Dear Alice Aslan,

I also would like to add my voice
to Thank You for such an inspiring
article. Well written and reasoned.
And much food for thought.

To some people, it is self-evident
that their own norms, religion,
attitudes, values, and cultural
practices are right and proper,
while those of other groups may
seem inappropriate, peculiar,
bizarre, or even immoral.
Within limits, such ethnocentrism
can be functional for the group's
survival, for these attitudes
ensure it's members solidarity
and cohesion. People who believe that
their group and its way of life are
"best" will have faith and confidence
only in their own cultural tradition,
and will discourage penetration by
outsiders, and will unite to work for
their common goals. Pauline Hanson was
a "politician" as was John Howard,
who used this sort of mentality for their
own political advantage.

Thankfully, they both did not last.
Most people saw through their prejudiced
thoughts and found them - irrational,
illogical, and inconsistent.
These people fear things in proportion
to their ignorance of them. And the greater
the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

However, these people will end up on the
dust heap of history. Most of us pay no
attention to them because we find them
irrelevant. Their concepts are vague and
sweeping in their scope - and they are
unfortunately psychologically prone
to prejudice - best to stay away from
people like that. (If you can).

The facts remain - Australia is a multi-
cultural society - and no matter what
the rants by the uneducated - it will
continue to remain and grow in spite
of these nutters. Which is something
for which we can all be grateful!

It is fascinating, but no longer surprising, that those who most
freely wield the racism and ignorance epithets are unable to refute
the critiques of Islam put forward by the "ignorant racists".
They are incapable of answering straightforward requests,
such as those asked above and repeated below:

Please indicate where around the globe any form of Islamic governance has produced positive human rights outcomes.
Please also indicate where Islamic laws or doctrine repudiate the countless calls to violence in the Koran.
Please offer an explanation for the massive over-representation of Islamic immigrants in European jails.
Please explain the massive over-involvement of Islamists in terrorist activities.
Please explain how Islam can be reformed, in light of the comments of Muslim experts who hold little hope.
Please advise how the problems of
female genital mutilation,
Islamic terrorism,
honour killings,
etc, etc, etc,
will be ameliorated, and not exacerbated, by Islamic immigration.

They cling with religious fervour to an ideology which proves ephemeral when examined in the cold light of history.

They celebrate the disappearance of their own culture's "hegemony",
while lauding a culture which demands death for those who stand in
the way of Islamic hegemony.
They can easily accommodate death threats against blasphemers of Islam
while condemning those who raise the issue.

They are the pathetic and tragic adherents of a doctrine of cultural
relativism which renders them incapable of responding to rational
debate simply because the answers they would find cannot be accommodated
within their paradigm.

They cannot admit the "inappropriateness, peculiarity, bizarreness",
let alone danger, of Islam because this would undermine their whole "rationale".

And then they have the unmitigated chutzpah to accuse their opponents
of being uneducated when they themselves have no desire or intent to
learn anything of Islam and its sordid history

The Robin Williams comment reminds me of the 'black face' saga on Hey Hey It's Saturday which was in itself an innocent enough skit of the Jacksons taken as something racist, understandably, from the African American experience in the US. Context is very important. In the US a skit like that could be seen as racist, in Australia where we take the mickey out of everyone it was not (IMO).

Having visited many other countries where racism is overt, where there is marked segregation of various populations based on race, I am grateful to be living in Australia. I worked within an organisation many years ago that hired an African American band, and they were amazed they could enter a shop here (and in the UK) without suspicious glances and were not scrutinised by our police forces.

The racist redneck stigma or race card is too easily drawn out in Australia for sometimes nefarious purposes including to avoid criminal prosecution.

Are there racists in Australia. Well of course there are. Can we do better - yes there is always room for improvement. The media tends to focus on the newsworthy dramas such as the 'redneck' opposition to the Muslim schools etc rather than the good news stories ie. Where people from different cultures live and work without incident in most parts of Australia.

I think we should be grateful we live here rather than in some parts of the world where the word tolerance has not even been coined.

If you want rednecks... or.. a manual on how to create them...just look at what moron, idiotic, racist magistrates say about White people.

TITLE:
"Pinned like a butterfly.. Whiteness and Racial Hatred Laws."
http://www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournalFiles/Volume%204,%20Number%202,%202008/O%27Connell%20Pinned%20Like%20a%20Butterfly%20FINAL.pdf

Magistrate :

xxxxxx FM finds that whites should
not be able to invoke the racial hatred
provisions of the Racial Discrimination
Act.

So.... is this kind of thinking likely to create an atmosphere of harmony and well being ? Hardly.

To my mind...that magistrate disqualified himself from EVER representing the Law of this land, as he openly claimed it should not apply to people on the basis of Skin Color or white racial background.

RACE DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975

Racial discrimination to be unlawful

(1) It is unlawful for a person to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, COLOUR, descent or national or ETHNIC origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.

Rights to equality before the law

(1) If, by reason of, or of a provision of, a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory, persons of a particular race, colour or national or ethnic origin do not enjoy a right that is enjoyed by persons of another RACE, COLOUR or national or ETHNIC origin, or enjoy a right to a more limited extent than persons of another race, colour or national or ethnic origin, then, notwithstanding anything in that law, persons of the first‑mentioned race, colour or national or ethnic origin shall, by force of this section, enjoy that right to the same extent as persons of that other race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

Can anyone actually believe that a "Magistrate" could find as the one above did ? It really happened.

WAKE UP Australia! The commies are not 'coming'..they are already here...on our Judiciary.

Thank you for this article. It always feels like we shy away from genuinely frank discussions about racism in Australia.

I am constantly amazed how people say that Australians are not racist, and then in the same breath will make a comment like "they don't look very Australian" or "they don't sound Australian". My own Mother has said this to my husband and I about something on the news one night. Whilst that was not particularly offensive...it WAS racist, and I hear small comments like that frequently. My husband is African by birth, but Australian by citizenship, and it makes me sad to think that others may never think of him as Australian, simply because his skin colour and his accent do not match theirs.

Those "rednecks" are part of the rich fabric of multiculturalism, like it or not.

What's up with "the usual suspects", don't you like that element of Australia, an element fully entitled to what they think, say and do?

Leave your prejudices behind you, and embrace the cultures you find here, rednecks included.