Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser apologised yesterday, after saying that Australian tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic should "go back to where their parents came from".
Many people were shocked by Fraser's racist comments, but for other prominent Australians with different cultural backgrounds, it was all too familiar.
Having been told to get out of Australia many times in my life it's a big relief to know all those people were just helping with directions.
Go back to where you came from. That's a flashback to primary school for me #KyrgiosOutrage
But it was Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer and Muslim community advocate, who really nailed the deeper problem in Australia with these tweets:
#DawnFraser Fiasco Why is Kyrgios' "Australianess" negotiable and conditional upon his sporting behavior?
We are deemed "great Australians" when we do something good but "bad(insert nationality here)" when we do something bad #DawnFraser #Kyrgios
No one told Lleyton Hewitt to "go back to where he came from" when he threw his countless tantrums on court. #DawnFraser #Kyrgios
This is why I cannot ever have road rage because #DawnFraser will attribute it to my background, & tell me to go back to where I came from.
With so many of our athletes coming from diverse racial backgrounds, it's a reminder that our sporting heroes are Australians not just when they're winning, but all the other times too.
Veiszadeh, who has been the target of Islamophobic abuse online in the past, told BuzzFeed News that Dawn Fraser's comments didn't surprise her.
In May, Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes was criticised by Eddie Maguire and other commentators over a post-goal Aboriginal war dance. Media personality Waleed Aly explained why he thought some people got so worked up over it:
View this video on YouTube
“There is no mystery about this at all. And it’s not as simple as it being about race, it’s about something else," Aly said on ABC's Offsiders program.
“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 at that moment, the minute someone in a minority position acts as though they’re not a mere supplicant, then we lose our minds."