BAM! (shhhh) wrote:
Personally, I think Raph cops far more than his mistakes warrant. Before throwing out the racism card though, I suggest people remember:
This is the club of Nicky Winmar, and anyone who followed the Saints through the 90s was a Winmar fan.
Personally, I think AFL football is still a racist workplace. I find indiginous round, with it's racial profiling (newsflash, Liam Jurrah is not a small forward!) and condescending admiration of "freakish" skills built up as a result of lack of schooling and jobs to be sickening... but, I reckon St Kilda is ahead of the curve. The Clarke's came through St Mary's, an example of fotty as a positive force, and especially in Raph's case, IMO they don't fit the profile.
Neither did Winmar, who was embraced.
For mine, any Saints supporter spraying any player based on race isn't really a Sainter... we do ride our whipping boys though, and this time round, the whipping boy is black.
Fair post BAM!
Winmar was loved by Saints fans but we didn't have the internet in the 8-s and 90's and I would suspect there would have been some overtly racial threads about Nicky's misdemeaners at the Saints. I can imagine the haters out there drawing a correlation between Nicky's walk out of the club in 93 and his aborigality.
I heard Winmar racially abused on many occasions - i heard other indegineous players racially abused in that time as well. in 95 I was next to a Saints fan that kept up a chant of "get back to Wogland" toward Carlton - because - obviously being a "wog" meant they were inferior to the white Saints fans
Racists are much more cunning nowdays because of the terrific racial discrimination laws we have in this country.
I firmly believe there is an agenda toward Raph not based on his football ability. However I must stress that this is a small minority who ring radio stations and post on Facebook.
The vast majority of critisism toward Raph by supporters is objective. I have critisised his football, so have many others with some justification.
The issue is the cowards who come on here and Facebook and subjectively abuse Raph to an intolerable level. They deserve to be called out and asked to explain their agenda.
If that makes them uncomfortable - bad luck. Racism makes the victim more than just uncomfortable and it is to be attacked at every opportunity.
You are correct BAM. STKFC as an organisation, the AFL as an organisation, and the VAST majority of fans, are ahead of the game on racism.
The AFL has done a great job, so has the STKFC. But the fight is never ended. Race and hatred will always rear its head, and when it does it needs to be called and attacked in kind.