If not now, when?

I pay my respects and acknowledge all original tribes and nations of this land. I stand with the black diaspora globally. To the black youth in Australia and ashore thank you for the continual inspiration.

The AFL’s interest in the Black Lives Matter movement is hypocritical and offensive to me and many in the black community, given my personal experience in what I consider a deeply racist institution.

White players across the league recently ‘took a knee,’ although I know most, if not all, do not comprehend or value the true meaning behind such actions. The act of kneeling, first initiated by Colin Kaepernick, was to protest police brutality, murders and oppression of black people in America. He was blackballed by the NFL and industry.

I continually spoke out against racism in the AFL and greater society, starting with my first professional game. I was then dismissed, silenced from the conversation, and erased from the AFL’s and Australia’s long history of racism in sport. I was blackballed.This treatment continues to this day.

Here are several ways that I have been impacted by racism from all levels of the industry. Black lives matter?

• I was racially vilified by crowds at multiple games, including a large number of fans targeting me.
• I experienced racism within football departments; vilified by players and coaches.
• Recruitment department — I was told by multiple teams that my unapologetic, anti-racist stance/attitude was a problem. Player agent’s were complicit in this.
• Administration — With each incident that took place over the years, executives and staff from multiple AFL teams dismissed my consistent complaints. When incidents were made public, I was coerced to follow their protocol. They weaponised their PR departments and media to control the narrative and, to silence and erase my voice and the truth.

(Note: there were more incidents across the entire institution over the years 2011–2019 that I did not include above. I have evidence for all)

I was subsequently given no choice but to take legal action to pursue justice and consequences. I sued the AFL, multiple teams, as well as individuals in 2018. Eventually, I removed myself from legal proceedings towards the end of 2019, as I was being pushed into settlement with a non-disclosure agreement. I felt it was an unjust process, and I needed to protect the truth.

In this case, Peter Gordon (Gordon Legal) the President of the Western Bulldogs, represented the AFL, multiple clubs, and players — this was all under the instruction of Gillon Mclachlan, who has a dangerous pattern of failing black players.

We must not accept an institution like the AFL to support a black movement, when they aren’t even accountable to themselves, let alone to the community. This is the same organisation that has failed all black players historically and in recent times who have spoken out against racism. Heritier Lumumba, Adam Goodes and myself are perfect cases of this disgusting and disturbing pattern. The AFL is setting an extremely dangerous precedent to society and, more specifically, to the youth, for how people in the black community are to be treated when they speak up.

Corporations run and led by white people in Australia, world wide, and AFL (teams) have chosen to say ‘blacklivesmatter’; so now is the time to prove it. To stay silent on what actions you are taking to rectify these problems, comes across as misleading and deceiving.

Questions must be asked. Do you agree with the AFL’s conduct towards black players? If not, what are you going to do to address this?

The community and I look forward to your response. If we don’t hear from you, your silence speaks volumes; your silence is racism.

The weight of history is now in front of our face. White supremacy/colonisation and capitalism, are sponsored by corporations, just like the AFL. There will be accountability, retribution, and consequences for those who violate black lives.

More to come from me, this is the tip of the iceberg. I fear no one and no beast. The world was watching, now the world is uprising.

Joel Wilkinson