Well I've been called a "big ape" before. I'm neither black nor look anything like an ape (my opinion). I didn't take offence as to whether I was big, or a Neanderthal type, primate looking or whatever.
To split hairs a bit (no pun intended), I've never heard Indigenous people called apes before, but I remember a few years back when Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds was taunted with monkey chants when playing in India. I think Harbhajan Singh may have said something to him as well? It caused a little ripple but nothing much eventuated.
There have been numerous incidents in soccer with black players (mainly overseas, in Europe) getting monkey chants and bananas thrown on the pitch. Is calling someone an ape the same? It may well be to some.
But the question has been raised before, if it was a grand final and it was a close game, would Goodes have walked off? I guess we'll never know. Didn't Goodes state that he'd heard worse or similar before? Why hadn't he raised the issue? Was it because it was the Indigenous Round that it brought it to a head, or did he want to imitate Nicky Winmar to some degree? (cynical?) there was even a photo with Goodes emulating Winwars pose, he may have been pissed off with what was said, but my opinion (for what it's worth) was it a massive over reaction, with his pointing the finger and storming off.I think a finger waggle would have got the point across, rather than security escorting and holding the young girl for a couple of hours.
The other point, and I'm only going by the footage, was of the collingwood "supporter" yelling out to the umpire, "give it Goodes, he's black" and "give to Jetta, he's black" and "it's Indigenous round umpire". It's been highlighted in the media as racist comments. For the life of me, I don't see it as racist. As I said, I'm only going on what was shown or printed, if he called them black @&$?!s, I could accept it as racist comments or vilification.
Maybe I need educating on what's racist about those remarks, I'm open to it.
