Footballers speak for the ugly racist in us all
Updated
So it seems there are pockets of backward racist thinking in football codes other than rugby league. Who knew.
Former Richmond hard man Mal Brown has referred to Aboriginal AFL players as "cannibals" thus demonstrating the benefit of all the hard work the AFL has put into race relations. In the NRL - well at least those parts of it inhabited by the likes of NSW assistant coach Andrew Johns - Aboriginals are still "black c**ts". This is progress.
And off we go, another media feasting, another day or two of righteous, chest thumping, finger pointing frenzy.
Even Melbourne's Herald Sun - a paper happy on other pages on other days to run reams denying the very existence of the Stolen Generations, to routinely demonise asylum seekers and to happily vilify African migrants as vicious thugs - stamps its front page this morning with an angry "Black slur". Well they should know.
There are all sorts of awkward truths behind the over-loud protests at the actions of the likes of Johns and Brown. Yes they misspoke. Yes, what they said was awkward and yes, it was certainly offensive. And so we heap on our disapproval... but what does this anger disguise? Do we protest too much?
Mal Brown might have used that other c word, the Australian media is appalled and will certainly demand he be censured and disgraced, but elsewhere the everyday life of Australia goes on.
Aboriginal men had, at 2001 figures, a life expectancy of 59.4 years, females 64.8 years: a gap compared to the general Australian population of approximately 17 years.
Approximately twice as many low birth-weight infants were born to Indigenous women compared to those born to non-Indigenous women over 2001 and 2004. Aboriginal children under one year of age are also six times more likely to die from ill-defined conditions, including sudden infant death syndrome.
Indigenous children up to the age of four are three times more likely to die from injury or poisoning.
The rate of low birth-weight babies born to Aboriginal mothers increased by 16 per cent between 1991 and 2005.
Some remote Aboriginal communities have illiteracy rates of more than 90 per cent. In Queensland, at year 5 level in 2003, only 55.5 per cent of Indigenous students reached the benchmark achieved by 78.4 of all boys and 84.8 per cent of all girls.
Almost one in eight Indigenous people have a long-term heart or heart-related condition. They are 1.3 times more common for Indigenous than for non-Indigenous people. High blood pressure is 1.5 times more common.
Nine per cent of Indigenous people in remote communities have diabetes. This is three times the national average. Indigenous people are almost twice as likely to be hospitalised for mental and behavioural disorders than other Australians. Almost one in 10 Indigenous children aged four to 14 years has experienced an eye or sight problem.
Aboriginal people represent only 2.3 per cent of the total population, yet over 14 per cent of Australia's prison population are Aboriginal people.
But hey, let's get really angry about Andrew Johns and Mal Brown. They're the racists, right?
Jonathan Green is the editor of The Drum.
Topics: race-relations, community-and-society, aboriginal, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-culture, health, australia
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