Too many Sooks in the Kitchen

My wife is reading a buzzfeed article about Miranda Tapsell's appearance on the Verdict. On how she spoke about feeling unwelcome at Australia Day celebrations due to being an Aboriginal woman. In reply Miranda receives a torrent of online abuse labelling her a sook. "The problem with the people calling her a sook is that they don't get the irony that if they can't deal with an Indigenous person sharing what life is really like for them, then they're the ones that need to get a thicker skin," she says. A light bulb goes off in my head. She has cut through to where bone and marrow meet. I see a young Aboriginal woman speaking about the racism she has incurred for all of her life; I see Adam Goodes enduring boos and calling out the racism latent within that. I see that when the heat gets turned up there are too many sooks in the kitchen and they are reaching for the all the knives, wooden spoons and oversized forks that they can get their grubby hands on.

Adam Goodes played on in the face of week upon week of booing before he unveiled his war dance of Indigenous pride. Heck, even Jesus held himself in check as he took a tour through the temple before coming back the next day to overturn the tables of the money lenders, chasing them out with a whip. Miranda and Adam don't raise these issues on a whim or after being slighted by the smallest cut. Yet they're told to get a thicker skin? How thick must one's skin get when it takes so many hits? Like the calloused hands of a weightlifter I imagine. They know the colour of their skin. They wear their skin like an armour forged over a lifetime.

When we peel back the onion of those that want to deride Miranda or Adam for their perspectives, that's when the fragile tears come out.  Being sensitive shouldn't be used as an insult anyway. Doesn't telling others to 'man up' as you cry like a snooty brat being told to share the sandpit say a lot about what sort of a person you are?

What seems to get most of the flag waving warriors up in arms is when Indigenous people have something to say about racism or Australia Day (I have written about Australia Day before). Miranda was asked a question and replied honestly that she doesn't identify as an Australian on Australia Day, due to being labelled with racist terms. She got a standing ovation at the Logies when she said "Put more beautiful people of colour on TV, and connect viewers in ways that transcend race and unite us, that's the real Team Australia." She has also shared a story from her school days when she got up in front of the class in response to being bullied with the term half-caste. She asked them why she needed to justify her identity as students who took exception jeered through her whole presentation. Her stand against racism has since changed the hearts of some of those students in later life. So, taking a stand can make a difference.

Adam Goodes said during his Australian of the year acceptance speech that "I believe racism is a community issue which we all need to address and that’s why racism stops with me." There was nothing any right minded person could take exception to in his speech. Months later Adam watched the movie Utopia and penned a response. He detailed how much it hurt to see what had been done in his peoples past and how present Australia wasn't prepared to face its brutal past and further reconcile it. For being honest and taking up a noble cause he has incurred the brunt of Australia's racism. He is carrying a public weight that I cannot even fathom. When someone shares a pain that I don't understand, I want to be the one who listens. Just because I'm white doesn't mean I'm being accused of being racist. Just because I didn't personally commit any of the atrocities visited upon the Indigenous people of Australia does not mean that I have the right to sweep the crumbs under the fridge. Taking exception to any of it being brought up though, that's another matter.

For those planning to never shop at David Jones again because of their choice of Adam Goodes as an ambassador for it's brand; For those that think Miranda should be grateful that she won a Logie or two and just shut up; For those who see no problem with Mr Dutton sending a raped refugee back to offshore detention before she can get counselling or medical assistance; For those who walk side by side with skinheads in UPF and Reclaim Australia; For those who often say "I'm not racist, but..." If I am the sort of person that wants to be able to say that racism stops with me, then what sort of a conclusion am I meant to draw? When someone shares the general pain of their experienced racism; when that pushes a button inside that compels another toward personalised attacks; there's a name for that button.