The untouchable Waleed Aly and racism

I have been shocked by some of the media this past week- Barrie Cassidy writing for ABC or Jenny Noyes writing for Daily Life are two examples of articles being regularl cited that exemplify the problem. Both contain speculation and lead to confusion, shedding more heat than light, and unfortunatly both are bereft of solid, rational, nuanced arguments or any kind of, you know, evidence to support their strong views. The worst one I personally read was the one on The Conversation by a lecturer in Sports Management from Sydney- it is legitimately jaw droppingly illogical in the sense that it makes huge statements without a shred of supporting evidence. Just big statement after big statement, supposing that Australia’s sporting culture is completely racist. It’s simply a horrendous and blatant example of someone picking up the Goodes issue and using it to jump on their personal soapbox. I find the article offensive- being a long time sporting fan who actually attends sporting matches of various sports and participates in them at community level- to read stuff like that from an ivory tower grandstander.

However, Waleed Aly has taken the cake by virtue of the sheer amount of people jerking off after listening to his comments, and the amount of people making statements like “Waleed has the final word”. Even an ex basketball teammate of mine- who has had a distinguished career in sports journalism and now holds a senior position on one of Australia's premier sporting websites- approvingly quoted Aly, claiming he'd hit the nail on the head. 

But what did the untouchable Waleed actually say? (You can watch the Youtube video but it only went for a minute or two- this is the crux of his view and what everybody has been raving about and quoting). As summarised in an Online Opinion piece: 

Waleed Aly has said that it reveals that Australians are generally tolerant of minorities "until they demonstrate that they don't know their place…the moment a person in a minority position acts as though they're not a mere supplicant then we lose our minds… we say you need to get back in your box."

But, let’s analyse this for a second.

This is a country who had an unmarried female, atheist, childless, prime minister. Those are all things –being childless, being unmarried, self-identifying as an atheist- that are minority positions in Australia.

This is a sporting code which was the first sport in Australia - in the 1990’s- to take the proactive step of enacting race legislation in its own code. A sporting code where over 10% of the players are of indigenous heritage (compared to their 2% representation in the population) and where reported events of actual proven racial discrimination are extremely rare- both on field and from spectators. This is a sport with about two or three times as many people attending matches compared to any other sport in the country. Yet how often is there a player making an official complaint of legitimate racism from another player or a spectator? Very rare. The previous CEO of the AFL- who reigned for 11 years and presided over what has so far been easily the most successful period in the game’s history- is the son of Greek immigrants.

Australia is the third most multi-cultural country in the OECD. Melbourne and Sydney – where Goodes plays 80% of his football- must be two of the most multi cultural cities in the world. The stats show that 80% of second generation Australians marry someone with a different ethnic background. I have experienced this myself! This is an extremely multicultural place, and by and large we live in peace. So in this context, what does “minority” actually mean? There certainly isn’t a clear “Majority” in Australia like there is almost anywhere else around the world.

Melbourne is where Waleed is based. It is the home of footy, and it is a place where we had a female premier nearly 30 years ago, where the most successful leader of this century is of Lebanese heritage, and where our longest ever serving Lord Mayor was an Asian with an accent so strong that at times he was hard to understand- but we loved him anyway. In fact, many of us loved him BECAUSE of that!

So what on earth is Waleed going on about? I’d honestly love to know. And more importantly, why are so many people fawning over his comments? Listening to him you could get the impression that minorities are despised or devoid of opportunity. But that’s not the case- the facts suggest otherwise.

I wonder who is is sowing seeds of division here- the sporting fans getting stuck into Adam Goodes, or our media commentators who are creating a hypothetical world where Australians hate minorities- a world that has little resemblance to the real world I’ve been describing above? Possibly both. The difference is, one of these groups will now stop.   

Adam Goodes

Why is Adam Goodes being booed? Despite the illusions of many, the truth is that nobody really knows.

The majority of people (79% of Herald Sun readers and 41% of Age readers) believe the booing is not racially motivated, while media commentators, journalists and public identities have offered totally differing views on the issue. But I repeat- nobody really knows. Everyone has different opinions on this. Opinions that when you analyse them closely, are actually influenced by factors like: Our personal experiences, various big but unprovable assumptions and/or generalisations that are necessary in order to even have opinions about topics like this, our personal political persuasions, what our friends and favourite media identities think about the issue, etc.

So I’m making a call for people to stop bashing those with opposing views, because nobody knows it all. Part of what makes Australia such a great country is that we can disagree and remain friends, so if you betray that ideal then you’re not only creating divisions (which is, ironically, something Goodes stands against) but you’re being unAustralian.

Lastly there is one thing we can all agree on. It is time for the booing to stop, because it has become a blight on the great game of AFL footy. I hope next week’s major news pieces are about the great contests of this weekend, rather than frustrated speculation about the cause of one man’s angst. 

Update: Someone replied to my facebook status with the following. I'll post it in italics, with my response following. Interestingly three of my facebook friends liked this post, and they are intelligent people; not the types of people who form their opinions without thinking. 

That's just as good as brushing the issue under the carpet, Travis. The point is that some - if not a majority - of those boos were racially motivated. Let's not pretend otherwise. I'll give you some excerpts of things people have had to say re: this matter. 

"Steve Price doesn't think the booing is racial either. "People are booing him because he has decided... to parade his indigenous credentials strongly." "

"Alan Jones says people just don't like Goodes, and that's not racial. "They don't like the spear-throwing, the running in and doing a war dance...""

Alan Jones quote taken from this article: 
http://www.theage.com.au/.../swans-star-adam-goodes...

Steve Price quote taken from this article: 
http://www.9news.com.au/.../peter-helliar-lashes-cohost...

This is a man who - when he parades his pride in his ethnicity - is consistently put down and bullied. And we he stands up and points out that people are uncomfortable with him as a result and that it is racially motivated, he is subjected to further bullying and an ENTIRE NATION gangs up against him. 

And if you need further evidence of what I am saying, just listen to this argument put forth by Waleed Aly. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xeBu735nFYw

People kill themselves over stuff like this. This is the moment to have an open discussion and try to gain some understanding of what it feels like to be "the other" instead of the privileged who doesn't have to endure this sort of thing. Let's listen to the minorities for once to gain some understanding of what life is like on the other side of the fence.

Yes- I've already seen the Waleed Aly interview, the I've read the comments from Alan Jones and many (most?) of the popular articles from both sides of the debate. 

I'm familiar with all of the arguments. My point is that the time has come for the arguing to stop. I'm sick of ppl in my Facebook feed (from both sides) treating others with contempt or ridiculing because they see things differently. 

Racism is absolutely an issue that should be confronted. I'm not sweeping it under the carpet- I'm saying that the way people are dialoguing on the issue is, all too often, anything but productive. 

I also find it odd that non footy fans are getting involved. If people don't follow AFL or even sport, do they understand the mind set of AFL fans? Where did they get these superhuman powers of perception? It's time to get back to footy. And deal with racism in a more productive way than the speculation that is passing for media commentary (from both sides). 

At the very least let's be humble enough to admit that we are all speculating when we offer our views on this issue. Instead of pretending like our views are the only reasonable ones.

/End of facebook response. 

This issue is worth exploring further. At the time, I wanted to focus my response on the issue I was actually trying to raise in my initial post; that is, people are taking their speculations as certainty, and refusing to see the inherent logic in the positions that others hold. The fact that the 9 member AFL commission was reportedly split into 3 camps in their analysis of this issue should be enough on it's own (if we didn't realise it already!) to tell us something: This is a complex issue. It's one thing for the media to take sides in the name of selling newspapers and to keep their word counts down by substituting rhetoric for nuance, but it was disappointing seeing my facebook feed full of those blindly doing the same, and refusing to accept that others might you know, have a point every now and then. My brother neatly summarised just one element of this complexity by simply saying "Everyone boos for different reasons". Yet, plenty of the media and public seem to love generalising, as if those booing Goodes were united in one voice of racism. That's plainly ridiculous. This whole debacle was part of what motivated my next facebook status: 

"Nuance is the currency of sensible debate that sees genuine outcomes, dogmatism is the thing of fundamentalists".

- Chris Rowney, Pastor, Torquay Christian Fellowship.

So allow me to carry on and explore this further. My facebook interlocutor quoted Alan Jones' views on the war dance as direct evidence of racism. But exactly why is it that criticism of Goodes' war dance should be seen as inherently racist? Can people honestly not see that football fans may dislike Goodes' imaginary spear throwing for legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with him being Indigenous? I've yet to see any coherent, reasonable response to this question. There is one response that has been popularised, and it's along the lines of "We have no issue with the Haka, but we do have an issue with Goodes. Therefore it's racism". But this response misses a crucial difference between the Haka and Goodes: The Haka is directed towards the opposition team, not towards spectators. There are other differences too: The Haka is a team dance completed by all members of the New Zealand Rugby team rather than by one individual, and the Haka happens before the bounce, rather than in the heat of the contest. These three factors all have a bearing on the comparison. I'd guess that if the Haka was done by one player, within a few metres of opposing fans straight after scoring a try, that this player would be on the receiving end of some serious jeering and booing.

AFL great Wayne Carey was commentating on the night that Goodes did his spear dance against Carlton. Carey made an observation during the half time break:



"I guess now, all supporters from other teams are going to think that they can, I guess in a way suck Adam Goodes in". 

Goodes is a soft target for the hardcore fans who will do anything to put the opposition off their game. And it has nothing to do with him being Aboriginal. He gave a reaction; he has on multiple occasions showed how easily he can be provoked. (Goodes has said the war dance was pre planned, but he nonetheless directed the dance straight at a small contingent of fans who were already booing him, and he also admitted that he would have done a different dance had he kicked a goal when surrounded by Swans fans. It's hard not to think there was some level of reactionary element in Goodes' action). Why is it that Carey saw this instantaneously, but so many people can't

This is why I'm not convinced of the explanations given by those who jump to "RACISM!!" Without adequately considering Goodes' actions or the mind set of fanatical sports followers. However I'm speculating, as are those who generalise and claim that a huge number of fans are "uncomfortable" with Goodes' success. It's just a shame that so many people aren't willing to be equally honest and admit that they, too, are speculating about the motivations of those booing Goodes. We're entering an age where dissenting opinions are treated with contempt and disgust, instead of debate. That should concern any thoughtful person.  

We can all agree, however, that the booing should now stop. Let the champion get on with his game, because the game is bigger than him and bigger than any of us and our opinions. Our speculations, that is. 

Protests

200 protesters from a variety of small groups have staged a protest in Melbourne today. 3,000 counter protesters showed up, and 800 police were required to settle things down. This is flooding major Melbourne news sources right now. It's interesting to me that a protest I attended last year attracted 500 people as we marched from Fed Square to Parliament before some politicians and others delivered speeches. But there was minimal media coverage, not front and centre. Why? No violent clashes, I assume. Only peaceful people with one message.

In other parts of this world we share, literally one hundred MILLION + Christians are unable to live their lives peacefully without fear. They suffer extreme persecution in countries like North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, etc, etc, etc. ALL religious persecution is bad, but it's a little known fact that Christians are persecuted much more than any other religious group in the world, even on a per head basis. (If you doubt me, look it up). Unfortunatly, most of it happens at the hands of Muslims in Muslim majority countries (again, look it up if interested).

This is a tragedy. So sad.

We rarely hear about this, because the headlines are about handfuls of people screaming obscenities at each other and scuffling while the police spray them with capsicum. Or footy. Or plenty of things- just not the millions upon millions of people struggling to freely go about their lives.

This post was just a little attempt at raising some awareness. Thanks for reading.