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A tale of two racists

By Stephen Hagan - posted Thursday, 11 September 2008


To their credit Christine said the police officer curtly said to the security guard "No you won't be moving her, she has done nothing wrong - they need to be moved".

Christine said she was pleasantly surprised by the police officer’s response but was disappointed when only one of the racists was removed from the stand while the other remained in his seat. With a wry grin she commented that the evicted racist’s new view of the game was poor and it was freezing cold and he would have found it “uncomfortable away from his mate and beer supply”.

To my surprise the story didn’t end there as Christine continued with more bad news. “Upon having one racist removed the second racist gutlessly waited for the police to leave and started screaming obscenities in my face. I once again said calmly ‘you were warned’ and proceeded to walk down the stand to get the police, but as I was walking away he got up to go after me and a lady sitting two seats away from me stood up and blocked him.”

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By now I was fast developing a picture in my mind: of the chaos engulfing Christine’s immediate personal space in the grandstand and all active players in this most unfortunate event, as it unfold.

Christine continued: “Not deterred the racists started to push her (the other woman) around and her son starting screaming with terror. The woman’s husband quickly stood up to push him out the way and this delayed the racist a bit and by the time I was half way down the police, observing events, quickly ascended the flight of stairs past me to apprehend the perpetrator.”

“By this time my husband and son, who had been seated in another section of the stand and were unaware of previous events, spotted the commotion and on reaching me escorted me back to my seat. My husband and son took the two seats vacated by the racists to deter anymore outbursts from other drunks in our vicinity.”

Christine said she found out later that the racist who had first been evicted from the stand continued to aggressively protest his eviction and was eventually kicked out of the grounds altogether. His partner-in-crime also saw the outside of the stadium soon after and well before the full time siren sounded.

I thanked Christine for her strength and courage in the face of adversity and wished her well in her social justice endeavours.

As I sit and think about the plethora of exciting TV footy on display this weekend I am constantly drawn back to Christine’s amazing story and Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe prophetic words: “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

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About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

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