"Imagine it is you walking on the field under the gaze of some 40,000 or so spectators, and you hear a young girl's voice shouting the word 'ape' at you. What would you do?", the article opens with.

God & this bloke is a consultant? I would have mumbled under my breath, "well up you too, love", & gone & made the mark of the day, just to get up her nose. I certainly wouldn't have gone crying for an umpire to protect me from the big bad wolf.

I would then have given thanks for my great hearing, to pick one little girl out of 40,000. I'd then start worrying that my coach would get up me big time, for not concentrating hard enough on what I was being paid heaps to do, on that field.

"Unconscious racism", god have you ever heard such bull manure.

Either you have conscious racism, meaning to hurt, & belittle, [or perhaps to make yourself feel bigger], or you have nothing. If it's unconscious it can't be racism, or any other ism, it's just a word. If our education system was worth anything, she could have come up with something much more hurtful.

Hell she could have called him a Julia supporter. Now that would have been much more insulting, so perhaps he'd have needed two umpires to protect him.

I am so sick to death of these people, European with just a minor trace of aboriginal blood, or any other sort of blood, using it to try to get some advantage, or publicity.

Of course I an not as sick of them as I am of the idiots who then write pages of tripe to get a bit of publicity themselves. I am damn sure I would not be hiring someone who can write this muck to advise me on anything, other than being a fool of course.

Good on you Luddy, go get them old mate. Someone has to bring a bit of sense back into all the bulls##t.

<<Why is racism so different?>>
Because a lot of careers depend on it.

I'm with Luddy & Hasbeen.

If you take The Crucible (the play) and substitute "racism" for the words witchcraft and black magic you have a pretty close portrayal of whats happening in modern day OZ (and much of the Western world for that matter).

We are tribal and this leads us into identifying with those with whom we belong. Racism and all the other ism's are simply negative reactions to those not within the enclave we inherit and construct throughout our lives.

What's missing in that simple construct is the pain one feels at rejection and exclusion.

mn

Well put mn.

All the sporting codes promote this tribalism among their supporters. In Oz it appears that it is strongest in AFL, but it is nothing compared to the soccer fans in Europe, & perhaps the UK in particular.

Having promoted & fostered it to try to draw paying crowds, they then squeal, when some may go a bit far. What [something beginning with W that makes you go blind] they are.

Hell the League mob have promoted the state of origin as a war in the past. What do they expect this does to the gentleman & lady spectator. Ha!

In my book football is the amusement of Apes & that includes their managers & followers. So, an Ape girl & an Ape manager called an Ape player an Ape ? Where's the problem ?

What a crock!

If the 13yr old child called the big hairy faced footballer "N1gger", "Black Bastard/C-word" "Abbo Bastard/etc" I'd have condemned the racist name calling. But that didn't happen.

"Ape" - often preceded with flowery adjectives like "Hairy" "Ugly" "Stupid" etc has been an insult flung at uncountable men (and no doubt the occasional woman) of every race, culture and creed in the English speaking world. Generally most commonly at those who have an abundance of facial and/or body hair, are big and burly and/or have the intelligence, wit and sensitivity of, well, an Ape.

Now Adam Goodes - who if met in the street, would probably be best described as being of middle eastern appearance, fits the bill on at least 2 of these.

This is no victory for the fight against racism. Instead it is a pathetic attention seeking excercise blown completely out of proportion by a media and sports code which both should have shown far more professionalism and responsibility.

The real victim is a 13 yr old whose 'crime' was rudeness. Her image has been plastered across millions of TV screens here and overseas and her character vilified and humiliated. I can't believe this when the identity of TRUE juvenile criminals - the killers, rapists, thugs, arsonists, thieves can't be shown - either before or after Court proceedings. Also can't believe the silence of the Civil Libertarians upholding the freedom of speech to use the word "Ape" which has no racial connection unless prefixed with with an offending adjective, to heckle or insult. Similar - Eddie McGuires comment may have been stupid but it was not racist. Poor attempt at making light of a bogus situation that fell flat.

Adam Goodes needs a teaspoon or 3 of cement. Media and 'do-gooders' who excel at making something out of nothing should find a real issue.

And it seems that "n1gger" if I use "i" is a profanity, but "bastard" isn't? Gotta love PC ...