Online racism aimed at Fremantle’s Michael Frederick was the last straw for Shelley Ware and podcast colleague Kate Seear.
Ever since I can remember, racism has impacted my life.
Growing up, I felt it was my brother, Aaron who copped the most of it. He was about the softest, kindest kid you could meet, wouldn’t hurt a fly, and kept to himself. Sadly though, other people couldn’t keep their thoughts to themselves about him simply being born Aboriginal.
I copped my fair share as well. Kids down the street wouldn’t play with me because I was Aboriginal, and at the bus stop on the way to school, people felt entitled to share their feelings about my background.
All significant moments, and they have had long term effects on us, especially in how guarded we are with our hearts, how we love people, and how protective we are of the people we do love.
Most of my childhood I heard the words: “You’re not really Aboriginal, you’re not like the others.” What did that even mean? My brother and I grew up very proud and very connected to our family, culture and country. Our identity was very strong as proud young Aboriginal children, so I never understood what they were getting at.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realised they were drawing on preconceived stereotypes about Aboriginal people. I find that’s one of the main contributors to racism. It’s passed down from generation to generation, often with no new education or personal experience.
So I ask you to ask yourself honestly, was your education at school enough for you to understand the deep impact of past policies that still affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to this day?
Mine wasn’t. We watched one video and it was horrific. It actually made me shut down for years. There was no pre-talk, not post-talk. Just a video about the horrific genocide of my people, and that was it.
Due to my lack of education at school about the truth of this country’s Indigenous history, I have had to educate myself. I’m a huge believer in self-education. Once you have an understanding you can see very clearly why we are in this situation as a country. Why Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people are still working hard for equity and equal opportunity in their own country.
Which leads me to why my fellow “Outer Sanctum Podcast” sister Professor Kate Seear and I wrote a letter and sent it to the Commonwealth Attorney-General Christian Porter.
This year as you may be aware, has been particularly hideous in the world of AFL when it comes to online racism.
I’ve watched player after player racially vilified. I’ve seen their children and families being attacked. I began do what I thought would help by calling out the racism, thinking they would be banned and possibly have their club membership taken from them.
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Then I noticed that when we made reports for what were clearly racial attacks, the social media platforms were not taking the posts down. In fact, they were saying the posts didn’t break their racial vilification policy, so the posts remained visible for all to see.
I was bewildered and knew we had a bigger problem on social media platforms than I realised. I started talking to Kate about what I could do. She suggested writing a letter to the Attorney-General and she said she’d help.
We talked about it for two months, and I didn’t really know where to start. Kate told me to write down in point form all I wanted to see change in terms of legal and policy reforms and she would transform it into a letter good enough to send to the Attorney-General. It became apparent early that Kate and I were now co-authors and both wanted this together.
But it was the latest attack on Fremantle’s Michael Frederick that for me was the last straw.
I was ashamed that a young man who’d come to Australia from South Sudan could be treated this way in this country. In a place where he should feel safe, free to be himself, and welcomed with open arms. I was ashamed. And knew I had to do more.
In short, we have asked the Attorney-General to update our outdated laws that do not protect people from online abuse.
It’s clear that online platforms do not understand the rapidly evolving nature of online vilification in this country, and we asked they have training to gain an understanding.
We would like the e-safety commissioner to have more power to act swiftly to remove harmful posts. To make “burner” accounts a thing of the past, so fake user profiles can no longer be created for the sole purpose of trolling and producing racist content online.
If a person is found guilty, we ask that they are removed from the social media platform and not allowed back on until they have received some form of cultural awareness training.
In three days, we got 100 people to rally in support of and sign the letter. They were people from all walks of life, chief executives of AFL clubs, current players like the Western Bulldogs’ Lin Jong, Melbourne’s Neville Jetta, Brisbane AFLW’s Ally Anderson, and past players like Gavin Wanganeen, Adam Goodes and Meg Hutchins.
That was just from the football world. There was also a long list also of amazing Australians from other spheres who wanted to stand with us and share their voice.
Footballers being abused in these arenas are part of my motivation, but it’s also that to me they are just people with children and families in their lives who been impacted by it as well. And that is the most important driving force. That those children should grow up free from this racism. They are for whom who we do this.
You, too, can add your name and voice to the letter by heading to the “Outer Sanctum Podcast” website. The letter is there for you to read and to add your name. And I truly believe that for this generation and the next, together we actually can make a difference.
