Booing Adam Goodes: are we even aware we're racists?

The furore over booing Adam Goodes reveals white society still hasn’t learnt to embrace the Indigenous one, even in football. We’ll give on our terms, appreciate on our terms, but when it’s not on our terms, we turn on it, writes Jeremy Stanford.

Collingwood nearly lost me as a fan 20 years ago when then-club president Allan McAlister made his infamous remark about Indigenous players only needing to behave like white players to gain respect.

Racism was so rife at Victoria Park in those days that Nicky Winmar saw the need to raise his guernsey and point with pride to the colour of his skin. I’m a third generation Pies supporter, but this racism was driving me away.

Thankfully, the club changed. Not long after the Winmar incident, my brother witnessed a fan shouting racist bile, and someone nearby calmly tapped the guy on the shoulder and in no uncertain terms told him the error of his ways. We’d entered a new era where racism wasn’t tolerated and the club suddenly found itself at the forefront of programs designed to integrate and educate. I’m proud of that.

Then came Eddie McGuire. He is a passionate advocate for integration in the sport. His work outside the club with Indigenous youth is genuinely inspiring. Yet, inconceivably, he made a "McAlister-like" gaff on radio about Goodes coming to promote the musical, King Kong, on the back of a Pies fan calling him an ape. It was dizzying stuff.

It got me to wondering where white society has actually got to when it comes to racism in our country. Have we truly absorbed the message or are we just mouthing it to make ourselves feel better? Is the racism still sitting there under the surface ready to bubble up when we're off our guard? Are we even aware that deep down we're racists?

LIKE Debrief Daily on Facebook. 

My wife is from Auckland. On a trip home one year, we went to the Auckland Theatre Company to see All My Sons, by Arthur Miller. One of the sons was played by a Maori - the others were all white. When the Maori son arrived on stage for the first time I turned to my wife and made a face. She didn't know what I was talking about. I prompted her: "That son is Maori." She hadn't even noticed. It wasn't a "thing" - casting like that happens all the time there. It got me to thinking, if this was a Melbourne Theatre Company play and one of the sons had been cast with an Indigenous actor it would have been a brave "artistic choice". A statement.

This is where our country is at. White society is still so removed from our Indigenous brothers and sisters that when Lewis Jetta and Adam Goodes perform a war dance in a game of football we can only see division. We can't embrace it like the Kiwis embrace the haka before a game of rugby. It becomes a threat because it's not a version of what white players have traditionally done and therefore it's unacceptable. It's a statement.

When I saw Goodes perform his dance for the first time I was dazzled. Rather than just lining up at the start of the game and honouring the concept of an Indigenous round, this man had actually treated us to some culture.

It broke my heart that it caused controversy rather than deliver enchantment. It meant that we couldn't truly turn the Indigenous round over to the indigenous players, we had to lend it to them on the condition that they behaved like white players. Sound familiar?

Tom Wills is widely attributed to be the father of our game. As a kid growing up in western Victoria he learnt Marngrook with the local Indigenous kids and even spoke their language. It's inconceivable that some of the game we play now doesn't derive from that childhood experience, but it's denied in our official story of the game.

To me this is telling. As a culture, we still haven't learnt to embrace the Indigenous one. It's still separate. We'll give on our terms, appreciate on our terms, but when it's not on our terms, we turn on it.

I'd be happy to see every Indigenous player from now on perform the war dance every time they kick a goal. That would rub it in all our white faces until we truly got the message that you are part of this culture on your own terms and not on the terms that white society deems to be acceptable.

Jeremy Stanford is an actor, writer, director and Collingwood supporter.

This post originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission. 

© 2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Read the ABC Disclaimer here. 

Like this? Why not try ...

Dear Racist. I’ve spotted a few inconsistencies …

Podcast: A lively discussion of secret racists and old sperm.

Reviewers are calling Harper Lee’s new novel ‘disturbing’.