Carlton veteran and indigenous star Eddie Betts has opened up on how much it means to him seeing his fellow AFL players taking a knee to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Betts spoke passionately on Fox Footy's AFL 360 on Monday night, explaining the heavy extent to which racial vilification has affected him in each of his 15 seasons in the league.
Betts reflected on how his family was personally affected by racism through his grandfather's tragic death.
“I was really proud taking a knee for the Black Lives Matter and racism in Australia and you know it happens in our backyard as well,” Betts told AFL 360. We've got 432 deaths in custody here in Australia and that was since 1991.
“My grandfather Eddie Betts — my dad's Eddie Betts, my grandfather is Eddie Betts — he was sick in Port Lincoln. He went to the doctors, the doctors turned him away. He had chest pain, they thought he was drunk. They rang the police on him, they took him to the cells.
“He died alone in the cells by himself at age 49, my grandfather Eddie Betts.
“I wish I could've grown up with my grandfather but that's not the case. But I know that he'd be proud of me and me carrying on the name Eddie Betts. But that could've been prevented, that could've been stopped if he was helped at the hospital.
“I'm really proud that the boys took a knee and hopefully we can continue to make change in the future.”
The 33-year old was most recently racially attacked in a social media post last week and said he was fed up with the constant discrimination.
And while Betts admitted there were times he'd considered walking away from the game, he pledged to continue fighting trolls to make change for the future, even if it meant copping the brunt of the abuse.
“I was really angry and I wanted to put something up that was aggressive, but that's not my nature. I'm kind and I always like to give people a second chance and I always like to educate people,” Betts told Fox Footy.
“I've got to set up barriers every day when I leave the house, thinking I'm going to get racially abused when I'm driving or when I go to a supermarket.
“All I want to do is rock up to training, play and enjoy the game of footy.
“I'm sick and tired of it but I want the AFL to be a safe platform for young Aboriginal kids to come and enjoy and play footy without being racially abused.
“If I have to take the full brunt of all that and try and educate people so that the platform is a safe place, I am happy to cop the brunt.
“It deeply hurts and you think to yourself ‘why do I keep playing footy if I keep copping this?', but I want to make a change.
“The way to hurt these guys is keep playing great footy and keep smiling and that's what I love doing.”
