Thanks for the positive feedback, especially from R0bert, hutlen and Katsuhiro. Some of the other latest posts in this thread, however, sadly demonstrate another aspect of racism - that it is grounded in ignorance.

For example, our eponymous redneck gets it badly wrong when s/he confuses the Muslim religion with culture. Islam manifests itself quite differently when it is practised in different cultures - for example, in the Indo-Malaysian archipelago where it has existed since being introduced by Arab traders from the 16th century on, it is quite a different version than that practised in, say, Egypt, Bosnia, Leeds or Melbourne. Islam is no more of a distinct culture than is Christianity.

Katsuhiro is quite correct to point to the etymological and philosophical roots of what we refer to as racism in Western science, which set out to categorise cultural groups hierarchically according to superficial phenotypical differences. This was taken up enthusiastically by the Social Darwinists and eugenicists of the 19th and 20th centuries, and most extremely exemplified by the Nazis.

Despite the fact that any biological basis for human 'races' has been well and truly ditched by the science that invented them (anthropology), racist ideologies live on, and find expression in ignorant statements such as those posted to these forums by davo, the eponymous redneck and of course our rampant Crusaders.

You might “refute the accusation of racism” all you want, Katsuhiro-san, but all you are doing is destroying what remains of your own credibility. Because, it is obvious to any impartial observer, that you harbour racist sentiments yourself.

You are now conceding that white people are not the only racists in the world. Well, whadya know? We are making progress. But then you go and contradict yourself again by claiming that the Japanese racist term “gaijin” does not have the “power” of English racist terms. I can’t speak for everybody else, Katsuhiro-san, but that sounds like complete and utter bursheedo to me. As for the pictures of white Southerners pointing at lynched teenaged boys, I have plenty of pictures of the Japanese Imperial Army in WW2 doing a lot worse to Chinese people in Nanking, and that sure looks like racism to me. Hey, who’s calling the kettle black here?

After Saudi Arabia, Japan would arguably be the most racist country on Earth, and I doubt whether this attitude needed to be taught to the Japs by the Europeans. If you are claiming that Japan was never racist before the advent of European colonialism, I think that the average Chinese or Korean would laugh uproariously at that. It is presumptuous and insulting for a person who comes from such a racist country like Japan, to lecture Australians on our presumed unacceptable racism. Even though our misplaced tolerance has meant that one half of the people living in Australia are foreign born or first generation, to people like you and Chek, unless we immediately accept every person who plants his big toe on Australian soil as our blood brothers, we are still too racist for you.

You should be grateful that you did not delve further into the supposed evils of Colonialism Katsuhiro-san, because if you had, I would have done you like a dinner. Hey, Katsahiro-san, “What have the Romans ever done for us?”

Fancy that -- you're well versed on the Saudis and the Japs but know nothing about the Kiwis next door!

Bummer, I'm a first-generation Australian, reddy, so I suppose I don't rate well in your books. But I reckon I'm already more Aussie than you! I reckon you're far more Alabaman than you are Aussie -- you've abdicated your Australianess. If you were merely expressing dissatisfaction with "hard" multiculturalism, you'd still be well within the confines of Australian attitudes, charachter and values. But you sound positively foreign -- far more Alabaman than Aussie. You're a foreigner who just happens to have born and raised here.

You seem to have a warped view of Australian people and Australian history. Have you yet read Windschuttle's "The White Australia Policy" yet? That book would certainly serve to educate you on Australian history and thus the true character, personality and values of the Australian people. You seem to have been infected with the same foreign and misplaced view of Australians as poor Chek and Katsuhiro-san.

Aw shucks, Garra, there you go calling all us rednecks “ignorant” again. Well, don’t forget, mate, you can prejudge, stereotype and engage in bigotry towards rednecks all you like, but you can’t then claim that redneck’s can not do exactly the same thing to the people that we don’t like. Rednecks can spot hypocrisy a mile off. We love the way that people like you to peer down your nose at us and say, “Listen up, you uneducated, ignorant, trailer trash swill. You must not look down upon other people, got that!”

Now, let’s see. Your next preposterous assumption is, you claim that Western science created racism because it was the first to objectively examine the possibility of different races having different and hierarchical characteristics. Are you for real?

Throughout the ages, fundamentalists have accused men of science of heresy, for daring to suggest explanations for natural phenomena outside of the dogma of prevailing orthodoxies. Your denunciation of “Western” scientists as “racists” for conducting research into the significance of race upon personality, speaks more about the limits of your own blinkered mindset than it does about the scientists.

Redneck, I'm still waiting for your reply....I'm starting to think you don't like me?..for what reason I can't imagine?.

C'mon, drop me a line; I'll refer to you some wider reading about the advent of science and western thought. Edward Said, (Orientalism) would be a good start as well as David Theo Goldberg (he's a Jewish scholar) are two world recognized thinkers in this area of discussion. You must be getting bored with reading that stuff Storm Front and Eric Butler send out to you.

Hey don't get me wrong, I not saying you’re not educated or trailer park trash, but if you want to engage more lucidly in this discussion and with people who read and study in race and race relations you've got do some homework old son. I left school when I was 13, what’s your excuse?

Have you read Mien Kapf, I have!

C'mon broaden your horizons and live a bit!

Brazuca, I've read Windshuttle’s book, which chapter or verse would you like to discuss. (i suspect you've never ever read it)

Here is one little passage of Windshuttles' speech from his book launch.

"the anti-racists of one hundred years ago came from the despised middle classes. In fact the strongest opponents of the White Australia Policy, and the people that my book names as the heroes of the resistance movement against it, were the politicians of the Free Trade party."

Which proves you're just talking out of your arse.