"Who do the white men think will win?"

[pokerspiv]

The 'Hadlee is a ******' chant isn't worth comparison. Masturbation has no sexual-choice or specificity. Gay, Bi, Het, whatever: we all masturbate. In fact, the Hadlee chant was one of lamest ( or best, depending on your position) chants ever, as it simply said: "you do what we all do, regardless of your sexuality". Ouch!

I disagree re Sydney too, I think the SFC gets the 'gay tag' due to its relationship with a city that is well known to have a more liberal attitude toward homosexuality. Sydney is among the most gay-friendly cities in the world - this is certainly what the 'chanters' are playing on when they sing songs about SFC players taking it up the arse.

Do only gay people take it up the arse? Don't tell my girlfriend please.

And this in a game where the highlights reel contains a white man kissing a black man on the field while the game was still going. So much racism and homophobia!

 

[coldlunch]

the article is a dumb, sensationalist, alarmist, gross exaggeration of a real problem, which ironically also describes most of everyone in this thread.

 

[Fevola99]

Perhaps the people chanting "Sydney take it up the arse" knew she was from the Age and were suggesting a headline for the match report.

 

[Jakko]

There probably wasn't even a halal or organic menu at the food outlets!

Time to boost the crowd numbers, and all patrons be accompanied by an AFL ambassador/guardian. Boos will only be tolerated if the national commentators approve. Any swear word yelled in anger will incur a fine which will go into the COLA fund.

And where was the gay communities representation in the pregame entertainment?



We have so far to go.

 

[Darth Docomo]

I've spent a couple of hours reading tweets, the article and various comments...

Conclusion.

The 'doo-dahs' happened. The booing happened. The racism probably happened. The 5 white men happened. The issue with the security guard probably happened. The Swans getting smashed abso-f**king-lutely happened.

Why she chose to write this piece, I'll never know. But it smacks of self-promotion. Much in the same way I'm typing this out on Bigfooty... I want people to notice me and like me... But I also want to contribute in a meaningful way to the discussion. Erin Riley's article was a me, me, me piece. I'm so happy she's out and about in our society to get offended on behalf of everyone.

The doo-dahs. Juvenile. Theres no malice there and a 'reasonable' person wouldn't get offended by it. They'd shake their heads and say 'grow up'

The boos. Warranted. I hate Adam Goodes. Undeserving AOTY. Undeserving Dual Brownlow medallist (I'll give him one, the other was a love-in). Diver. Sook. Thug. He happens to be aboriginal. I hate Joel Selwood with the same passion. Ducker. Bleeder. Sook. Deserving runner-up brownlow medallist. HAH! He happens to be white. Am I racist in one regard and a sports fanatic in the other? My three favourite players are Roughead, Cyril and Houli. A red-head, aboriginal and muslim. I also have a lot of man-love for Matt Spangher to the point where I'd have a crack after a few beers. *gasp* homosexual humour. By the way... Rohan "shining knight" Connolly... booing happens in world sport. Some might have nefarious intentions behind their boos. Others see him purely for the good opposition player, diver, sook and thug he is.

The racism. Unwarranted. There's your platform Erin.

The all-white panel. Credibility. Any you had leading into this opinion piece is now gone. I'd be working out a way you can retract this with your editor. Shameful. You've undermined everything you've tried to achieve by demanding equality. Those positions are earned. As someone mentioned before, you've taken a swipe at 3 legends and 2 greats. You owe them an unreserved apology. And... Nic Nat was on the panel. Sam Lane sits in regularly. They even let Lingy have a go. *gasp* red-head humour.

The security guard. Fair call. If that's what happened. There's another level to add to your soapbox

The swans getting smashed. Another platform. And I don't mind if you take offense on behalf of all Swans supporters on that one. They were horrible.

Still love Buddy though.

 

[dumb]

The 'Hadlee is a ******' chant isn't worth comparison. Masturbation has no sexual-choice or specificity. Gay, Bi, Het, whatever: we all masturbate. In fact, the Hadlee chant was one of lamest ( or best, depending on your position) chants ever, as it simply said: "you do what we all do, regardless of your sexuality". Ouch!

I disagree re Sydney too, I think the SFC gets the 'gay tag' due to its relationship with a city that is well known to have a more liberal attitude toward homosexuality. Sydney is among the most gay-friendly cities in the world - this is certainly what the 'chanters' are playing on when they sing songs about SFC players taking it up the arse.

Agreed, gay has come to mean 'lame'. I'm fine with language, and vernacular in particular, shifting. But when the Hawthorn fans sing this kind of song do you really believe that they are referring to Sydney as being just 'lame'? When they sing that Sydney players take it up the arse, do you really believe they are just saying that the SFC is 'lame', without a sexual connotation? Come on, I highly doubt it.

With regard the journo in question, she has heard and watched racist and homophobic behavior and has reported on that. This is all she has done. This thread says it never happened because posters don't want to believe it, or view it as irrelevant (both of which are telling). But this was her day at the football. That is all.

I find what she has to say to be sadly true. I think racism, and homophobia especially, is well and alive amongst viewers of our game. And I agree with her: the AFL pays lip service to stamping this out, with 'feel good' inclusive rounds, which are ultimately hollow. But I've been to games where players like Goodes are racially abused. I've been to games where the Swans are the but (pun vaguely intended) of homophobic comments. The AFL claim to want an inclusive environment, but in reality they understand that it is rednecks that swell its coffers. So lip service it will always be. The red-kneckery of Big footy is testament to that.

saying the afl's efforts to stamp out the inappropriate ism's are hollow is like saying the afl's efforts via the pink/women round to rid the world of breast cancer have failed. i agree that there is a hollow and ineffectual nature to these themed rounds (and they pick the low-hanging fruit to cash in on), but ultimately the afl can only do so much anyway in the face of something so pervasive, you know? i certainly don't expect the afl to solve red-neckery any more than i expect them to cure breast cancer. they could police the crowd better, but then what? even erin would have to acknowledge that you have to draw the line somewhere with what you can report to a security guard on the grounds of offensiveness. i have no doubt that was crossed at the GF and should have been dealt with when necessary. but you get a group of 100,000 people together, and somehow 'get rid of' all the ism's, you're still not going to be able to legislate into non-existence every possible upsetting comment. do i let the security guard know if one of the crowd has called a player ugly? hell, even her hero mr lumumba thought it was ok to call tom hawkins fat.

 

[boncer34]

I like how the bitter Swans fan made sure to tell us it was Hawthorn fans.

 

[Reece2106]

The biggest problem with this piece is that she's drawing a tenuous link between the apparent crudeness and the sport itself. Get 100,000 Australians together for anything -footy, soccer or sewing - and there'll be pockets of racists, homophobes and sexists.

The AFL, in my opinion, is one of the most forward-thinking bodies regarding racism, given all the attention that has been given to Goodesy and the like. At the end of the day, it's a pretty straightforward message not to be racist and it's not the AFL's fault if there are still bigoted members of the community that don't comprehend that.

And as many posters have already pointed out, the 'white men' commentary team critique is utter rubbish. We should all be supporting a meritocracy rather than putting a less qualified person in the box for the sake of filling a gender/ethnic quota. Why doesn't this author tell us the name of all these Indigenous and female broadcasters she feels have been cast aside due to some kind of structural racism?

If I hear a racist jibe at the train station, I can't turn around and say Metro Trains has a racism problem; why should this be any different?

 

[Nikita Blue]

Sounds like your typical tumblard sjw feminazi. They hate straight white men with a burning passion. Sick of these campaigners spewing out their buzzword bullshit online let alone in the ******* newspaper!

Thank you Rush Limbaugh

 

[hitthepost]

Anyone notice that the "evidence" of the "Who do the white men think will win?" header from Channel 7 doesn't even show it?

Annnnnnd she's in backtrack mode:

Channel Seven didn't call them "white men", her FRIEND did!

 

[Spook]

Crikey. As someone who is part Aboriginal (1/16th) and had an Italian Father,.

So you are 15/16th "white man" so was she point at you as well

Btw great post.

 

[Ron The Bear]

What's her take on the corporate box stripper? Surely she was corrupting the morals of young men...

 

[DAWESOME!!]

Don't necessarily agree with everything Ms Riley said, but jeez some guys on here have absolutely proven several of her points. In this thread, I've seen threats of sexual violence towards her, her labelled a ****, and being told that women shouldn't write as they should only concentrate on being sex toys for their men. Some guys on here seriously need to grow up, cos that's pathetic.

 

[Hawthorn United]

Yeah it's nice how its all Hawthorn supporters which are sexists, racists and homophobic. Way to be anti discrimination while discriminating another.

I'm sure her fellow Swan fans are too, just a shame we couldn't hear a peep from them all game.

 

[Hawthorn United]

Yeah it's nice how its all Hawthorn supporters which are sexists, racists and homophobic. Way to be anti discrimination while discriminating another.

I'm sure her fellow Swan fans are too, just a shame we couldn't hear a peep from them all game.

 

[stellation]

I imagine this thread is the sort of reaction one would see on a Tea Party forum after an episode of The Daily Show.

 

[DAWESOME!!]

Yeah it's nice how its all Hawthorn supporters which are sexists, racists and homophobic. Way to be anti discrimination while discriminating another.

I'm sure her fellow Swan fans are too, just a shame we couldn't hear a peep from them all game.

See, it is possible to disagree with her without making misogynist or rapey comments!

 

[clogged]

Dear opposition,

You do something obscene with or share similar qualities to genitalia.

Regards,

Fanbase.

 

[Topkent]

This whole racist sexist homophobic PC bullshit has gone so far off track that it doesn't get to the issue anymore

Saying racist/sexist things etc does not make you those things , because just like calling your mate a ******** it's either funny or it's not funny ....

Treating people differently because of there choices is the issue

True equality would be to have a white man , a black man , a gay, a Christian an Islamic a midget etc all in a room together hanging shit on each other and having a laugh


By not being able to make fun of people your only heightening the supposed 'differences'

 

[Boston tiger]

This whole racist sexist homophobic PC bullshit has gone so far off track that it doesn't get to the issue anymore

Saying racist/sexist things etc does not make you those things , because just like calling your mate a ******** it's either funny or it's not funny ....

Treating people differently because of there choices is the issue

True equality would be to have a white man , a black man , a gay, a Christian an Islamic a midget etc all in a room together hanging shit on each other and having a laugh


By not being able to make fun of people your only heightening the supposed 'differences'

Isn't best to be to safe and if you don't know the person really well just say something nice or nothing at all.

 

[Hawker55]

I booed Goodes on the weekend for the same reason I booed Jimmy Bartel - great players both, who stage for frees and have become unlikable on the field as they've aged. I think Goodes does some fantastic work in indigenous reconciliation and should be applauded for that - more players should use their profiles to raise uncomfortable issues. If I could pick a player to meet and have a chat with, Goodes would be right up there.

I'm sure there are some flogs out there who boo him because they are racist idiots, and it's unfortunate that a lot of them use the fact it's acceptable to boo at a game as cover for getting that out of their systems. But you have to remember Buddy got booed at the game too and it wasn't because he was part Aboriginal - and anyone who suggested that would be laughed out of town I'd imagine.

I'm curious as to why she didn't use the systems that are in place (text message line for example) to get this looked at. I've only ever had to use it once when some idiot in front of me had had too much to drink and was swearing at some 10 year olds and security took it very seriously. I find it hard to believe that a security guard would not take that kind of complaint seriously, but it's not like there weren't police officers there who would have done.

 

[Topkent]

Isn't best to be to safe and if you don't know the person really well just say something nice or nothing at all.

That's paradise, but if people are too insecure to handle these things then that's not others problem

It's INsecurity, that's your issue and you need to ask yourself why your so fixated on what other people say

 

[MightyHawks]

You would think that there would have been a similar number of racist/homophobic/sexist comments made at the 2012 and 2014 Grand Finals

There are 100,000 people at a Grand Final after all

Incredibly noticeable that she didn't sit down after the 2012 Grand Final to write this article for the Sydney Morning Herald

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I think the article is pretty laughable, but this thread, wow

 

[Lance Uppercut]

This **** seriously has about as much of an idea about football as most men would on periods. The fact firstly she gets the line of her story wrong says she was up shit creek with no idea from the outset.

are you serious? You call her a **** to disprove her point?

Scumbag behaviour