Multiculturalism alienates and racism is natural. Do you hear yourselves? These moral universes alone should tell you why the social cohesion you doubt is perpetually under threat. It is under threat because YOU threaten it.

These views lie in distinct contrast with Australia's civic instutitions and the social policies that have brought recent migrants here. If we can even use the term 'white' (what is white culture??), there is a very fundamental disjuncture here between what is official, and the value systems of what is held by numerous people, including the 'intelligent' people on this forum.

To address this ongoing moronic argument about racism (redneck), of course generalisations are natural, it is perhaps the most necessary aspect of making sense of this world - we learn to understand how to behave by imposing patterns upon it. Of course familial commitment, prejudice against 'out groups', etc, naturally occur. It is to some extent part of ongoing power struggles that human societies engage with, although this is a very Focauldian argument. Too many 'white' people here have conflated racism and prejudice. 'I don't understand you, therefore I hate you' or 'I want you to go away' - if this is an insight into what many 'white' people in Australia believe, then ethnic and migrant Australians have real reasons to be afraid.

For me, it is fairly self-evident that this is a little planet with a lot of people, and human intelligence provides us constant opportunities to intervene against various expressions of ethnic hatred. I think many people here have some self-analysis to do. If you want to hold yourself out as the inheritors of a great people/nation, then you should recommit to the democratic principles it fundamntally enshrines.

Well said Katsuhiro!

One of the biggest impediments in this forum appears to be those who think racism is not a complex theoretical issue. Instead it’s been put across as 'common sense' 'inevitable' and 'natural' phenomena. Hitler rationalized the genocide of Jews with similar claims.
The Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the same sentiments.

If I did not know that its a much more complex and often puzzling social and cultural phenomena I would not leave my house everyday because I too would believe that all white people hate black people. From my many years of experiencing racism I've found this not to be the case. And yet what I read here from white Australians are justifications for holding on to racist ideals by white people.

One of Chek’s closing statements was “Deep down in our national psyche, we are still the superior white, and they, the Asiatics, are still inferior and to be exploited.”
• Many have given ample proof here that this assertion is correct.
• Many are willing to explore in depth why this statement is correct but not problematic.
• Many have identified that this statement is correct and that it is problematic for us all.

I happily belong to the last group, not because I like problems, but because I’ve spent my whole life looking for solutions and because my daily survival depends on me knowing these issues really well.

It’s apparent to me that those who have attacked Chek’s supporters here have never looked for solutions or thought that this was in fact problematic. Australia is in the Asian pacific like it or not.

If there is inevitability facing us all it is this-

We must begin to throw away those Eurocentric and ethnocentric beliefs about cultural and racial difference being impediments to social cohesion

Rainier, I find it sadly amusing that hostiles like davo and red neck would never have known what shade of skin or racial background you have had you not 'outed' yourself. I guess if you had remained 'racially anonymous' they would have cursed you for being a bleeding heart, latte sipper - which is what I usually collect for desiring an inclusive cooperative society.

I enjoy your posts to this forum which are frequently witty and accurate.

Chek - don't let the vitriol get you down - you have as much right to a POV as anyone else here - and it is good to hear from a variety of people expressing a diverse range of opinions.

While I vehemently disagree with the likes of Davo et al, I am more disturbed by their outright hostility than their POV's. Their POV's indicate their ignorance and narrow mindedness, but I don't understand the hostility and taunts eg 'I love being white' what are comments like that proving? That the poster is at a higher risk of skin cancer?

I have known good and bad amongst a huge range of people - skin colour has nothing to do with the intrinsic value of a human being.

Er, can I remind everyone that this is Australia we're living in and not Alabama. Redneck represents and outstanding aberration. As Windschuttle has observed himself, the problem Australians have is not so much with multiculturalism per se but "hard" multiculturalism (the balkanising type the ABC and SBS types propound) as opposed to "soft" multiculturalism (the slowly-but-surely-assimilating type everyone's comfortable with). Problems arise when those against "hard" multiculturalism are automatically put into the "racist" box, when such a designation is silly in an Australian context, where egalitarianism and a fair-go mentality are celebrated as national charachteristics and so make it impossible for the nation to be racially discriminatory. And, of course, as said before, Redneck is an outstanding aberration. He, after all, names himself after a far-off people who have historically demonstrated their antipathy towards cherished Australian beliefs like egalitarianism and a fair go.

Katsuhiro and Rainer, point taken.

If racism is a complex and theoretical issue, perhaps we should all take the time, here, to go back to the beginning by establishing consensus as to a proper and clear definition of racism since this is now the dominant theme of discussion – and not Asians or Corby. I have seen several definitions in here and elsewhere - I expect you and other posters have too. If we start from this reference perhaps we will move off the roundabout.

My apologies to all if I too have fallen victim to divisiveness.

Welcome Anomie, could I congratulate you on your exemplary and well reasoned reply?

I am not advocating that instinctive behaviour is so natural that it should always be our guide. But to understand human behaviour, it must be appreciated that human behaviour is largely directed by powerful emotional needs and drives. These emotional needs can be greatly moderated by cultural conditioning and legal sanction, but they can not be eradicated because they are what make us all human.

Could I suggest that my most vehement opponents take the opposite view? They seem to think that “educated” human beings (as opposed to uneducated, ignorant rednecks) are entirely rational beings who can simply dispense with 3 million years of evolutionary programming by thinking entirely “rationally’. If that was possible, then no “educated” human being would smoke, get fat, fall victim to unwanted pregnancies, vote for the Democrats, engage in risky sports like skydiving for their kicks, be infected with AIDS, pray to any God, listen to music, or appreciate female beauty. But even “educated” people are human; they are not Star Trek Vulcans.

Human beings not only need a personal identity; they also crave a group identity. So human beings form mutually supporting groups, and they tend to be a bit nasty towards any rival group, especially one that they regard as menacing their group. Racism can be seen as normal hostility towards a perceived threat from a menacing rival group. Not only can such feelings never be eradicated by any means, they are perfectly common, understandable and justifiable, if the perceived threat is very real