Vitriol aimed at Goodes uncalled for

They just didn't know what to do.

Furious Carlton fans, upset that once again the Sydney Swans top player Adam Goodes had kicked another goal against their beloved team, let loose their discourse. Loudly.

That flaming Goodes, that show pony, penalty hunter, the guy who once got a 13-year-old girl thrown out of a game by security and questioned by police because he was too precious over a little wisecrack.

But this time, Goodes' response to their taunts, during a match played in the politically correctly named "Indigenous Round" of AFL football, sent them over the top, and evidently, an entire nation into self-depreciating meltdown.

Goodes, of Aborigine descent through his mother - the Adnyamathanha and Narungga people to be accurate - swung his shoulders and then lifted his arm in the spear position, a tribal war dance.

And so they did the only thing they knew how to do. They booed. And they haven't stopped.

As a Kiwi and a rugby fan I have a familial comfort level with cultural challenges - we see them virtually every week on our fields from the large stadiums down to the school grounds

But the vitriol directed at Goodes, named 2014 Australian of the Year for his community work on education and as an advocate against racism, has only intensified at every game he plays, to the point where the Swan has currently withdrawn himself from competing, with his club crying foul at the racist taunts he has been receiving.

Putting this in perspective, this is a two-time premiership winner, twice Brownlow Medallist (the season's best and fairest award) and four time All-Australian team member, basically the Michael Jordan or Jonah Lomu of his code, turning his back on the thing he loves because he can no longer tolerate the people who watch it.

And what did the 13-year-old call him on that day in 2013? "You big ape".

Goodes pointed out the young lady to security and moments later she was on her way, and a vocal portion of the population was furious ... at Goodes.

Because bringing the law down on a girl? That's just mean. But being called an ape? Meh.

In the wake of the recent war-dance furore, journalists caught up with the girl's mother, who made it clear an apology was still in order from Goodes.

"If he hadn't have carried on like a pork chop it wouldn't have mattered. I don't think he should retire, he should man up and just take it if he wants to play the game," she said.

"She'd only turned 13 five days beforehand. She was technically still 12. She had no idea what she was saying."

I don't quite get how someone five days past their 13th birthday is still "technically" 12, which throws a rather harsh light on the rest of this bastion of wisdom where Goodes should just accept racist wise-cracks, especially if no one took the time to teach the girl different.

Except that Goodes tried. He came out the very next day in the media and asked them to support the girl at the centre of the moral maelstrom.

He hoped for a silver lining, that a lesson had been learned, some positivity around the issue.

There's not knowing, and then there's the old "they just never learn".

This is not to say that unintended through to flagrant racism is unique to Aussie Rules football - read below the online comment posted to my 2014 column which criticised English journalist Oliver Brown for comparing the Ka Mate haka to the Cirque du Soleil.

"This is an English-speaking country in 2014, and not the Maori wars from 1840 something, they're all over now, the 'honkeys' won and the victors now get on with living, they don't do a dance before their games."

The poster signed his name but I will not include it here, lest he get the Walter Palmer treatment - as all and sundry on social media howl for justice against the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe.

Another to unintentionally expose his ignorance was former Brisbane Roar and Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Griffin McMaster, who was furious when Goodes had the nerve to publicly debate Australia's awkward history of colonisation of the indigenous populace.

"Adam Goodes calls Australia Day invasion day. Deport him. If you don't like it leave," McMaster posted to Twitter.

Deportation, a punishment given to illegal overstayers and convicted criminals from another country of origin. So where are we sending Goodes, a native?

McMaster later took down the tweet and apologised.

Australians need to accept one is never to old to learn a lesson, to get a broader prospective, even if it is one that your own parents, and their parents, never thought to teach you.

I will quote Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen, who made an impassioned defence of NFL prospect Michael Sam when the young African American announced he was gay before the NFL draft.

"I don't understand his world, but I do understand that he's part of mine.

"Civil-rights activist Audre Lorde said, 'it is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognise, accept, and celebrate our differences'."