The face of racism rears its ugly head once again. Last Friday
night, a number of Manly Sea Eagles fans allegedly hurled, among other things, racial
abuse at Ben Barba, Dene Halatau and the wife of Frank Pritchard (as she sat in
the Brookvale Oval stands).
There are also accusations
of spitting at Barba and Halatau. I mean, it doesn’t get much lower does it? So,
where is the uproar? Where is the condemnation of this behaviour and why has
the Manly board not been forced to front a rabid media scrum, waiting to fill
its pages with actual drama, rather than the manufactured kind? When do we see the
ramifications? Or even an attempt at justice?
Manly have nothing to hide, do they? Or is Chairman Mr
Rick Penn still under investigation for racial vilification? Did he, whilst in
a board meeting, use one of the most offensive terms you could possibly use to
colleague and proud Samoan, Darrell Williams a month ago? Williams says yes and
was insulted enough to write this
letter.
So let’s not generalise at this point about the entire Northern
Beaches district. Let’s just say that Rick Penn of Penn Sport, Co-owner of the
Manly Sea Eagles, has his racial demons… and then let’s say that a few Manly
locals have theirs as well. Let’s move on? Perhaps we are too sensitive these
days? No.
26 June 2005. Bulldogs at Brookvale. Friends and I attend
on a wet and grey Sunday afternoon. Second half – the crowd turns on us after
we celebrate another Bulldogs try. “You rapists!”… Not so much racially
charged, but at the height of Bulldogs hatred around the NRL, it was not a
shock. But then this – ‘you dirty wogs, why don’t you go back to where you came
from?”. A good question. It does take ages to get out of the Brookvale car park,
(there isn’t one) so maybe with the result a forgone conclusion, we should
leave early? No. My mate decides it’s time to make a stand against our new
friend, “But I live in North Sydney!”…
Imagine if this happened at ANZ stadium and a Bulldogs
fan was accused of abuse or intimidation of a visiting Manly fan. Can you even
imagine what would happen if a Canterbury Bankstown supporter spat at a player?
Your local tabloid would launch a six page spread and your trusted free-to-air
TV station would launch a full scale investigation, hosted by the great Danny Wielder.
It may have even pushed sexism and politics to the middle pages. Maybe.
So, back to Brookvale on that beautiful day - the game finishes
and the lovely woman who hurled the aforementioned abuse is sitting, forlorn.
Her beloved Sea Eagles trudge off the field with their heads down – but her son
approaches my mate, offers him a handshake. Perhaps the next generation won’t
have as tough a time.
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