06-09-2021, 02:33 AM
As I posted when the booing of Goodes became a thing (no revisionism here), if you attend a protest because for you it means you can protest about a certain thing that annoys you but you find you’re surrounded by neo-Nazis, Proud Boys and nutters who are using it to push an agenda that disgusts you, you need to leave. Otherwise you are helping to push that agenda by swelling the ranks.
At least if you’re at a protest or a rally, you can hold up a sign to make clear what concerns you. But when you just boost the volume of booing, you don’t have the ability to separate yourself from the racists. And it’s just nonsense to deny that the ferocity of the booing and the way supporters of different clubs participated showed it had a very substantial racial basis. As I said back then, whatever grudge you might have against Goodes, separate yourself from the racists by STFU.
As an example of this, the racist far right likes to commandeer symbols that have had no racist element to them. The creator of Pepe the Frog has been dismayed that his creation is now a racist symbol. The OK hand gesture is now on the banned list given it’s now used to signify approval of far right groups (and a Jeopardy contestant was put through the mill after he used it innocently to reference his 3 wins). You can bluster all you want about your right to use words and symbols that have been co-opted, but that’s just ignorant. How many straight men these days describe themselves as gay bachelors?
We’ll expect St. Kilda’s Max King to be hounded from now on for successfully flopping to draw a 50 metre penalty that almost turned the game against Sydney. And I wonder why Darren Milburn wasn’t heckled universally for ironing Silvagni after he’d kicked the ball. And far from being hounded out of the game for sliding in and breaking Gary Rohan’s leg, I can’t even remember who was the culprit.
At least if you’re at a protest or a rally, you can hold up a sign to make clear what concerns you. But when you just boost the volume of booing, you don’t have the ability to separate yourself from the racists. And it’s just nonsense to deny that the ferocity of the booing and the way supporters of different clubs participated showed it had a very substantial racial basis. As I said back then, whatever grudge you might have against Goodes, separate yourself from the racists by STFU.
As an example of this, the racist far right likes to commandeer symbols that have had no racist element to them. The creator of Pepe the Frog has been dismayed that his creation is now a racist symbol. The OK hand gesture is now on the banned list given it’s now used to signify approval of far right groups (and a Jeopardy contestant was put through the mill after he used it innocently to reference his 3 wins). You can bluster all you want about your right to use words and symbols that have been co-opted, but that’s just ignorant. How many straight men these days describe themselves as gay bachelors?
We’ll expect St. Kilda’s Max King to be hounded from now on for successfully flopping to draw a 50 metre penalty that almost turned the game against Sydney. And I wonder why Darren Milburn wasn’t heckled universally for ironing Silvagni after he’d kicked the ball. And far from being hounded out of the game for sliding in and breaking Gary Rohan’s leg, I can’t even remember who was the culprit.