New Zealand. I arrived at a time of relatively high unemployment and was told on more tha one occasion: 'We don't want New Zealanders working here.' How did that make me feel? I couldn't give a #$@^ actually. It shocks me that 'racism' is a charge levelled at white people, and white people only. While studying at Murdoch University during the 1990s we had a 'Harmony' Day. All white students had to wear a badge stating: 'What am I doing about my racism?'. Non European students were, of course, exempt, because it was and is simply assumed they are always the victims and never the orchestrators of 'racism'. I refused to wear any such badge and was castigated wnen I pointed out that Asian students appeared to prefer the company of other Asian students and could even specify the race they preferred to share a house with on student noticeboards. Needless to say, this 'tolerance' was never extended to any white person. If that is not pig ignorance then I don't know what is. Chinese students openly referred to white people, in our OWN country as 'Gua Lou', or 'Foreign Devils'. The words they had for Aboriginals were far worse.

Cody,

Great post.

And it is still going on. A good number of leading universities now carry "whiteness studies" incorporated (read: hidden/disguised) within their English/Linguistic/Anthropological programs which seek to identify racism as a peculiar white phenomenon.

You might have noted Rainiers (who identifies himself as Aboriginal) little quip on another, earlier thread that while he might at times have been prejudice he has never racist--classic "whiteness theory" thinking--or more correcting, brainwashing.

he Was never racist--classic "whiteness theory" thinking--or more correctLY, brainwashing.

Dear Cody,

A dominant group always tries to legitimate its
interests by means of an ideology; a set of
beliefs that explains and justifies some actual
or potential social arrangements. One such form
of ideology is racism - the belief that one racial
or ethnic group is inferior to another and that
unequal treatment is therefore justified. The
characteristic feature of racist ideologies is that
they try to make social and economic inequalities among
racial and ethnic groups seem "natural" or "right."

An excellent illustration of the relationship between
racist ideology and economic interests comes from the
European colonial period, which lasted from the fifteen
century until the middle of the twentieth century.

These attitudes became deeply embedded in Western European
culture and were transported by white settlers to North
America, where many traces remain to this day.
Racist beliefs provided a convenient justification for
slavery in the South and for the slaughter and
dispossessiohn of American Indians. Black were considered
suitable for slavery "by nature," and the destruction of
Indian societies by a "superior" white civilisation was seen
as a matter of "Manifest destiny" to which "the only good
Indian is a dead one."

Although racism is found among different people in societies
all over the world, the racism of the Western powers was
notable for its international scale (Australia and New Zealand
included) and systematic theoretical justifications by both
theologians and scientists alike.

But enough said.

I trust you get the message.