Well, of course there can be exceptions.
There arenât too many things I feel ashamed about. This is one of those things.
When we look back at the Stolen Generation (where Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their families) and say âhow the hell did people feel it was right?â - this is what our grandchildren will say about us.
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The two major parties pander to the dumbarse swinging voters in shitholes like western Sydney, and leave the rest of us out in the cold. Itâs fucking vile.
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If you come, come to Melbourne, and stick to the inner suburbs.
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I would really disagree with this: there are huge variationsâboth qualitative and quantitativeâbetween different countries/regions/cultures in terms of how racist they areâŚ
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I was once told (by someone married to a Victorian) that Melbourne was the only civilised part of Oz.
I dunno. I liked Sydney and Cairns.
Hey guys,
This response might reek of insensitivity, but reality is not nice. Maybe instead of making the rash decision to illegally immigrate, they stand up on their hind legs and do something about the conditions that make them want to leave. If that includes killing their oppressors and destroying the systems in their native countries, then so be it.
Insensitive, Reactionary, Mean-Spirited- Yes
Unreasonable -No
How charming
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Hey guy,
Maybe instead of exploiting foreign labour and resources, first world nations should make all their T-shirts, consumer electronics, etc. and become 100% self-sufficient in terms of energy, food, and resources. I mean, it hardly seems fair to have free trade with respect to goods but not with respect to labour. So why not stand up on your own hind legs and practice what you preach, and buy 100% domestic instead of outsourcing labour practices and conditions you wouldnât tolerate in your own country? If you can only sate your desire for cheap consumer goods by reintroducing slavery and sweatshops, then so be it.
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Cowicide: good question. My opinion/analysis, plus some background that includes comments from Daneel. SmashMouth, and Kimmo:
- Australia has a problem with racism. Casual racism included. Most of us are easygoing, but we have some awful specimens.
- Many politicians have no qualms about using issues of racism to their advantage. Weâre not stupid at heart, but we have a redneck element (some of whom choose to ignore the migrant past of their own parents or grandparents). In a democracy where many vote along partisan lines regardless of issues or alternatives from minor parties, a hot-button issue and a few swing-votes is a combination that can make a huge difference. I agree with Kimmo that pandering to the Western Sydney demographic is a bad thing. This problem of gullible swing-voters is not unique to Australia; Iâm sure there are examples in other countries (eg: UKIP). In the lead-up to our October 2001 federal election the Prime Minister at the time blatantly lied about refugees / boat-people, and it arguably gave him enough of a push to win the election and save his own skin. Since then, both major political parties have emulated that dubious success, which means theyâre locked in a âRace to the bottomâ to demonise refugees. How they implement their xenophobia with policies and practical âSolutionsâ varies, but it amounts to the same thing: they are trying to out-compete each other to see how inhumane they can be. This includes ignoring our obligations of the law of the sea WRT rescuing people from a sinking ship, ignoring human rights abuses, locking-up children (sometimes with adults who are not their parents), denial of medical treatment, jail (sorry, âDetentionâ) without charge for months or years, and shipping prisoners to a hellhole in another country rather than dealing with them lawfully on our own soil. Prisoners are referred to as numbers and never their own name. Some sew their lips together in protest, and people as young as six years old have tried to commit suicide. A year after the death of a prisoner Reza Berati, his killers (allegedly local security staff) have still not been tried and sentenced. It guts me that our politicians have engineered this tragedy in our name for the sake of their careers and a few dollars.
- As Daneel said, other PMs â Rudd and Gillard â whose political branding is to the left (todayâs reality is they abandoned their left roots and are centre-right, just as Tony Blairâs âNew Labourâ in the UK borrows from the centre-right and can no longer claim to represent the left) have contributed terribly to the problem and offered no good solutions on this issue.
- The mainstream media knows this toxic combination sells newspapers. As SmashMartin said, Rupert Murdoch has a remarkable amount of control over the media. When you own approx 65% of the Australian capital city newspaper circulation, your editorial opinion steers the direction of the country.
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bwv812: Iâd say this is a fair appraisal. Iâm unhappy about it, but itâs undeniably accurate.
they stand up on their hind legs
How charming
Actually no. His comment was stupid insensitive unrealistic bullshit, I agree, but âstanding up on their hind legsâ is pretty much straightforward Australian slang and doesnât imply anything in particular.
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Australian,
Not a single day has gone by since the present gov. were elected in which they have not shown the depth of their moral depravity in one way or the other.
See the list here: http://sallymcmanus.net/abbotts-wreckage/
Not that our conservative party the Liberal National Coalition are alone in pursuing this policy. The present version of it was as noted elsewhere introduced as an attempt to out do the right by the previous Labour gov.
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Australians in general are not very reflective about their racism and tend to get very defensive if itâs pointed out.Your stories donât surprise me. Iâve had senior university administrators (e.g., the registrar) tell me that i) universities need ways of reducing the numbers of Asians doing degrees in medicine, and ii) Aborigines deserve all the bad things that happen to them. Iâve always found the casualness of such confessions to be shocking. I donât believe attitudes towards Aboriginals have changed very much since I was a child in the 60s. Someone will no doubt challenge me on that, but once you get out of the inner cities (students and so on) the way people talk about Aborigines is shameful. .
I have lived in Asia (mostly Greater China) for over 20 years, and donât really have much motivation to return. Every time I go back, I find the place is regressing on important social attitudes (racism, rising anti-intellectualism, a belief that looking after people is weak, rising US-style patriotism, etc.). I donât think itâs a decent place any more.
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Incidentally, the Australian med student I met told me about his plans: set up a practice in a Bogan-rich community. By his reckoning, this would be easy since (according to him) all Bogans like to do is get pregnant, get drunk, and get hurt. By his reckoning this would mean steady business without the kind of demands a more sophisticated patient base might place upon him. Although this was the most extreme and explicit anti-Bogan rhetoric Iâve heard from an Australian, it wasnât unique, and this kind of discrimination against âpoor white trashâ in the US doesnât seem to happen to nearly the same extent.
One of my Australian friends shared this song online:
He didnât appreciate it so much when I pointed out that the only POC I could see were either performing (presumably for white people) or illustrating that Australia is âalways multiculturalâ. Other than that, itâs all white people doing white things.
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In that particular example, your acquaintance could rely on the fact that âpoor white trashâ in Australia could afford to get medical care; in the U.S., the equivalent populations simply canât.
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Health insurance may have led to that specific manifestation of the discrimination, but the actual discrimination that it is symptomatic of seems to be different (and we donât see that kind of discrimination in Canada, which has universal health care). Thereâs also no shortage of predatory medicaid marketing in the US that donât exist in Canada (countless TV ads for mobility scooters, glucose meters, etc. aimed at those on Medicaid), which makes some sense since those who are poorest and most Bogan-like are most likely to qualify for US Medicaid.
I wouldnât disagree about the quantity aspect of that equation but stand by the point I made about the surface qualities of racism being informed by the same underlying psychological mechanisms which engender racism at all.
The nascent formulation this takes in the racists mind is then drawn from their cultural inheritance etc and can give the impression of a different ideology or whatever, but I maintain that this is illusory. Merely an excuse for the underlying racist drive.
