Now we wait to see how A-League handles its Adam Goodes moment
Related Story: Roar goalkeeper Young cops alleged racist abuse in Mudgee stands
On Saturday in the rural New South Wales town of Mudgee, the A-League had an Adam Goodes moment.
As the Brisbane Roar took on the Western Sydney Wanderers, Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young was stunned to hear a member of the crowd at the Glen Willow Regional Sports Centre call him a "monkey".
So stunned, Young did what goalkeepers are always loath to do. He took his gaze from the game to the offending spectator, a Wanderers fan of about 60 who was sitting on a picnic rug.
According to Young, when he met the spectator's gaze there was no contrition. Instead he repeated his racist taunt.
There are several marked differences with the Goodes incident.
For starters, the Sydney Swans star reacted to being called an "ape" by a 13-year-old girl in full view of the cameras and so his disbelief and anger were seen instantly by both a packed MCG crowd and a vast viewing audience.
Young was off camera when he was abused and the taunt only became public when it was apparent his response — "Don't call me a monkey you f***ing racist c***" — had been picked up on a Fox Sports microphone and was aired after the game.
But the impact on the subject of such a horrible taunt, and the incident itself, should be considered no less serious because of the size of the audience or the immediacy with which it was detected.
And so we wait to see how another major Australian sport will come to terms with an intolerable example of vile racism within its stadium walls.
One that, you would imagine, will provide Australian football the opportunity to demonstrate its messages of racial inclusion and zero tolerance for bigots are not merely convenient slogans for publicly funded campaigns.
As pertinently we wait to see if this case will be dealt with more sanely and sensitively than the Goodes incident, when the AFL's clumsy equivocation turned what should have been an educational opportunity into a tawdry exercise in victim blaming.
That Goodes was somehow transformed from the subject of very public racism to the victim of constant booing by opposition supporters now stands, unquestionably, as one of the most shameful chapters in the chequered history of Australian sport.
What should have been a line-in-the-sand moment for the AFL instead became a textbook case of how a weak reaction by a governing body that, at the very highest levels, failed to understand the gravity of the taunt and to stand behind one of its most decorated performers, helped fuel further racist sentiments.
This despite the AFL having spent years promoting and even profiting from its own supposed culture of "inclusion" and "zero tolerance".
There are more obvious differences between Goodes' very public case and Young's verbal assault in off-Broadway Mudgee.
That Goodes' abuser was a young girl was used by some to question the legitimacy of his shocked reaction — as if he should have been somehow less shaken and offended that the words coming over the fence were uttered by a child.
Then there was Goodes' profile as a somewhat controversial Australian of the Year — if you perceive someone using that office to speak harsh but self-obvious truths about Australian history as "controversial".
Yet in the vacuum created by the AFL's weak-kneed non-response, these factors were used to justify the booing of Goodes by those twisting the motives to meet their ideological objectives.
Never mind that, as anyone other than the most blinkered observer could see, Goodes was being vilified for having the temerity to put his own experiences in the context of Australia's sad failure to fully reconcile with a sometimes unfortunate history.
Young, the son of Sri Lankan and Scottish parents, has no such public profile. He has also immediately struck a conciliatory note, suggesting there is less racism in Australian crowds than in England or Europe, and that his vile attacker be educated rather than punished.
"With these sorts of issues for society to evolve we have to raise awareness and educate people," Young told the Courier Mail.
"I don't know what banning people really achieves. I think educating somebody has much more impact on their outlook on life."
This might well be the case.
But what is most important is that the FFA sends a strong and unequivocal message that what happened to Young will not be tolerated at their venues.
Whether the individual involved finds himself subjected to some form of educational program or a lifetime ban, it is the intent behind the action that matters most.
The FFA should act not merely because its brand has been tarnished by a lone racist fan, but because it fully and unequivocally supports the players subjected to an inexcusable taunt.
Goodes' case showed how mixed messages given by an organisation that was too worried about offending the sensibilities of booing fans to protect and support one of its most revered athletes resulted in the victim somehow becoming a pariah.
Hopefully football handles its Goodes moment with more thought and compassion.
[contf]
[contfnew]
ABC .net
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
