Booing Not Racist, But Cut It Out.

The Oxford dictionary defines racism as “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior; The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

To the detriment of Society, the current trend perpetuated by the media, political parties and special interest groups, is to redefine “isms” by reference to an individual's or group's subjective interpretation of another person's words and/or actions, rather than assessing that other persons's intentions and objective realities.

The Adam Goodes booing scenario highlights this point. I don’t believe that any of the people who booed Adam Goodes did so based on their belief that their own race was superior to Adam Goodes. Amongst other reasons for the heckling may include that Goodes sometimes stages for free kicks, antagonises the crowd, and may even be the best player of the heckler's opposition team. Yet the fact that Adam Goodes has subjectively interpreted this banter as racist, seems all that is required for many to feel empowered to label everyone who has booed Goodes a “racist”. Adam Goodes may well believe that it is racist. That’s his right. When we interpret a set of circumstances we arrive at our conclusions due to our personal past experiences, our individual values and beliefs, but this is precisely why we should never label a person or persons based on subjective criteria.

This isn’t just a phenomenon with racism. This extends to the lables of Sexism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, and so on. By using subjective means to justify labels, or worse the Machiavellian use of it to stifle debate or attack someone’s character, only serves to dilute the term, rendering it meaningless.

People do not deserve to be labelled something as vile as racist if they are not. It is a man’s intentions that are of import not the way he is interpreted. Let’s knock it off.

Oh, and don’t boo Adam Goodes anymore. This whole thing has obviously affected him negatively, even to the point of him considering quitting the AFL. That should be enough for reasonable people to cut it out.