ICYMI: During the AFL Showdown on the weekend, a young woman wearing a Port Adelaide FC scarf was filmed throwing a banana at Adelaide FC forward Eddie Betts during the game.
Since, the woman has had her PAFC membership revoked, and both clubs have made statements condemning the incident and briefly attempting to explain the obvious racial overtones of what occurred.
The whole thing – including the woman’s defiant reaction afterwards – was filmed by another attendee, who was sitting just behind her:
Social media has been ablaze with commentary about the incident, which is deeply reminiscent of the horrendous abuse towards Sydney FC captain Adam Goodes last year, which largely contributed towards his decision to retire.
Now, the woman has allegedly ‘gone into hiding’ due to the strong backlash on social media, and due to the fact her face was clearly captured in the above video.
The Advertiser spoke to the women’s mother, who was clearly not happy about the weekend’s events, said that her daughter wasn’t home but she couldn’t say where’d she’d gone.
She had some ever-so-eloquent responses to the media outlet’s questions:
“I am not going to talk to anyone about it, especially from The Advertiser.“She is going to talk to the clubs, and maybe the police, but she is not going to talk to you.“I am tired. I don’t like being rude to people but I am going to shut the door now.Are you the police? Well then if not, I am not going to ask you to leave.”
When asked if her daughter was considering a public apology, her mother told the reporter,
“We are not going to say anything publicly. I am not going to talk to you. Anything she will say will be to said to the clubs in question.”
The accused woman has completed removed herself from social media (she was a “prolific” user of Facebook), and has reportedly made it quite hard for the club who she so dearly loves to contact her.
While many are attempting to deny this incident is racially motivated, it’s pretty fucking hard to logically explain why someone would randomly throw a banana at a sportsperson.
There has to be a reason, and if the action wasn’t an attempt to remind Betts of a long-dead racial stereotype that contributed to the othering, oppression and vilification of black communities across the globe, then we’d really bloody like to know what exactly it was.
Source: The Advertiser.
Photo: Will Bishop / Facebook.
