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:
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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.
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