Racist remarks cut more than skin deep

On face value, it's a ridiculous question. On further examination, it's a truly awful one.

I feel like I'm stuck in a timewarp. This is the kind of thinking I grew up surrounded by. Cue Skyhooks' Living in the 70's.

I thought we'd moved on. Yet here we still are. It makes you ashamed to be a middle-aged white male.

I can't even imagine how Mitchell and the Indigenous community feel.

As if by fate, the missus and I had planned to watch the Adam Goodes' documentary The Final Quarter on Friday night.

It just happened to be hours after hearing Daily Telegraph rugby league journalist Dean Ritchie's question to Canberra Raiders legend Laurie Daley on Sky Sports Radio.

"Do you honestly believe that the racial vilification earlier in the year did affect [Mitchell]?" Ritchie asked.

"If it did, should it? And do you think this has happened so often in Latrell's life that he has now become used to it - albeit I don't agree with it, clearly - but is it something he has to learn to live with?"

People should learn to live with racism?

It's like asking whether women should learn to live with domestic violence.

Or children should learn to live with sexual abuse suffered at the hands of Catholic priests.

Having just re-lived the horrific treatment of Goodes that ended the AFL star's career on TV my first thought was how at home this question would sit in The Final Quarter.

For those that don't know, AFL crowds booed Goodes for three years while right-wing columnists unfairly condemned him for calling out racial abuse by spectators.

That doco was set four years ago. It shows how far we've come. Yep, nowhere.

It seems no matter how often we get told about the impact of racism - something none of us middle-aged white men ever have to experience - we just don't seem to get it.

Rather than Mitchell "learning to live" with racial vilification, maybe racists should stop racially abusing him? Radical thinking I know.

Maybe Australia could finally just admit there's a large undercurrent of racism, especially the "casual" kind, and we could put an end to it.

Then start healing the wounds we've inflicted on the Indigenous community - as well as other minority groups.

As part of the Goodes documentary, social commentator Waleed Aly said: "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.

"And we say, 'No, no you've got to get back in your box here'."

I can't help thinking there's a bit of this in how Mitchell is being treated.

For those living under a rugby-league-free rock, Mitchell's off contract and the Sydney Roosters have pulled their $1.6 million two-year extension.

The Roosters are also happy to let Mitchell leave ahead of the 2020 season.

While it's OK for other players to test their market value, it's been suggested Mitchell owes the Roosters for what they've done for him.

That is, he should know his place. He should be happy with the $800,000 per season they offered him.

What if his Roosters teammate James Tedesco wanted more money? Would the same be said of him?

What about what Mitchell's done for the Roosters? Helped win two premierships. Could help them win a third next year. Sounds like he's done his fair share.

Then there's the bizarre stories around him driving to work in a flash Mercedes.

A young, highly-paid athlete wants to drive a fancy car. Sounds serious. Maybe next he'll want a nice house as well.

Never heard anyone complain about rich, white CEO's coming to work in a luxury car. I guess it's just not Mitchell's place.