Thank you.
To all those people who responded warmly and supportively to my article last week explaining why I could not mourn the Queen, thank you.
For a moment you showed me an Australia I might believe in. An Australia where I could feel I belong.
Just for a moment. Then I was jolted back into an Australia I, and other First Nations people, know all too well.
An Australia that former AFL player Eddie Betts sadly said this week that far too often he feels he does not belong.
He was responding to the allegations of racism at Hawthorn AFL club that came as a shock to all but Indigenous people. Appalled, horrified, disgusted yes; shocked, no.
How can it be a shock? We have been here before.
There are the usual expressions of support for Aboriginal people and calls for the game to do better. There always are.
There will be an investigation. There always is. The Hawthorn staff at the centre of the allegations have denied any wrongdoing
Now we wait. The truth in this case will in time be revealed.
Ugly truth is racism kills
But we already know the ugly truths of the AFL. This is the game where a senior club official once said Aboriginal people were welcome if they acted like white people.
This is the game where a club official once said only Aboriginal players with at least one parent should be recruited.
This is the game which allowed Adam Goodes to be relentlessly booed into retirement. This is the game that issued Adam a too-late apology. He has never returned to the game.
This is the game where crowds viciously abused Nicky Winmar and he responded by proudly pointing to his black skin.
This is the game where a review into the Collingwood club revealed systemic racism and a failure to deal with it.
This is the game where Collingwood star Damian Monkhorst racially vilified Essendon's Michael Long.
Long, after retiring, began his long march for justice for his people.
There are other cases of racist abuse of players: Joel Wilkinson, Héritier Lumumba, Cyril Rioli and too many others, too many to mention.
This sorry history has occurred under successive AFL leadership. AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is just the latest. On racism like those before him, McLachlan has failed.
How can we conclude otherwise?
Let's swap the word racism for violence – because that's what it is – and ask then if McLachlan and those before him should have kept their jobs.
Violence was committed against Nicky Winmar, against Michael Long, against Adam Goodes and Eddie Betts and so many other people of colour.
These latest allegations against officials at Hawthorn are violent in their depravity.
Racism kills. Who is held to account for this violence?
Sport's greatest myth
Sport we are told is a place beyond politics. A place beyond race. A place where talent is all that matters.
That is a myth.
Sport should build allegiance but it often reveals — indeed widens — society's racial fault lines.
Racism has never been far from sport in Australia. In 1908 African American boxer, Jack Johnson, fought world champion, Tommy Burns, in Sydney to become the first black heavyweight champion.
Johnson was brash and proud and powerful. He taunted whiteness. Not for nothing was the biography of Johnson titled "Unforgivable Blackness."
His blackness was a sin. Ahead of the fight, media talked of a "race war".
The novelist and sports writer, Jack London, wrote that he was "with Burns all the way. He is a white man and so am I."
More than 20 thousand people crowded the outdoor arena to cheer on Burns. What they saw was a demolition. Johnson destroyed the white champion.
London had to concede this was not a fight but a massacre," the playful Ethiopian at loggerheads with a small and futile white man."
We might like to believe that we are a different nation than we were a century ago.
Yes, there have even been examples of well-loved Indigenous sports heroes: Lionel Rose, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Cathy Freeman more lately Ash Barty.
But there has always been an expectation that they will be modest and respectful and stay out of politics.
Outspoken Indigenous athletes like former rugby league star and world champion boxer Anthony Mundine weren't so loved. People paid their money hoping he would be defeated.
Honouring heritage, not a nation without honour
Even where Indigenous or Pacific Islander athletes are accepted, even celebrated do they truly feel as though they belong?
The National Rugby League is a game dominated by Pasifika and Indigenous players. Together they make up more than half of all players.
Yet this week more Pasifika players have declined the opportunity to represent Australia at this year's World Cup.
They are pledging their allegiance to Tonga, New Zealand or Samoa. Many of these players are born in Australia yet their hearts are with their ancestral countries.
No doubt this a display of pride and respect. They want to honour their heritage.
But what is missing if these young men feel the green and gold of Australia does not speak to them?
What about Indigenous players who will represent our national team but will not sing our national anthem?
This country rings hollow to them.
If there were an Indigenous Australian team in the World Cup, would they still want to play for Australia? I would say not.
Australia for far too many is a nation without honour.
The same can be said of our national game. The AFL must do more than just pledge to do better next time.
There have been too many apologies. Too many broken hearts. Too many broken lives.
One thing we know, sadly, is that the Hawthorn investigations will not be the last.
The AFL mirrors our society.
No wonder it is called Australian Rules.
Stan Grant is the ABC's international affairs analyst and presenter of Q+A on Thursday at 8:30pm. He also presents China Tonight on Monday at 9:35pm on ABC TV, and Tuesday at 8pm on the ABC News Channel.
