Lonely hero… August Landmesser refusing to give the Nazi salute in a large German crowd in 1936.
Doubt and anxiety disappear. We’re no longer scared little creatures in an uncaring universe and, suddenly, we feel powerful, part of something bigger than ourselves.
Similarly being part of an internet lynch mob is exhilarating. Even if the cause is tenuous at first, the camp followers keep dragging in more reasons to loathe the target of the hatred.
I’ve been part of both.
What I’ve never seen is the Adam Goodes abuse saga bursting out of the cliques of the AFL and into the wider consciousness as occurred this past week.
The internet hate boards fuelled the baying crowds, the crowds fuelled the righteousness of the hate boards and the next thing we know Australia was looking terrifyingly like Germany of the 1930s.
Arguably the most moving photograph of the 20th century was August Landmesser refusing to give the Nazi salute in a large German crowd in 1936.
That’s a real hero. Looking at the hysteria everyone else is tumbling into and one person saying: “Nope, not me; I’m not having a piece of this”.
As the Adam Goodes saga has unfolded sane Australians have at least not been as alone as that man was.
When Collin Barnett, the Liberal Premier of WA, is willing to call it out as racism to boo Adam Goodes by his own West Coast Eagles fans we can at least take comfort that a broad plurality of the sane citizens of this country are disgusted by this behaviour.
When the famously cautious AFL is willing to, if not call it racism, at least acknowledge there is an element of race involved, at the danger of alienating thousands of ticket-buying fans, one can begin to hope this country isn’t all that bad yet.
Because thousands of white people booing a football player for being indigenous is, let there be no doubt, unbelievably bad.
Forget any risk Islamic State poses to Australia. If our friends and allies paid enough attention to AFL to realise what was going on, this country would be facing an existential threat.
If we don’t get a grip on this garbage we could end up like South Africa in the 1980s. The crucial difference being that South Africa at that time was not surrounded by rising powers. We need friends and allies now in ways they never did.
I like a good “boo” at the footy. When I think the officials have made a bad call, when I think I’ve seen cheating or foul play, it’s fun to get involved.
To boo a player for something he did months or years ago? For standing up to racist abuse or doing an indigenous dance in an “indigenous round”?
That’s not the Australia I want to live in.
Almost as ugly as the fans has been the old white commentariat wanting to tell the indigenous man how he should respond to their racism. The bullies wanting to dictate how the bullied should respond.
It wan’t Australia’s best week. But if we take the right lessons from it some good may come.
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