mxlegend99
Referee
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SourceIndigenous players, it's time to take a stand: back Timana and boycott Origin
ANTHONY MUNDINE
June 13, 2010
Indigenous players and other coloured players in the NSW and Queensland teams should boycott Wednesday night's State of Origin in support of Timana Tahu. Racism is still a big problem in rugby league and Australian society in general and it is beyond time that something was done.
Timana has taken a stand and I applaud him for his courage. So would every other player of indigenous or Polynesian heritage, and any good-willed Australian.
But Timana needs to see their support and any coloured boy who has played State of Origin should speak out about this issue. Unless the league takes some action, all indigenous players and coloured players should stand down from Origin II. This has gone on for far too long.
If Joey has to be sacked and anyone who has supported him has to be stood down, any good-willed Australian would support that because they know that what has happened is wrong.
When Joey said something offensive about Greg Inglis, he also offended Timana and every Aborigine.
But the oppressor is still in his job and the person who has been oppressed has been forced to leave the team. How does that work?
When I was playing I said there was racism in rugby league. I have talked about this forever, I said it all through my football career and nothing has changed. It happens time and time again and this is another prime example at the highest level. If nothing is done now, then nothing will change.
It is basically just indoctrinated into the Australian culture and it is passed on from generation to generation. The system still allows it and that's why there is racism.
Being indigenous, we have always been made to feel like we are inferior and the whites are superior. It is still that way in society but it is just not spoken about.
There is no education. No policies have been introduced in schools or in sport or in our culture to prevent that. We aren't made to feel that we are equal so we are always up against it. We have got to play two or three times better than everyone else to get picked in representative teams. We're constantly fighting for equality.
But it takes a brave man to stand up against it and that is why I am so supportive of Timana. It takes a lot of manhood to stand up and fight injustice the way he has done, not just for this generation but for the generations to come.
He's always playing the race card. Everything that anyone does is somehow racist... and it's getting old. How is playing the race card not being racist? He's the one who thinks race is the issue when it's not.
How is Anthony Mundine referring to white people as "the whites" any less racist then anything others have said? He's slandering white people here. He's lumped them all into one group and called them "the whites".
He claims the NSW State of Origin team is racist. Yet he was picked for that team 3 times. If race was an issue, he never would have been picked. The fact is that he was an overrated player (by himself mostly) and that other players that were available were better. Race wasn't an issue, but he had to play the victim and make it about race.
He's claiming that NSW overlook Nathan Merritt because of his race/skin color, yet this year alone we've had the likes of Jamal Idris, Timana Tahu and Tom Learoyd-Larhs selected in the team. If race was an issue, these blokes wouldn't have been picked. Seriously, Nathan Merritt is only ignored because of his size. NSW selectors have some obsession with picking a backline full of players that are hulks and weight in at 100kg+.