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Adelaide young gun Kusini Yengi wants racist trolls to be educated after receiving ugly messages last weekend

Watching the documentary on AFL great Adam Goodes’ battles against racism moved one rising star to speak out after suffering racial slurs online

Kusini Yengi is fighting back against racist trolls. (Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images)
Kusini Yengi is fighting back against racist trolls. (Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images)

Kusini Yengi says he won’t stop “being me” and hopes the racist trolls who sent abusive messages last weekend are educated about the damage words can do.

Football officials and police are working together to find those responsible for a slew of hate-filled comments on social media after Yengi scored his first A League goal for Adelaide United in Melbourne.

Yengi said he was filled with “adrenaline” when he celebrated in front of the Melbourne Victory fans after his goal, which then drew the hate-filled response online.

The 22-year-old said he was disappointed but “not surprised” by the ugly aftermath given how Victory fans reacted at Marvel Stadium.

Yengi said it wasn’t the first time he had encountered racism, and did his best to “move on”.

But after urgings from his mother, and also after watching the documentary on AFL great Adam Goodes’ battle against racism, Yengi decided to speak out.

“I have received other stuff before, directly in to my inbox. But this was the first time it has been out there for the public to see,” Yengi said on Tuesday.

“It’s tough. You never really get taught how to deal with these types of things.

“I saw the messages and tried to move on and looked at all the positive messages that came from the moment. I kind of tried to push it aside a little bit.

“But I’d like to speak about it, because it’s something that’s not right. People need to be educated so it doesn’t happen in the future.

“My mum wanted me to speak out on it and I wanted to speak out as well. I watched the Adam Goodes documentary and that gave me a lot of motivation, some ideas why I should speak.

“Educating, kids especially, is important. We feed off what other people tell us ... so having discussions, talking about it, what’s wrong, what’s right, and why that person might feel a certain way when you say certain things.

“Sometimes we kind of push things away but especially racism, it’s something we should talk up about.”

Yengi said he was most disappointed because the reaction took the magic away from a big moment in his life.

“It kind of took away from a special moment which was me scoring my first A League goal,” he said.

“It was a bit disappointing after the game, there was a lot of good messages, people congratulating me and stuff and obviously a few that were uncomfortable to look at.

“But everyone at the club has been a massive support since it happened. I’ve got a lot of support.”

Yengi said he hoped those behind the messages would be “educated” if they were caught.

But he also said the reaction of the minority wouldn’t stop him from celebrating like he did should he score again.

“No matter what anyone says to me I am going to be me and show my character,” Yengi said.

“We’re all humans, all trying to do our best at whatever we do. Bringing negative energy and making comments like that doesn’t help anyone.”

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Russell Gould
Russell Gould Sports editor

Russell Gould is a senior sportswriter with nearly 20 years' experience across a wide variety of sports including AFL, cricket, golf, rugby league, rugby and horse racing. Starting as a sports reporter at MX, then the Herald Sun, he has written news and in-depth features as well as covering major events in both Melbourne and around the world, from the 2003 rugby World Cup, though to the 2019 Ashes in England, two US Masters at Augusta and every Boxing Day Test since 2010. Having also spent four years as the Herald Sun sports chief of staff, he is now the founding sports editor of NCA NewsWire.

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/adelaide-young-gun-kuseni-yengi-wants-racist-trolls-to-be-educated-after-receiving-ugly-messages-last-weekend/news-story/8be515a38d0d61aa7c63ed17b0208369