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The Forum > Article Comments > Corby highlights our lingering 'White Australia' sentiment > Comments

Corby highlights our lingering 'White Australia' sentiment : Comments

By Chek Ling, published 5/7/2005

Chek Ling argues the Corby case has shown Australians have double standards when it comes to dealing with Asians.

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yeah whateva davo!
Posted by kalalli, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 10:59:21 AM
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Poor Chek seems to be confusing Australia with Alabama.

Maybe he should read Keith Windschuttle's "The White Australia Policy" to help disabuse him of the chimerical perceptions of Australia and of the mindset of Australians that he displays in his article.
Posted by Brazuca, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 11:30:15 AM
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For Chek's benefit, here's my reading of the Pauline Hanson affair.

Australians, like Brazilians and other Latin people, have the natural capacity to assimilate all and sundry. This is unusual for a Germanic people, as such people base their ethnic identity on race and so tend to view any assimilation as constituting an intolerable compromise to their ethnic integrity. As an exception to the rule, however, Australians and New Zealanders represent the only Anglo-Saxon people in the world who are capable of doing this, demonstrated throughout their history by a strong preference for assimilation over segregation.

Windschuttle has mentioned before regarding multiculturalism that what Australians have a problem with is not so much multiculturalism per se but rather "hard" multiculturalism as opposed to "soft" multiculturalism. The former is the one propounded by the folk at SBS and the ABC and the chattering classes, while the latter is the one preferred by most Australians, as it fits more comfortably with their assimilationist tendencies while allowing for gradual and comfortable acculturation by those newly arrived.

Pauline Hanson served the purpose of giving the Asians a suggestive nudge as to what they should be doing. Ever since, Asians have been assimilating rapidly and the disquit and muffled concerns that prevailed beforehand have essentially and dramatically disappeared!

Goodonya, Pauline!
Posted by Brazuca, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 12:04:05 PM
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Chek,
An interesting article. I think I get the thrust of your point. Correct me if I am wrong.

Generally, Australians (white) aren’t overtly racist. However, through manipulation and misinformation, government and media use the public to achieve goals or distract people from other important issues. As a nation, we are comfortable with out ‘white’ heritage yet haven’t realised that the nation is more ethnic than we really know.

I know there is more but as a short summary, does this come near the mark?

If not, I apologise. If so…

Well, I would have to agree to a fair extent. I do not think that racism is overt in this country. It is there – there is not doubt. Racists do exist and they should be exposed and vilified for their ignorant, self-serving beliefs. However I think it also exists in an insidious form, fomented and prodded as the media and government see fit, depending on the money, distraction or fever needed by their respective organisations.

I also take point with your comment regarding the class/education of people most affected by these shenanigans. I would think that most people using this discussion site come from a higher standard of education and perhaps are a little sensitive to being called ‘racist’. I do not think that was your point. However, I do believe that a solid education can help the community see through the games and deceit used by the media and government to achieve political and economic goals. The less educated are much more easily convinced and abused by the media/government.

Cont…
Posted by JustDan, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 1:33:48 PM
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Chek, some interesting responses coming through on this. I think I have a fairly high level of agreement with JustDan's post as a summary of the situation in Australia.

Your article and subsequent post could be interpreted as someone playing the race card in support of party politics. For those of us who are not convinced that the current PM is a racist (I may be wrong) the regular use by his opponents of the term can play the same role as "The boy who cried wolf" did for the village "wolf safety alert".

If you want genuine racism to be taken seriously when it does rear its ugly head then please be very careful not to use the term as an aid to other political objectives. I'm not sure that is what you are doing but some of your comments give that impression.

It appears to be a common tactic of the left to call anybody who deals with issues which can be tied to race or culture in a different manner to what the left prefers a racist. Doing so shuts down reasonable debate about issues which might be a cause for genuine concern to some. One of the results of doing so is that those who share such concerns are likely to support anybody who takes a stand on those issues, sometimes regardless of how millitant or how inapproporiate the proposed solution.

Being concerned about percieved issues in the Indonesian judicial system need be no more racist than being concerned about the US holding prisoners outside conventional (to us) guidelines.

R0bert
Posted by R0bert, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 5:00:01 PM
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It’s funny how people who proclaim their distaste of racists are not above doing a little stereotyping and prejudging themselves. According to Chek, racists are all a bunch of uneducated, knuckle dragging whites who feel superior to everybody else.

Wrong Chek. The desire to live amongst people that you consider your own kith and kin is a cultural universal. So to, is the tendency to sneer at people that are not part of your in group. The racist joke is timeless and universal. Archeologists even found racist jokes about Roman soldiers chiseled into the stone of a temple in Libya, while the Romans themselves called British tribesmen “Britanculi” (wretched little Brits)

One only has to look at the Chinatowns in every city in the word to see that the Chinese in particular prefer to live exclusively within Chinese communities. Seems your mob is just as racist as the rest of us. If millions of Anglos were immigrating to Shanghai, do you pretend that your own people would be any different in their attitudes to whites?

I have lived through an era where class distinction and the profit motive were considered by some as the root of all evil. Now racism is considered by people like Chek as the Eighth Deadly Sin.

Multiculturalism is a bit like Communism, Chek. It is a wonderful idea. Too bad it has never worked anywhere.
Posted by redneck, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 7:30:49 PM
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