AFL legend Eddie Betts issued a powerful statement addressing the racial abuse his family received earlier this week.
Police in Victoria launched an investigation following the confronting video shared by Betts, which shows a person driving past his home on Thursday night and yelling racial abuse at his children and their friends.
“This one hits a lot harder than all the racial abuse that I’ve had over my years,” Betts said during an appearance on Fox Footy on Saturday evening.
“And that’s because it was directed at my kids with such hatred.”
“The kids are fine now [but] they were shaken up a bit, they were too scared to go out and play basketball that night.
“It was really, really tough, and hard to see.”
Betts said he was glad he brought awareness to the issue of racism “because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t have known what happened, and this continues to happen to Aboriginal people all over the country”.
“We’ve just got to keep calling it out and it is exhausting,” he said.
Betts said he has called out racism many times, and “continues to educate because we need to stamp out racism here in Australia altogether”.
“The only place that I would ever want my kids to feel safe is at home, and they can’t even to feel safe at home,” he added.
“It has been a tough week but I want to thank the community for their support and showing their love.
“We’ve we’ve got your messages and it means so much to hear your support. It helps us so much and as a family we will continue to stick together.”
Betts said he will “continue to stand here before everybody and continue to educate.
“That’s the only way we’re going to move forward – with education.”
Addressing the public in his final remarks, Betts said: “If you’re watching this, please have conversations with the kids, the families, your friends.
“Have those uncomfortable conversations because that’s the only way that we’re going to move forward in this nation.”
