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I disagree.
I think using the term 'bullying' is a way to paper over the reality. It is bullying, but it's racially based bullying. Just because racist behaviour is so deeply entrenched in our society that those booing Adam Goodes are not even aware that it is racist, doesn't mean it's not racist. It just means that people are ignorant of there own racism.
Perhaps you can remember Harry Lumumba's term of casual racism when the 'pointing out the girl' incident was the topic of the day. It's the kind of racism that you find on the Footy Show. It's the general depiction of Indigenous Australians as inferior. It's the right that some White Australians think they have to use sub-human epithets directed at an indigenous player because he speaks out about a long standing serious social issue in our country.
Sometimes the term used is institutional racism. Some years back when I was working in New York I was interviewing people for a job in my department. I selected who I thought was the best candidate. As was customary, my boss wanted a few minutes with him before we offered him a job. The candidate was black. My boss questioned how this candidate could be more qualified than all the others I interviewed. He didn't get the job. I never once heard my boss utter a racial slur. That sort of stuff happens thousands of times every day. White people who never think much about racism don't think a black person can meet a certain level they fell should be reserved for white people.
It just happens by dint of an odd set of circumstances that a hero for Swans' fans, who happens to be aboriginal, has become the centre of debate of a major social issue of long standing with a long and sordid history, that we on RWO find ourselves discussing this matter. I have to say that I am personally, as and Australian and a human being, deeply hurt and troubled by all that occurred in this matter.
I think using the term 'bullying' is a way to paper over the reality. It is bullying, but it's racially based bullying. Just because racist behaviour is so deeply entrenched in our society that those booing Adam Goodes are not even aware that it is racist, doesn't mean it's not racist. It just means that people are ignorant of there own racism.
Perhaps you can remember Harry Lumumba's term of casual racism when the 'pointing out the girl' incident was the topic of the day. It's the kind of racism that you find on the Footy Show. It's the general depiction of Indigenous Australians as inferior. It's the right that some White Australians think they have to use sub-human epithets directed at an indigenous player because he speaks out about a long standing serious social issue in our country.
Sometimes the term used is institutional racism. Some years back when I was working in New York I was interviewing people for a job in my department. I selected who I thought was the best candidate. As was customary, my boss wanted a few minutes with him before we offered him a job. The candidate was black. My boss questioned how this candidate could be more qualified than all the others I interviewed. He didn't get the job. I never once heard my boss utter a racial slur. That sort of stuff happens thousands of times every day. White people who never think much about racism don't think a black person can meet a certain level they fell should be reserved for white people.
It just happens by dint of an odd set of circumstances that a hero for Swans' fans, who happens to be aboriginal, has become the centre of debate of a major social issue of long standing with a long and sordid history, that we on RWO find ourselves discussing this matter. I have to say that I am personally, as and Australian and a human being, deeply hurt and troubled by all that occurred in this matter.
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