Whilst I generally agree with your article, I find it curious that you describe your grand-daughter as 'one quarter Vietnamese, one quarter African-American and two quarters white'.

Why do so many people see 'white' as a monocultural, one-size-fits-all category.

My children's ancestry, for instance, includes English, Cornish*, Irish, Scots, Dutch, German and Maltese (itself a grab-bag of diverse European and Arabic influence) heritage. One could lump them under the catch-all 'white', but that ignores the fact that each of those 'white' ancestries is as culturally distinct as any 'ancestry of colour'.

*I listed Cornish separately, as the Cornish are the last holdouts of Celts in England, and because there is also a persistent tradition of a strong 'Spanish influence' in Cornish families.

I should imagine Clownfish that the author was trying to emphasise the obvious physiological features of her grand daughter rather than a particular blood line as these are the things that some people normally base their attitudes on. Incidentally I agree with everything contained in the article and it should be said more often.

I can't remember reading a more concise summary of the dysfunctions of 'Multiculturalism' as an ideology. Institutionalised multiculturalism is not needed in a liberal democratic state, in its most egregious manifestation it encourages the re-creation of, in microcosm, the backward and misogynistic societies that many immigrants have tried to escape. (In the name of 'religious freedom' and 'anti-racism' of course). No matter how some propagandists try to conflate religion and race, they are clearly not identical.
We really don't have total religious freedom, haven't the multiculturalists noticed? All religious practices are subject to liberal democratic principles.

The Western liberal,secular, democratic state is one of the greatest achievements of human civilisation, we must not allow it to be undermined by patriarchal tyrants and their 'useful idiot' allies.

The fatal flaws in Multiculturalism,are- the acceptance of cultural relativism and the ready assumption that friction between minority ethnic/religious groups and the rest of the Australian population is mainly due to prejudices within the majority society.

I see your point, snake, but that is partly what I'm talking about.

My heritage is, I'm sure pretty much everyone would agree, 'white' (with the exception of Maltese, everything on my sons' laundry list of ancestries comes from my side): yet I'm not, physically, especially 'white'.

I've been mistaken for Maori (very frequently, even had people come up to me in the pub and start talking Maori), Aboriginal, Spanish, Italian, even Hawaiian! In summer, even without deliberately tanning, my skin becomes more pronouncedly olive than my Mediterranean-heritage wife's (personally, I put this pronounced 'colour' in my genes down to my Cornish ancestry).

So, while my ancestry is 'white', I'm not especially *white*, and I regard my heritage as being culturally diverse as any.

Thank you for your honest and “un fearful” story about Multiculturalism, the basic truth is that Australia does have a community issue that needs to be discussed.
Firstly, the term itself “Multiculturalism” is one of the most incorrectly used words in Australian history; the simple fact is that the meaning is totally wrong. Most Australians during the 1990’s were sold by the Government the story that Multiculturalism was a positive and necessary step towards unifying our interesting mix of new Australians, however this is has been one of the greatest con jobs ever pushed on all Australians.
“Multiculturalism” as the word clearly states, describes an environment of many individual and separate groups (cultural, racial, religious groups, etc.). The term works towards creating division and reward the Multiple Minorities in the process. Successive governments have basically been rewarding and paying for these forms of self imposed segregation.
Our obvious community feelings towards Extremist elements in Australia have made the differences even more prominent for everyone to see and discuss. For the first time in many decades the general public is asking itself the hard questions:
-Where is Australia heading and is our uncontrolled migration policy working?
-Is assimilation of some minority groups in the last 30 years working?
-Is the term “Multicultural” the correct word to describe the positive coming together of the many different racial groups of people from all over the world that have chosen to come to Australia and become Australian or should it be change to “Multiracial”?
Overall, Australia has had in its past 200 year history until the 1980’s a lot of good luck. Our mixing pot of many people from many places around the world had created a cohesive and unique positive Australia, heading in the right direction, slowly through hard work, striving to remove all forms of inequality towards all people in Australia; working towards the perfect Australia with no differences between any people, no matter what race, religion, sex or sexuality. Cont/next page

Cont/contiue
However since the 1980’s we live in a constant state of unrest, the creation of minority groups that proactively work towards the separation of our unique Australian culture.
We should be very proud of our mixed race construct and even more righty proud of our special Australian way of life. A united Australia not controlled by minority groups or radical/extremist religions groups.
Let us all be proud of our Australia, our people, our unity, let’s not become so politically correct that we sell out our children’s future.
Let’s not live in fear of free speech because we could be called racist by some minority group that screams the loudest