“Yep, that’s specifically racial.”
Ever since indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes was booed by West Coast fans at a game on Sunday, controversy has swept the country as Australians hotly debate one key question: Was that booing racist?
Sydney Swans player and Brownlow medalist Goodes, 35, is considering retirement from the game altogether following the incident. And while his fans are outraged that the football legend is effectively copping the brunt of racial abuse, critics insist the booing is just because some people ‘don’t like’ Goodes.
Uh-huuuh.
The ABC’s news comedy show The Weekly tackled the issue in a perfectly executed satirical segment last night. In it, host Charlie Pickering cheekily highlighted one eyebrow-raising point: The fact that every single public figure who’s claimed the booing wasn’t racist, is white themselves.
Pickering began the segment with the tongue-in-cheek announcement: “To tell us why it’s not racial, release the middle-aged white men!”
Cue: A montage of white commentators citing some (rather ridiculous) reasons why the abuse of Goodes was totally, not-at-all racially motivated.
Watch the hilarious segment here. Post continues after video:
Channel Nine sports journalist Tony Jones kicks off the montage, insisting: “It doesn’t matter what colour skin Adam Goodes has, this is not racially motivated. There’s still a great level of resentment for what he did here at the MCG a couple of years ago, when he called out that 13-year-old girl.”
(Read about that incident here.)
“For racially abusing him, yeah,” Pickering wryly remarked in response. “That’s racial.”
Next up, 2BG shock jock Alan Jones was shown saying that the people who booed Adam Goodes weren’t racist, but rather just “don’t like the spear-throwing and the running out and doing a war dance.”
(Read about the imaginary spear incident here.)
Remarking on that comment, Pickering fired back: “That’s racial.”
Broadcaster Steve Price of 2GB was then shown, remarking on The Project: “I think people are booing him because he has decided, and this is his right, to parade his indigenous credentials strongly.”
Barely suppressing a laugh, Pickering commented: “That’s specifically racial!”
The segment then showed another snippet of Jones asking: “Does Adam Goodes ever look into the mirror and ask himself, why?”
To that, Pickering fired back: “Yeah Alan. I reckon he looks into the mirror and he knows exactly why.”
Touché, Charlie.
Top Comments
no one in NZ has had a problem with Maori Haka,quite contrary even the "non-maori"players do it ,also.
examples of Ackermanis&Lockett are of very different issues:Ackermanis was/is always opinionated,Lockett's piglet was done once and in good humour.What kind of behaviour are the adults exemplifying to the children?
I agree with SH;we have stayed completely silent on players,who have used drugs(caught&charged),committed DV (let them play) or Buddy Franklin's (violent)porn-PROMOTING T-shirt -line?WHY???WHY now on the very fundamental issue of "race",except the "jocks",who justify the verbally virulent,violent crowd-behaviour,which has been happening week after week? I dont think Australia is a racist country,but when"the lowest common denominator" behaviour comes out ,we need to take stand,act and call it what it is!
How many indigenous players were on the field that day? How many were persistently booed?
Perhaps it is racially motivated but it's a strange type of racism that picks on the individual but not the race. Of course, if there is more to this than race (like the moronic mob mentality of the average sports-goer who joins in with anything they think is funny), we'll never find out because the focus is solely on skin colour.