Herbert Spencer wrote that the greatest of infidelities was the fear that the truth may be bad; today one of the most common reasons for opposing discussion of racial differences is the fear that the truth may be very bad indeed.

A high school level essay portraying all immigrants as innocent victims and Australians as heartless bullies. I'd expect this simplistic, pc laden naivety from a schoolkid. For the author's information, most immigrants come to Australia because they are treated MORE poorly in their own country. In many countries you get killed for being the wrong nationality or religion. Australia is obviously a relatively tolerant society - which is why they are here.

Apologies for having to point out the bleeding obvious.

Jay of Melbourne

Naughty, naughty. You are not supposed to even hint at anything like that.

Dateline did a segment on Geert Wilders.

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600717/n/Mr-Controversial

Here is a link to the viewers' comments on the Geert Wilders piece.

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/comments/id/600717/n/Mr-Controversial/page/12

The comments seem to be running strongly in favour of Wilders. The "agree" / "disagree" flags even more so.

For example:

[Quote]
I voted Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. I like him! Hopefully he can rescue Netherlands. Muslims who ruin everything in the Netherlands.
[/Quote]

Agree: 32
Disagree: 6

[Quote]
Just listen to the man! Do not ignore his message. If you do so it will also be to late for australia, just like in Europe! Wilders is the last politician who has a backbone...None of the politicians has the guts to stand up (except a few others). Wanna know how it s like in Europe? Please visit Copenhagen-Brussel-Amsterdam-Paris-Berlin-Rotterdam and the first thing you gonnna wish after your return is having a politician like Wilders before it is to late! WAKE UP!
[/Quote]

Agree: 35
Disagree: 3

Here is an anti-Wilders comment:

[Quote]
Saying what you want is one thing.... This guy is dangerous, because he never is going into details but only statistics. His party is not democratic and he only rules ! History repeats after 70 years. People can be stupid and normally forget things that happend in the past (although Dutch still talk about the last WW and don't see this treath). Weird, weird.... On the other hand this is the result of the past 20 years of politics in the Netherlands, which was very known for their "Polder-Model
[/Quote]

Agree: 1
Disagree: 25

That pattern is repeated throughout. There is strong agreement with the pro-Wilders comments and even stronger disagreement with the anti-Wilders comments.

Don't know if so-called Islamophobia counts as 'racism'.

Interesting pattern from SBS viewers!

I think Australians have become less racist over the years given our multi-cultural population. We may be fearful of some cultural differencs and after 9-11 it would be unfair to say that Muslims don't get their fair share of flak. But the same applies in reverse with little respect for secularism and what is seen as lack of values as though any one race/culture/religion has the market in values and who defines what those values are.

However, some people need to get out a bit more and see the world to realise that Australia compares rather well and where tolerance is much more evident in both our legislature and within our easy going culture. Most Australians I know accept people for who they are not for where they come from and this is not out of the ordinary but very much the norm. Why do we continue to use the behaviour of minorities in regard to racist attitudes to define who we are?

Respect and acceptance can only be a two-way street otherwise it does not work and only adds to cultural tensions. There has to be open and honest debate about the influence of race in the media when it comes to events like the bashing of Indian students and the reticence in publishing which ethnic groups are the main offenders; or the rise in street gangs.

This merely inflames the situation and creates more division and defensiveness which does not assist in constructive problem solving or in counteracting the feelings of disenfranchisement of some youth in Australian culture.

[Deleted for irrelevance].

@ Pelican.
You can talk about race with migrants, they talk about it all the time, it's only White people with a certain agenda who don't want it discussed.If they're talking about Racism they are talking about White people, you've seen the reaction I get when I stir them up, they want me reported to the Police, HREOC, they want me to get out of the country or they want me dead.
Non White people don't behave that way, I've never heard a migrant calling for White Nationalists to be killed but the Lefty/Anarchists do it all the time.
When the APP foolishly tried to rally in Newtown recently they were attacked by armed Anarchists some of whom were yelling "Die Darrin Hodges", APP are just Garden variety right wingers, they're not racial at all.
However it's as I said, apparently there's a BIG problem with Chinese and Indians beating up and harassing Vietnamese people.
Whatever the reason behind it it's not Racism as defined in the article, it's an Indian or a Chinese thing, or it might be a vietnamese thing, who knows?