It has been another onerous few weeks on the “no room for racism” merry-go-round after Fremantle players Michael Walters and Michael Frederick were racially abused on social media following their club’s Naidoc Week win earlier this month. Predictably, there was another incident this weekend, with fresh allegations that a spectator racially abused Carlton defender Adam Saad on Saturday night.
The simplistic slogan partly reflects the widespread ignorance of what racism is, how it functions and the ways in which it appears. But, as a microcosm of Australian society, it is also reflective of the AFL and its clubs, who maintain an unflinching emphasis on growing the game at significant moral and ethical cost.
