Adam Goodes Calls Out Spectator's Racist Comment
The Huffington Post | By Alana Horowitz | Posted: 05/26/2013 12:44 pm EDT | Updated: 05/26/2013 2:48 pm EDT
An Australian rules football player is being praised after calling out a fan's racist remark on Friday night. During the game, a teenage spectator called Sydney Swans forward Adam Goodes-- who is Indigenous-- an "ape" as he ran by. Goodes responded by pointing the girl out to security, who then escorted off the premises.
Goodes was shaken up, especially because the match was meant to be a celebration of Indigenous players. "To come to the boundary line and hear a 13 year old girl call me an 'ape', and it's not the first time on a footy field that I've been referred to as a 'monkey' or an 'ape', it was shattering," he told the ABC.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called his response "something we can look up to." "His words and actions today displayed the highest levels of respect and fairness - qualities he carries on and off the field," she said, according to the Herald Sun.
Goodes said that the teenager called him later to apologize. "It's not her fault, she's 13, she's still so innocent, I don't put any blame on her," he said. "Unfortunately it's what she hears, in the environment she's grown up in that has made her think that it's OK to call people names."
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