For as long as you can be sent off the basketball court for wearing the wrong shorts, but stay on despite an alleged racial slur, those preaching hate remain accountable only to themselves.

An uncomfortable truth is that you can be met with laughter or silence the moment you seek to expose a country's racist underbelly.

Two centuries of dispossession, injustice and suffering tell our nation's indigenous people that, in the eyes of society's great Australian dream, "you and your traditions are no longer welcome here".

The mere notion is repulsive and draining. But it is rife within Australian society - from politics to professional sport to cold, worn-down basketball stadiums in Canberra.

Racism is embedded across the country. Social media gives purveyors of vitriol a cloak of invisibility with which they feel free to vent with no fear of repercussions. Then there are those who simply don't care, those who will tear others down and be content to watch them fall.

Proud Ngunnawal man Richie Allan says his son was met with laughter when he brough claims of racial abuse to the attention of referees in a Basketball ACT competition.

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He says his 22-year-old son Richard had sent a letter of complaint to Basketball ACT months ago but saw no action despite being told an investigation was underway.

However the organisation says they had no knowledge of the incidents until Allan took to social media to voice his concerns. Basketball ACT are working to find a solution.

He says Richard was called a "dirty Abo" and a "petrol sniffer".

Think he should just tie up his shoelaces, put on his jersey and get on with the job next week?

If so, you are part of the problem. Put yourself in his shoes. Better yet, put a loved one in his shoes and imagine how you would feel watching from afar.

We as a nation must confront our dark past. For one to turn their back when someone stands up against racism is simply not good enough.

If you say nothing, if you do nothing, then nothing will change.

For how can this happen on a basketball court in our own backyard, weeks after Australian NBA star Ben Simmons made international headlines after suggesting his treatment by security at Crown Casino was impacted by the colour of his skin.

This, as a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in Patty Mills throws his weight behind the Australian Indigenous Basketball board's water project. This, as Mills unveils basketball shoes depicting 'The Story of Gelam', which his parents used to read to him every night before bed.

This, within months of the release of acclaimed documentaries, The Final Quarter and The Australian Dream, which detail the racial vilification directed towards AFL legend Adam Goodes.

The racially-motivated booing of the 2014 Australian of the Year was a tragic bookend to a sparkling 372-game career which bore two Brownlow medals and two premierships with the Sydney Swans.

So much so that Goodes' love for the game died inside of him.

This, just weeks after NRL star Latrell Mitchell called out a racist comment on social media.

"There is no place for racism. It is 2019, I am a proud Aboriginal man and I will continue to name and shame anyone that has an opinion against me or my race," Mitchell wrote on Instagram.

"I have had enough, we cannot keep allowing this 'casualness' to happen. Wake up Australia and stop being ignorant and just embrace everyone for who they are."

This, just weeks after AFL player Allen Christensen received the same treatment.

Richard Allan's status as a social basketball player at an ageing Belconnen Basketball Stadium proves racism goes far beyond rednecks filling seats at elite sporting venues.

New research suggests nine in 10 youths know someone who has been targeted by a racist attack at a local or professional sporting event. It is happening in schools, in shopping centres, on streets.

A failure to embrace Australia's culture is not the only shortcoming among those too afraid to step outside of the tiny box in which their lives are contained.

Just 18 months ago a North Canberra-Gungahlin player was handed a six-match ban for racial slurs which sparked "significant internal conversations" in Cricket ACT's first grade competition.

A Norths player was charged with making racist remarks directed towards a Weston Creek Molonglo rival of Asian descent. He made clear his regret after he was gripped by the enormity of the situation.

To say "sorry" in such circumstances does not change what transpired, but it shows a willingness to be educated about why such an indiscretion is so abhorrent.

For every caustic comment there is change. Think codes implementing indigenous rounds, jerseys and reconciliation action plans. But change must go beyond that.

It takes courage to face our past. Perhaps only by doing so can we begin to move forward, together.