‘This hits a lot harder’: Eddie Betts speaks publicly about the racial abuse of his children

Eddie Betts has spoken for the first time about the incident in which a driver shouted racial slurs at his children outside his home, becoming emotional about an act he called “hate”.

The Crows and Blues legend had posted the footage on Instagram, showing a car driving slowly down the street outside the house before someone in the car shouted racial slurs four times as they drove by.

Betts’ children were playing basketball in the yard when the abuse occurred.

Speaking on Fox Footy, Betts described the incident as a “rough start to the (Easter) weekend”.

“To see someone actually get out of their car at 8:40 at night to drive up to my house and yell insults at my kids over the fence,” Betts said.

Betts, a fan favorite who played 350 games in total for Carlton and Adelaide over a 16-year career, has been the target of racism in the past, including having a banana thrown at him by the crowd during a match in 2016.

He said his children were “fine” now, although they were shaken by the incident and were “too scared to go out and play basketball that night.”

“It was really very hard and difficult to watch. I’m glad I raised awareness about this because if I didn’t you wouldn’t know what happened, and this continues to happen to Aboriginal people across the country and to us.” I just have to keep saying it,” Betts said.