Adam Goodes kicks goals for Australia's race industry

It may well be the case that the ongoing booing of Adam Goodes has gone beyond the pale of good sportsmanship and crowd decorum. But the saga says little about the state of race relations in Australia.

The central charge laid by the collective efforts of Australia's race-baiting industry is that the fact that Adam Goodes is sometimes booed reveals an ugly racist impulse that is latent in Australian culture. It is one that deserves to be strenuously rejected.

Waleed Aly, a leading lobbyist of Australia's race industry has said that it reveals that Australians are generally tolerant of minorities "until they demonstrate that they don't know their place…the moment a person in a minority position acts as though they're not a mere supplicant then we lose our minds… we say you need to get back in your box."

David Rowe, an intellectual from the University of Western Sydney Agrees, claiming the reason behind the crowd treatment of Goodes is because "he won't be a nice quiet Aboriginal boy who's grateful to be a footballer."

Colin Tatz of the Australian National University is of the same mind "We're pretending that we're one monolithic nation. But when one colour stands out from the crowd, it spills over into something very different."

So let's get this straight. Australians only like minorities who toe the line, know there place, and show appropriate deference to the bigoted white majority.

Since when did the revelry and rancour of fans at live football qualify as serious grounds to bemoan Australia's lack of racial harmony?

This vision of Australian multiculturalism as a hierarchy whereby benighted minorities are held under the thumb of the white ruling class is both fashionable and well rehearsed. But is there a more nuanced explanation behind the Goodes saga other than every boo symbolising an endemic nationwide disdain for 'disobedient' minorities?

In truth, booing has always been a part of live sport. Jason Akermanis was routinely booed for his antics on the AFL field. Cricketers Steve Smith and Shane Warne have also weathered the hectoring of rowdy crowds. Tennis players Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios have been on the receiving end of countless taunts and reprimands in the national media, many of which have been far more acerbic than the heckles of intemperate spectators.

Putting the merits of each of these incidents aside, they share a common feature: people perceived their behaviour as obnoxious, unsportsmanlike or arrogant. Not coincidentally, this is the type of behaviour that has long been shunned by Australian sporting culture.

Were some of the thousands of people who have booed Adam Goodes racially motivated? Quite possibly. But what of those who found Goodes' on field spear throwing antics inflammatory? What of those who remain disappointed that after receiving the high honour of Australian of the year, felt Adam Goodes' decided to deploy the divisive term 'invasion day?' What about those who in the animal high emotion of a live football game simply felt compelled to boo the bravado of an extremely talented player who had probably just scored a goal against their home team?

The view that the Adam Goodes' controversy is more nuanced than blind racism is usually scoffed at by race-baiters, who seem to think white people can't understand racism and therefore aren't allowed an opinion on the subject. Enter Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons:

Like you and I, Alan, like Shane Warne and Jason Akermanis, Smith is part of a racial group in this country that does not have the first freaking clue what it is to be vilified for the colour of our skin alone, to be abused, belittled, marginalised.

FitzSimon's remarks only make sense if you believe that how indigenous people are treated will always have something to do with their nominal status as a benighted underclass, even if they are a well-paid, widely revered elite athlete. Indeed, only this can explain the culture of victimhood propagated by the race commentariat ever since Goodes was shamefully called an "ape" by a 13 year old girl two years ago. FitzSimons and his fellow ambassadors of the race industry have shown themselves incapable of looking at Goodes and his career from any angle other than his anointed status as a race-victim.

This revised history of Goodes' career as a hard luck narrative of Australia's ingrained racial prejudice is epitomised by the words of Daily Life columnist Jenny Noyles:

It seems that the only element of cultural difference Australians can agree to tolerate is food (as long as it's not Halal) – all else must be erased and replaced with white, Christian Aussie values and practices.

Noyles analysis stems from the same jaundiced mindset of the '#illridewithyou' campaign, which earlier this year saw thousands of Australians offering a pre-emptive apology to Muslims over an imaginary racial backlash while people were being held hostage at gunpoint in the Lindt café.

It may be fashionable amongst intellectuals to use every available opportunity to heap scorn over Australia's multicultural credentials. For those willing to step outside the race industry's dichotomy of black victims and white racists however, the news is good.

When racism does rear its head in Australian society, the reproach is swift. The public reaction to the Goodes' ape incident was one unanimous condemnation. The same is true of rare, but highly publicised of racial attacks on public transport. Unlike France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, instances of racially motivated riots are extraordinarily infrequent. The numbers of protestors at recent reclaim Australia rallies – a group opposed to the edicts of Shariah law – were largely dwarfed by anti racism protestors, and condemned across the national media. The Cronulla Riots, perhaps the most prominent incident over the past several decades, is viewed as a shameful blight in our national history.

Considering one in four Australians was born overseas; more than double that of the United Kingdom and United States, the state of Australia's racial harmony is enviable. This is not to say racism doesn't exist in Australia. Instead, it is to point out that on the whole, Australia's credentials as a multicultural society are more good than bad. And despite the cynical opportunism of professional race-baiters, the health of Australian multiculturalism is not something that can be accurately dissected by observing the tribal heckling of opposition players at a football game.