Dear Pelly,

Not so sure about the "silence" right.
More often than not - you then get accused
of turning tail and running, of having
"unfounded facts," no legitimate arguments,
et cetera. Then there's
also the old chestnut of being a "feminazi"
belonging to the "sisterhood," a "socialist leftie."
Neo-Marxist is the latest label, and so on.
How can one be a feminazi and a neo-Marxist?
Or a socialist, fascist?

The mind boggles. But, as someone said,
It's cool!

C. Steele, Lexi, Pelican, Poirot,

I have to admit the case of this girl is right on the edge for me - if an adult had said what she said, then I think, yes, he should be charged with vilification or breaching some human rights act. If the act had been done in private, with few witnesses, even by an adult, then maybe it just slips into legality. But he should still get taken outside for a 'talking to'.

Just by the way, if you shaved a gorilla or a chimp, they would come out white, so I've been told. Orang utans are, as we know, red-haired. I think I read somewhere that anatomically, Africans are less ape-like than Europeans, less Neanderthal I suppose. And Africans did not develop their dark pigmentation, sufficient melanin or whatever, until only a few thousand years ago. We are all far more closely related than we may look.

Not that closeness has been much of a deterrent to hostility; observe the Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian conflicts, or, of course the Sunni-Shi'a fratricide in Syria, where at one time, inter-marriage was very common. Well, like it was in Bosnia. People can be stupid b@stards.

Cheers,

Joe :)

The particularly sad thing about your attitude, onthebeach, is that your effort to invalidate the actual offence, and instead pass blame over to the targeted person, you fail to address even in the slightest, the people and the mindsets responsible for this type of behaviour.

The fact that this is common behaviour at sports events obviously means nothing to you.

If anyone owes this girl an apology, it's those who have groomed and encouraged her to behave like this...and it's people who bend over backwards to contort the issue and pass blame from the person going out of their way to inflict pain and to offend, to the person offended, who should be apologising to this girl.

What was Goodes supposed to do (apart from shut his mouth and accept that racial abuse is his deserved lot)? Was he supposed to run up to the girl and ascertain her age before pointing out her degrading abuse?

Goodes merely pointed out the problem - he didn't cause it.

That responsibility rests with the general public and it's rank standards.

Dear o sung wu,

Thank you for your considered reply. The early starts are work related. I am back indoors next week so out of the worst of it.

I think as far as Adam Goodes is concerned I feel he acted in keeping with the legacy of Nicky Winmar's action 20 years ago. That action was to say 'I'm not going to cop this any more without responding and challenging what is being directed at me'.

If we take the argument that some of the less empathetic are peddling here then Winmar also should have copped it sweet and got on with it 20 years ago. He didn't and strong changes were made as a result.

I certainly don't know what was going on in Adam Goodes' mind on that day but you can see from the video footage the “Ape!” word was screamed directly at him from around two meters away as he passed near the fence. He was already pointing for the steward before he had a good look at the person who had abused him. You can also see from the footage the Collingwood supporter leaning forward to deliver the slur. I think he felt something so obvious and upfront just had to have a response, especially given the occasion, and that ignoring it was just not an option. If he had known it was a 13 year old girl and also knowing what the media was going to subject her to, might he have acted differently if given time to think about it? Quite probably. From all accounts he is one of the gentlemen playing the game. People to be slamming him for what he did is an out and out case of blaming the victim.

The question I have often asked myself is where would I be if the player myself and the section of the crowd I was in were abusing had not looked up the way he did on that day all those years ago.

Cont..

Cont..

Perhaps the very firm belief in the Australian notion of a 'Fair go' would have seen me arrive at the same position against racism as I hold now. In fact I think anyone who truly understands and respects what that notion means must ultimately reject racism in all its forms. It is just some of us are further along that road than others. I was given a crash course which prompted me to work harder at addressing attitudes of ignorance, indifference and racism within myself.

Chip Le Grand writing in the Australian spoke of similar setting at an MCG cricket match he was watching as a 15 year old;

“That day at the MCG, Australia's batsmen didn't know what to do with Small, other than providing catching practice off his out-swingers. Yet between overs, when he returned to the fine-leg fence, the mob had no doubt. First someone threw a banana. Then other fruit was hurled. As the insults and baboon noises continued, Small remained stoic. It was 1986 and I was 15. I've never forgotten the way he stood there, eyes fixed on the pitch, ears no doubt burning, refusing to acknowledge the racist taunts at this back.”

This is a particularly powerful experience when one is in their formative years as we both were. My challenge nowadays is to recognise that the majority of people have not had that type of visceral exposure to racism thus expecting all to be as sensitive to it as I would hope is often unrealistic. That was the prime reason for my multi post response to you. I wanted to make it clear I'm certainly not holier-than-anyone but I know racism when I see it and like Goodes think it should be called out when it happens. The ability to recognise racism and the harm it brings is an essential part of combating it, and any Australian who believes we should continually strive to be a fair nation would want to see the back of it.

Wow. Who'd have guessed you're an ALP supporter.

Lexi,
Labor saying they intend to do good things in three years time is being incompetent do-gooders. To actually achieve some good outcomes is not a Labor thing, on the contrary.

If only I could charge a Dollar each time I & others are trying in vain to un-indoctrinate Lexi, Poirot & pelican.
Just imagine if those three girls were to be asked to accept responsibility, they'd probably scream for counselling in two minutes flat. It escapes me that some people are so devoid of imagination that they require every gist explained in full.