Sometimes it seems that there are layers and layers and layers of racism in this country, as Leigh amply demonstrates above. Between the crude name-calling and gutless attacks on individuals, and the smiley institutional racism that either excludes entirely or pigeonholes non-Anglos, I don't think that we Anglo-Celts have learnt much about our common humanity in fifty years, Left or Right.

But, meanwhile, Indigenous people have broken the barriers to their participation in urban life, other non-Anglos have asserted their rights (when I was a kid, Australian-born Chinese couldn't become citizens: one of the first funerals I ever went to was for a Chinese man born here in 1894, never a citizen of anywhere), millions of people have settled here and contributed to Australia's prosperity and their children sit alongside Anglo kids and each other's kids in schools across the country. Nobody has the monopoly on contributing to the betterment of our country.

Inter-marriage proceeds at a huge rate, particularly in the second and later generations: all my ancestors (as far as I know) were Celtic, Irish and Scots, but my kids and their descendants will all be Aboriginal as well. The great majority of the 25,000 Indigenous university graduates will marry people with whom they work and socialise, as will the children of the Vietnamese and Sudanese and Afghans and Chileans who have enriched our society over the last couple of generations, as Italians and Maltese and Greeks and Lebanese did in the previous generations.

For many Australians locked into outdated mindsets (see above), this is disturbing: as they see it, non-Anglos belong either under-foot or far away. This hostility crops out amongst the most ignorant and gutless, who crave the certainties of a status quo ante.

But as Lucy rightly says, suck it up: the great majority of us are migrants, and it's not too late for those who don't like the idea to go back to the hovels and slums where their great-grandparents came from. Let's focus on turning out coffee-coloured people by the score !

Now let's see whose nose that gets up :)

Joe Lane

Cheryl, (commenting on the Tampa) "I was in Malaysia when the Howard Government kept that Norwegian freghter full of refugees from docking. The Malaysians I knew in education and politics were amazed. 'So they'll stay on the boat?' yep."

Your comment is typical of the self-loathing Left who continually give Australia a flogging and never compare and contrast their own country's efforts against those of other countries. It is a pity that your educated Malaysian friends who were so critical of Australia at the time didn't prevail upon their own government to do better. This was Amnesty International's view of Malaysia's 'sensitivity' to refugees around that time:

"In Malaysia, the majority of those who face harassment and discrimination are those whom were termed as ‘illegal immigrants’ are migrant workers and asylum seekers/refugees. Migrant workers often become ‘undocumented’ for various reasons: either because they enter Malaysia without proper documentation, or because they lose their legal status during their stay in Malaysia.

Many ‘documented’ migrant workers including domestic workers also face various level of discrimination and denial of basic rights. Many migrant workers work and live in inadequate conditions, without access to basic services and at risk of physical and sexual abuse. They are subject to weak recruitment regulations and limited legal protection and are vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous recruitment agents and employers"

http://www.aimalaysia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9

Has Malaysia since become a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees?

BTW, I have a work colleague who is Malaysian of Chinese origin. She and her Australian husband fled Malaysia because of the discrimination and violence that would inevitably have been directed against their children.

I think that Cornflower's comments reflect the fundamental weakness in the position of those who reject greater diversity in Australia. They point out that other countries in the region have racial problems - as if that somehow excuses Australia. They also argue that pointing out our own flaws is some type of "self loathing."

This is facile. It smacks of avoiding the issue. The issue at hand is that Australia is an ethnically diverse country. As Lucy points out in the cities its diverse. I work at a uni - so trust me its diverse. This is a great thing. Homogeneity is boring. The problem is that popular media representations of Australia are all-white. That really might indicate the depth of racism in this country - after all you can judge people by what they do rather than by what they say. It also reflects a curious disjunct - the racism doesn't exist in the workplace or in people's social lives. People seem to work together and mix very freely.

But there clearly are a group of Australians who are living hyper-Anglo lives. Maybe these are the people who do the casting for tv shows like Neighbours and All Saints. Who knows? Now anybody who lives in Sydney and Melbourne will regularly see people of different races. But Neighbours doesn't reflect that. Most of the medical students are Indian, Chinese etc and there are so many Asian doctors - but All Saints doesn't reflect that. The simple answer might be that there just aren't many Asian actors. But then again.

"As a result, Australian culture remains unchanged. Arguably, racist attitudes have only hardened in recent times."
Ah the ignorance of youth. If you were an Aborigine, Torres or Pacific Islander living in the 50s and 60s and in previous decades, you would have experienced a huge change in social attitudes, all positive. Yes there are ignorant people, indigenous and non-indigenous, whose views will never change.
“the great majority of us are migrants, and it's not too late for those who don't like the idea to go back to the hovels and slums where their great-grandparents came from”
Cripes Joe, getting a little heated. Everybody, indigenous and non-indigenous, either immigrated here or their ancestors immigrated here. Some great grandparents came from hovels and slums, a lot didn’t but so what?
“Let's start by throwing out our TV's(sic). Or by casting a brown family in Neighbours.”
Nazeem you seem to be fixated with colour. Why not have a black family eg Somali, yellow family eg Vietnamese, light brown family eg Northern Indian, dark brown family eg Torres Strait Islander family all living in Ramsey Street? For what purpose? Makes as much sense as a standup Muslim comedian in Afghanistan cracking jokes about suicide bombers, gay rights and wearing a burqa.

David,

Racism doesn't exist in the workplace ?! Perhaps not the cruder forms of it, but certainly it appears that it is alive and thriving at the higher levels of bureaucracies, Black and white. For example, if an Indigenous graduate wants to work in the mainstream, they will often find enormous pressure to restrict themselves to 'their own' area, working specifically with Indigenous people or in special Indigenous units.

It seems that secondary teaching graduates especially have had a tough time getting employment in the Ed. Dept.: 'But we don't actually have any Aborigine secondary schools,' that sort of racist excuse. One was appointed to two rural secondary schools fifty kilometres apart, until he told them to shove it. Another brilliant student was not notified of a placement until the third week of term. Hey presto ! there are now very, very few Indigenous secondary teachers actually in the system, at least here in SA: perhaps 10 % of qualified Indigenous secondary teachers, and of those, the proportion confined to Aboriginal schools with secondary components is very high. One survey of placements of Indigenous nurses here found that not one had been placed in a standard hospital.

The last annual conference of Aboriginal teachers in SA was held in the late eighties, but every year, the Department funds a week-long conference (in term time) for education workers, usually in a pretty flash resort. And such devaluing of Indigenous graduates is not confined to teachers. Ignoring and/or penalising Indigenous graduates but pumping up unqualified education workers, health workers and rangers - would you suggest that there is no racism involved in this differential treatment ?

Joe Lane

Hi Joe,

No you didn't get up my nose ... I agree with you heartily but ... damn always a but eh?

I notice you didn't include Indian people or Muslim people in your groups of people who have or are enriching both their own and our collective lives by joining in with the rest of us in this place.

Was that deliberate or does it reflect a current unfortunate reality?

I think that would be a better topic for debate than whether we Australians are racists. Clearly all the evidence points to the fact we are not. And in case you are choking on that comment Nazeem, I can clearly recall in the not too distant past a 'brown' Australian being call a monkey ... right across bloody India ... without any sort of remorse or appology.

Let's hear Nazeems attitude to civil rights of women in Australia ... please.

As for the Media in Australia, especially the electronic media ... well it is an over subsidised mess full of arrogrant 'we know best' individuals who portray the worst of Australia. The whole setup needs be scrapped and something intelligent replace it. And that might be occurring apparently if current surveys are accurate Australians now spend more time on the internet than watch TV.

And KRudd and co have just given the private tv channels $250 Mil to continue with their crappy content. Astonishing really!

We are not Racist in Australia although there are groups here who clearly are. To label all of us as racists and demand we reassess our attitudes is a stupidity.