AFL champion Eddie Betts has opened up on a heart-breaking week for his family, where a racist drove past his home and repeatedly yelled the N-word to his children and their friends whilst playing a game of basketball in their own backyard.
“I think this one hits a lot harder than the racial abuse that I’ve had over the years and that’s because it’s directed at my kids with such hatred,” said the Indigenous great on Fox Footy.
Betts posted the clips of security camera footage on Instagram on Thursday, which show a car slowly driving past his house yelling the slur multiple times.
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“To see that someone actually got out of their car, at 8:40pm at night to drive to my house and yell abuse at my kids over the fence,” Betts said.
“They’re too scared to go out and play basketball at night, it was really, really tough and hard to see.
“The kids are fine now but they were shaken up a bit.”
Betts has been the subject of racial abuse on numerous occasions but says he will never stop speaking out and bringing more awareness to the issue.
“I’m glad that I’ve brought awareness to this, because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t have known what happened and this continues to happen to Aboriginal people all over the country,” he said.
“We have to keep calling this out, it’s exhausting, I’ve called this out many, many times and I’ll still stand here in front of everybody and put my face to it and call it out and continue to educate because we need to stamp out racism.
“It does hurt. I just want the people who have done this to know that it is hurtful, it will stick with [my kids] for the rest of their lives and me for the rest of my life, but the place I would ever want my kids is to feel safe is at home and they can’t even feel safe at home.”
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Betts thanked the broader footballing community for the support that has been shown to his family in the aftermath of the incident.
“It has been a tough week, but I just want to thank the footy community for their support and showing their love, we’ve got your messages, and it means so much,” he said.
“As a family, we’ll continue to stick together and I’ll continue to stand here before everybody and continue to educate, because that’s the only way we are going to move forward.
“To everyone at home… please have conversations with your kids, your families, your friends, have those uncomfortable conversations.”
Source Agencies
