Jay, Individual and co,
I recently taught a course on Australian identity and the mainstream white, straight, male identity that lords it over every other ethnic and marginal group historically reserves its greatest detestation for the aboriginal. They seemed to have every right to feel justified in their loathing as even science and Darwinism were misapplied to support it. Thus also the Stolen Generation and assimilation policies were rationalised and we still don't have successful "integration" programs. Aboriginals continue to be the most detested Others in their own country--this is supported anecdotally by the amount of intolerance I encountered even among undergraduates.
There is no doubt that some criticism of aboriginal "outlands" is justified, but what goes on in some of these places is not evidence of the recalcitrant and recidivist nature of the hopeless abo, but the product of centuries of abuse, ostricism, segregation and projection of loathing that inspires self-loathing. I don't want to speculate on the possibility that aboriginals retain their nomadic sensibilities to some extent and don't fit into "civilised" culture. That may be so for some, but for most I'm inclined to think it's entirely due to their pariah status.
Only think how you would feel if you were part of a tiny minority and the object of disgust (tacit or otherwise) to the complacently reigning and miraculously successful others. We are social beings and it is difficult not to become the creature you are popularly perceived to be, while resenting and rebelling against it makes you yet more anti-social. Modern dysfunctional aboriginal communities are the outcome of centuries of dispossession and alienation, they're the dialectical product of positive reinforcement, or negative interpelation--loathing and self-loathing exacerbated. This process has given us the "aboriginal problem".
It's difficult not to despise the utter want of empathy and understanding of the complacent white racist, smug and safe and confident in his skin, while the aboriginal is reviled in his. At least the homosexual can stay in the closet, the aboriginal is outed at birth and an outcast in his own land.

Only think how you would feel if you were part of a tiny minority and the object of disgust (tacit or otherwise)
Squeers,
I am & have been for several decades on a daily basis. I am still trying to find a way of either myself being allowed to integrate & also for indigenous to integrate. I have not yet seen any sign that the indigenous are actually interested. This is not a fault or anything to point a finger at. It's human nature as much as exploitation is human nature. Personally I get tired of listening to the academic do-gooder rhetoric which, after all is the root of not finding a solution. Why would anyone including an Aborigine try to work his way through life when thanks to Academia one just has to call out discrimination valid or not. What or how can the rest of us find a solution when no-one tells what the solution is ? I have asked many times on this forum for indigenous Australians to tell us if they agree/disagree with continued immigration & if agree then which ethics group do they favour to emigrate to Australia. To-date, no answer.

Squeers,

It is an unfair and groundless portrayal to paint the typical white Australian as racist - most of them are not (no Jay, not even towards white people). The rednecks may be a vocal minority, but they are still a minority.

That's a fascinating thought-experiment, Squeers: sitting back in your office, cogitating on what can be derived from your premises about how it all might be. And getting all your third-hand information from Richard Broome ?

However: 'southern' Indigenous people have arguably had it far rougher than 'northern' people, who often have never left their own land for long periods, have not been as exploited or for as long, and in many cases now, have reasonable certainty about owning their land.

'Southern' people may know where their country is but rarely have any ownership of it. They are in the 'modern world', depend on it, work in it, live, love and have kids in it, who in turn will integrate their own lives and aspirations with the opportunities and constraints of the modern world. If anybody should feel despised, dispossessed, excluded yet not allowed autonomy, according to your lights, it must surely be 'southern' people ?

Yet they usually say no to all that: they are getting on with their lives, on the whole. Their university commencement rate in 2010 was close to two-thirds of that of Non-Indigenous, domestic students - Indigenous women's was better than 80 % - which, if we assume that more than a third of all Indigenous people are trapped in lifelong welfare, is surely not a bad effort. They have picked themselves up, after generations of vicious discrimination, and made 'modern' living their own, seizing opportunities, copping similar setbacks as other Australians. Most 'southern' Indigenous people are trying to make it on their own, they know and care little about the plethora of welfare programs and lifelong bureaucrats available to provide a cotton-wool existence, shielded for life from the modern world. And they are prevailing.

Nobody has to be a victim. I don't think they need any more of your thought-experiments to persuade them to cry into their beer and give up - with respect for your good intentions.

Yours unanonymously,

Joe

The Acolyte Rizla,

I'm doing nothing of the kind. Like you I like to think the rednecks and racists are a minority (though they're a large minority), but racism is insidious, systemic and unconscious as well as extroverted, and that is what the indigenous population has had to contend with (as well as the aggressive stuff and official policies of assimilation tantamount to genocide). The only way we are ever going to do justice to the issue is when we as a nation empathise with the lepers and acknowledge our responsibility for the deep-seated causes of their demeaned estate.
We should walk a mile in the other's shoes before we judge and condemn.
Individual, if you've struggled to fit in you ought to be able to empathise with aboriginals, whose struggle is futile. Is your pariah status as profound as theirs? I doubt it.
I'm only a part-time academic and doubt I'll ever be a fully-fledged one, and I'm certainly not a do-gooder! I'm just a doubting Thomas.

On my way out, Joe, but will consider your post later.

Interesting speaking to some Africans and Asians of varying colours who have moved to Regional Centres and have encountered some very unfriendly first people. You would hardly call them 'mainstream white, straight, male identity that lords it over every other ethnic and marginal group'.

In a church I am involved with we have Asians, Africans (White and black), Kiwis (white and black), Islanders, Aussies (white only). Everyone gets along harmoniously learning from each others cultures. Many other churches are similar. The aboriginals however must have their own church done blackfellas way (whatever that is). Know I wonder who the racist ones are?