WHAT motivates a racist to abuse a child over the colour of their skin?

It's a question that seemingly has no rational answer, certainly not a reasonable one. It just should never happen, yet Sunraysia's Indigenous community has this week been left wondering why it still does.

In a brief, but nasty, sequel to the joy and community spirit of the SFNL's Indigenous round of sport, an online troll responded to a Sunraysia Daily front page photo of 10-year-old Jett Yates, who had taken part in a cultural ceremony at the Mildura Sporting Precinct, by mocking the fair-skinned child's Aboriginality.

When other posters called the behaviour out, the troll turned on them, and also made what amounted to death threats against Aboriginal children. Yes, children.

The troll's posts were quickly removed by administrators and they were reported to both Facebook and police, but not before they had been shared and the damage had been done. To avoid the risk of adding to that pain, Sunraysia Daily will not publish the troll's comments, and neither will we publish their user name, which we are confident is fake. We wouldn't want anyone with a similar name to be mistaken for such a person.

We are, however, proud to share the message of the Yates family, who have asked us to do so. They are understandably angry, but they want their message to be positive and supportive of all people who face such slurs.

"It doesn't matter what colour your skin is, what matters is who you are," said Nathan Yates, the Indigenous father of Jett, whose mother, Lauren, is not Indigenous.

Barkindji man Mr Yates, 41, has dark skin and has suffered racist comments for much of his life but, as both a father of three and the youth and families manager at Mallee District Aboriginal Services, he doesn't think his kids, or anyone else's, should have to put up with that.

"We're always teaching our children to be proud of who they are, and their culture," Mr Yates said. "This is what stops Aboriginal people from embracing their culture, because they're actually scared of what some of the repercussions could be."

Mr Yates said he had learned how to handle racist slurs: "but now that I have kids it just hits home and it's on another level".

"As a parent, you just want to protect your kids," he said.

"It was just disgusting the way those comments were targeted at such a young person, who was embracing culture during Indigenous Round."

Mr Yates said the troll's comments had circulated through shares of the original post and this had spread anger and frustration through the Indigenous community.

"That's why we want to turn that negative into a positive by saying that we're proud of who we are and where we come from," he said.

Mr Yates said judging a fair-skinned Aboriginal person as being some kind of fake was as stupid as it was appalling.

"They say you're a quarter-caste or a half-caste, but it doesn't matter," he said. "If you're Indigenous, you're Indigenous.

"The message that I'll definitely be giving my children is stand up for who you are, for your culture, and be proud about it."

One example of this philosophy occurred at the football on Saturday, when a spectator also made loud comments about Jett's fair skin. While the internet troll could hide behind a fake profile, the spectator was very quickly called out by Jett's grandfather, who was nearby. Mr Yates said he hoped others would do the same in such situations.

"It doesn't matter if you don't even know the person who's being targeted," he said. "It's about stepping up and saying that's not ok."

SFNL president Paul Matheson said he'd felt "absolute shock" on being told of the online attack.

"We're basically talking about profiling a child and his family," he told Sunraysia Daily. "We're supposed to be unified as a country, and inclusive and recognising the great contribution that Aboriginal people have made not only to sport, but to our whole community and our country as a whole."

Mr Matheson said such offensive behaviour was "typical of being able to hide behind a keyboard and we see that all too often".

"If you actually said to these people, speak to me face to face, then they'd run and hide," he said.

He felt great sorrow for Jett, his family and other members of their community who had been proud to take part in Indigenous Round celebrations.

"These people are coming forward, trying to the right thing by their community," he said. "They're putting themselves out there and trying to do the best by their own people, and by the general football and netball community.

"It dumbfounds me. I just don't understand what people are trying to achieve by being divisive and trying to drive a wedge between everyone when we've done such good work to make up for the wrongs of some people in the past."

As the host of Saturday's MSP ceremonies, the South Mildura Sporting Club has also made a statement, via Facebook.

President kevin Burke wrote that the club "is all inclusive, regardless of race, religion or beliefs".

"The SMSC will not tolerate vilification in any form to members of our club or community," he wrote.