Great Acts of Dissent: A look back in time

[stoliboy]

A good article from the National Indigenous Times on 'Great Acts of Dissent' in which Collingwood gets two mentions.

Firstly, for the Nicky Winmar incident. Secondly, for a Collingwood Cheersquad banner that made light of racial vilification allegations by Michael Long and another Aboriginal player.

Great Acts of Dissent: A look back in time
National Indigenous Times
Issue 97
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=6371

Proud to be Black

For many Australians, AFL is a religion. And for St Kilda supporters, Neil Elvis Winmar, aka Nicky, was - and remains - their spiritual leader.

But for many Indigenous Australians, Winmar is even bigger than God.

In 1993, Winmar was being racially (and relentlessly) abused by a pocket of angry Collingwood supporters. They were furious that Winmar had spent the entire match tearing the Magpies’ defence to pieces.

Fed up with the abuse, Winmar eventually turned to the Collingwood faithful, lifted his shirt and pointed to his black skin.

The gesture was captured by a photographer on the ground and the image was beamed around the world.

Winmar became the face of Aboriginal resistance to the ugly face of sporting racism.


A Long fight against racism

Michael Long, another AFL legend, followed in the footsteps of Winmar in 1995, when he forced the football code to confront racism in sport head-on.

After an Anzac Day match, Long complained to officials that he had been racially abused by a player in front of several referees.

Long’s club, Essendon, backed him and lodged an official complaint with the AFL.

The code’s hierarchy promptly set about trying to hush the whole incident up.

After more than a week of intense media scrutiny, the AFL held a press conference and announced the complaint had been successfully settled, but that no penalty would be imposed against the offending player.

The AFL was hoping Long would cop it on the chin. He didn’t. And neither did the Essendon Football Club, its coach Kevin Sheedy or the other Aboriginal players in the AFL.

They kicked up an almighty stink. The AFL held out, but two weeks later, a second Aboriginal player came forward alleging he had been racially abused.

It sparked a fresh round of media scrutiny. The AFL was facing a public relations diaster.

It publicly released a letter admitting racism was a problem in sport.

Two months after Long’s original complaint, the AFL introduced a racial vilification rule.

Long’s legacy lasts to this day... although it did take some clubs a while to catch on.

In response to the new rule, the Collingwood Cheer Squad’s pre-game banner carried the message ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me’. A letter writer to a daily Melbourne newspaper best summed up the feelings of the majority of AFL fans when he suggested Collingwood should change its acronym title from CFC to KKK. No wonder everyone hates Collingwood.

[stoliboy]

I should just add that I am posting this article for two reasons. Firstly, it is about Collingwood, but secondly, the good things that came out of these incidents were greater awareness of racial vilification and the subsequent AFL laws.

Collingwood has done a lot over recent time to improve its relationship with the Aboriginal Community.

Ben

[burnsy17]

Once again something 'anti' collingwood is used to make news....

I wonder why the article points out 2 incidents involving Collingwood players / supporters racially abusing opposition, but fails to mention many of the other non Collingwood related incidents, or maybe the Michael Prior / Robbie Ahmat episode a few years back........

[bazdaddy]

[Zakal]

I think the article somes up the reason why best. "no wonder everyone hates collingwood."

Gee, hating and targeting a group of people purely because they all wear black and white.....i wonder what that sounds like....hmmmmm.....

[loki04]

Before you read on please note I am not a racist and I have friends of all descents but I do not agree that Aboriginals should get all the benefits or the sympathy that they do. Just because the news shows footage of people choosing to live in a remote part of Australia does not mean that the majority of them live like that.


It's OK for Aboriginals to call us white pr.cks etc etc the only diff is we don't put up a stink about it we think, well yeah we are so what ?
So how bout you drag up all the gang bashings and gang rapes that the Aboriginals do and get let off of on here , no that won't happen because they are just poor miss understood people who need all the benefits the government and the AFL can find. I think you will find that if you moved to a small city or town your attitudes towards them would change.
ffs they get every advantage you could think of and yet people like Long want more: they have jobs just for them , more newborn immunisations available for free to them , more money and concesions off centrelink , thgey get car loans where they only have to make the first 3 payments and guess what if they stop the government pays the rest and now they have special AFL scholarship schools that are Aboriginal only and add that to the long list of AFL things they have like Aboriginal-Allstars,team of the century ect even the AFL site has a picture of an aboriginal holding a footy where you select team news (bottom left hand corner of AFL homepage).

As for the greater awareness of racial vilification, yeah if racism only applies to a black person because there is alot of racist remarks that get said on the field to white people too!

[3rd degree]

Are you off your soap box yet buddy? or is that 20,000 packs of colvan chips on your shoulder?

[MagpieMad]

[pietillidie]

loki04, why stop there? Why not start ripping into single mothers, the unemployed or perhaps the disabled? You may regret missing this prime opportunity to make yourself feel good at the expense of others.

It is far easier to scapegoat a minority with your disappointments than to look in the mirror and deal with them yourself.

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

loki04 it's not the place to say those things - did you actually mean to say them to yourself in your head, but accidently found yourself typing it on the computer?

I was at Vic park when Winmar did the jumper (I used to stand under the press box on the wing). Every time an aboriginal player was at Vic Park there was the occasional racist slur coming from somewhere, but quite often other collingwood supporters would tell them to shut up - including yours truly. On that day it was particularly bad, but it wasn't like the whole crowd was going sick, it was "certain sections" of the crowd that were also fond of throwing the odd half-full can of VIC (couldn't throw a full one) at opposition flankers.

When he pulled up the jumper the crowd went berko, but i was pretty pleased with him for doing it and gave him a clap. Collingwood at the time had Allan McAlister at the helm, the old boy was not exactly a poster boy for reconciliation, and this incident helped change the culture at many clubs that didn't have any aboriginal players. We know all do - and are very happy about it as aboriginal players seem to bring added excitement to a game that is already pretty bloody exciting!

[Robbo.D.yobbo]

all i got to say is what about rex hunt callin leon a black dog
or aHmat being called some ''nasty''names by michael prior
u c my friends collingwood doesent get cared about by any club or any one exept our own kind

but loki04 sum things u say is right like the white P***** bit but im not a racist

[bazdaddy]

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

[Eunos]

Rex Hunt is a rascist arsehole.

You read it here first!

[Eunos]