It is disgraceful.

It is pleasing to hear the AFL leadership speak out.

For example, Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham said; “If you’re booing Adam Goodes I’ve got bad news for you. You’re a racist."

His Swans teammates, and the coaches and players of many other teams are defending Goodes and calling the booing the racist spade that it certainly is.

A worrying aspect of this affair are the remarks of many commentators.

Alan Jones has harangued us in his usual strident fashion, and he has been followed by the usual suspects, who are invariably other “grumpy old men”.

As Peter Fitzsimmons said, “This bulls**t has been echoed by the usual acolytes in columns, talkback forums and all the rest, by the same people who previously have maintained in seeming seriousness that calling an Indigenous man a “black (expletive)” is not racist, that telling a man to “go back to the zoo” is not racist, that calling him an “ape” is not racist.” (SMH, July 29).

Others thankfully manage to take an unbiased look at the bigger picture.

Fairfax columnist Waleed Aly nailed it when he said “It's about the fact that Australia is generally a very tolerant society until its minorities demonstrate that they don’t know their place. And the minute someone in a minority position acts as though they're not a mere supplicant, then we lose our minds. And we say, 'No, no, you've got to get back in your box here.”

Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner said; “With each match, each week, that this booing is tolerated, more and more people believe that they can hound someone who speaks out about racism to be silent.”

Apart from vague generalisations from the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, the only political leader brave enough to put his head above the parapet and say something of real significance has been the Greens Richard Di Natale, who pointed out that it goes wider than one footballer being booed.

“I am concerned about where Australia is heading. I am concerned about the vilification of Muslim Australians that we’re seeing at Reclaim Australia rallies, about the continual fear-mongering about asylum seekers, and, I am deeply concerned about the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians,” he said. 

“Adam Goodes celebrated his culture and his people, and stood up for them in the face of racism.”

The reason Goodes attracts such vilification is because he speaks up, he doesn't back down, he demands to be heard.

And so he should – good on him.

There are ample opportunities for us all to support him, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as through many other internet sites.