‘No one is born a racist, you are taught it’: Indigenous skipper’s fight against racism

Indigenous All Stars skipper Josh Addo-Carr has opened up on the racist abuse that has been so prevalent in his life that sadly he has just become used to it.

Addo-Carr was recently trolled online when he posted “Happy survival day my people” on January 26th on his Instagram account, which prompted him to call out the bigotry that he and his people still experience consistently.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Addo-Carr wants to not only call out racism when he sees it, but also educate people on his Indigenous culture to help put an end to the unacceptable and harmful persecution of his Indigenous brothers and sisters.

“No one is born a racist, you are taught it,” Addo-Carr told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It’s just educating younger generations to show we are a beautiful culture. We are human, like everyone else.

“It’s about educating about a culture that was taken away from us. We have it on the big stage now where we can show everyone how beautiful our culture is and how much it means to us.”

Addo-Carr revealed that racism has been a constant experience throughout his life and he wants to stamp it out to stop the needless suffering of future generations of Indigenous children.

“It’s an everyday thing that we all go through,” Addo-Carr said of racism.

“It doesn’t really rattle me when it happens because I am just so used to it.

“I feel like we have a community to protect, children [to protect]. We don’t want our children or anyone else in the community to go through it. We have the platform to call it out.”

The Bulldogs recruit is thankful for having such a tight network of fellow Indigenous players in the game to lean on in tough times and he also credits the NRL for supporting the players.

“Some can’t handle it, but I know I have got a strong group of boys in Cody [Walker], Latrell [Mitchell] and everyone who is part of the Indigenous All Stars,” Addo-Carr said.

“Even the NRL, they were really supportive about it; the boss [NRL chief executive] Andrew Abdo rang me and just touched base with me. It was really pleasing.”

Addo-Carr was praised last year after his tribute to St Kilda great Nicky Winmar, who lifted his shirt to point at the colour of his skin with pride in response to racist abuse from the crowd during his career.

The former Storm premiership winner believes the prevalence of online racism makes it harder for Indigenous people to protect themselves from racism on a daily basis.

“Back then they didn’t have social media,” Addo-Carr said.

“He (Winmar) was in the forefront, it happened in person to him. For [our generation], it’s easy to get online and be racist.

“We’ve got strong leadership within the Indigenous NRL boys. We have each other’s back …“You never hear it to your face. Ever since I have been playing rugby league, it has been an everyday thing.”

Addo-Carr will lead his Indigenous team out with pride on Saturday night and it will be another chance to showcase to the rest of Australia his beautiful culture.

“For myself and everyone here, we love coming here and learning about your tribe and where you’re from,” Addo-Carr said.

“You don’t learn that at all at school. It’s to show younger kids, go out there and learn your language, go out and learn dance.

“It’s all to inspire the next generation and to teach non-Indigenous people too. It’s a win-win for us all.”

Source: foxsports.com.au  

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foxsports.com.au