Eddie Betts has spoken for the first time about the incident where a driver yelled racial abuse at his children outside his home, becoming emotional about an act he labelled “hatred”.
The Crows and Blues legend had posted the footage on Instagram, showing a car slowly driving down the street outside the home before someone in the car yells racial slurs four times as they pass.
Betts’ children were playing basketball in the yard as the abuse occurred.
Speaking on Fox Footy, Betts described the incident as a “tough start to the [Easter] weekend.”
“To see that someone actually got out of their car at 8:40 at night to drive to my house and yell abuse at my kids over the fence,” Betts said.
“I think this hits a lot harder than all the racial abuse that I’ve had over my years (in footy) and that’s because it’s directed towards my kids with such hatred.”
Betts, a fan favourite who played 350 games in total for Carlton and Adelaide across a 16-year career, has been the target of racism in the past, including having a banana thrown at him from the crowd during a match in 2016.
He said his children were “fine” now, although they had been shaken up by the incident and were “too scared to go out and play basketball that night”.
“It was really really tough and hard to see. I’m glad that I brought awareness to this because if I didn’t you wouldn’t know what happened — and this continues to happen to Aboriginal people all over the country and we’ve just got to keep calling it out,” Betts said.
“It is exhausting and I’ve called this out many, many times and I will still stand here in front of everybody and put my face to work and stand out, and call it out and educate and continue to educate (people) because we need to stamp out racism in Australia altogether, because it does hurt.
“And I just want you to know that people who have done this, and have drove past my house to yell abuse at my kids, it is hurtful and this will stick with them for the rest of their lives … for my life.
“The only place I would want my kids to be safe is at home and they can’t even feel safe at home.”
He thanked the football community and wider Australia for their support and love following the incident.
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