Greg

If I had written a similar article for publication on OLO, I have no doubt that it would not have been published - on the grounds that it does not present sophisticated argument, and that it sounds like a spoiled backyard bully screaming for attention because he was kicked out of the private school and had to attend a public school. The fragile ego syndrome is pretty clear to me. People who use projection as a defense mechanism are usually not very stable people.

Of course there is racism in this country. Anyone who suggests to the contrary, has their head in the sand. But as I said on another thread, we do not know how much racism there is. I think much is overt, rather than covert. Members of my family and my friends hold racist views. There's no denying that. But they do not let their views be known outside of the family/friends circle. Just as they keep sex in the bedroom, they keep religion in the home, and they keep their racist views in the home. On a visit home recently, when we were discussing politics, prejudice, racism etc., my Mother said this to me: "I wouldn't say this to anyone outside of our family home, for fear of being branded racist, and perhaps victimised".

Greg do you really believe what you are saying? Xenophobia means that a person has a morbid fear of foreigners. So, you are saying that all Australians (presumably white Aussies) have a morbid fear of foreigners. What a load of bulldust.

Sounds to me as though Tasmania is not far enough away for you. Surely Canada would suit you better?

Davo - your first post was great. Thanks Leigh. Thanks RObert.

Merry Christmas all
Kay

Addit to the above: what a dumbo! I meant, I think that much is covert, rather than overt. Apologies.

Kay

Kay, I find it very sad that your mum fears being victimised for her views. It would seem she is not alone unfortunately.

Might I suggest this due to the excesses of both polictical correctness and of the managed speech so artfully practiced by our so called leaders of all political persuasions and in various walks of life.

The result has been to remove truthfulness and reason as the basis of public debate and the quest for meaning and understanding as its goal.

It is up to all of us redress the balance.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Re: the pathetic article of Greg Barnes, perhaps it's pertinent to remember that ethnic culture does and should be taken into consideration when assessing suitability to live in this great country, I know I know I can hear some of you now, shaking your head in disgust as another obvious redneck racist joins the queue, but think about if you dare for one second, if some of you more rabid Australian white anglo haters where asked by a middle eastern country to act as an advisor on the potential influx of white anglo Australians to their country for immigration, specificaly they want to know whether they as a race have a propensity for racism, as the said country naturally does not want such races in their country stirring up trouble, so what would be your recommendation ? could you in all honestly recommend such a redneck racist group ? why then do we not consider such things when it comes to immigration to our own country, just as a muslim country would not like a race of people who hated everything about it's people and values, should we tolerate the same ?
Greg and others remind me of people I have worked with who will never ever go with the majority no matter how right it is, whether it's in a meeting, or chanting for a team(one night watching state of origin with family and friends and we where all fantical maroons supporters, when one bloke I invited starting cheering the blues, slanging went back and forth all in good fun, after the game I said to my friend I didn't know you where from NSW, he said I'm not I'm from QLD, and I'm like well how come you are supporting the blues, he said because I hate going with the majority !, I thought okay whatever tickles your fantasy, and no before you even go there I do not believe we all should be sheep and follow blindly but being recalcitrant purley for the sake of bucking the system is a form of insecurity in my opinion.

Kalweb,thanks for the complements and endorsements on the the other threads reguarding racism.You definitely try to be honest and portray a warts and all view of the world.Yes,and I try to view the world through my own experiences.

We are all potential racists,since racism stems from fear and our natural propensity to establish pecking orders.

I think we and many Western Nations have brought about too much social change.It should have been more of an evolutionary change rather than the revolution we see backfiring in our faces today.

The left have been on a mission of putting the Western Culture in it's place for the last 30yrs.Our success as an introspective, self critical culture,has been our undoing.This self deprecation has gone just too far.Compared to many other nations the English speaking nations have done more for world peace than any other culture.Where would the world today with Nazi Germany ruling Europe and Japan Ruling Asia and the Pacific Regions?

Fools like Greg Barns just want revolution and bugger the consequences.

When I look at any economy/society I want to keep the good bits that make it function and slowly change those things we all agree to be negatives.

Rainer, I'm not going straight to your question. To easy for it to become a score counting exercise and a who is most racist contest. Can you imagine the buy in to that we will get from some.

In my ideology racism occurs whenever "an individual is advantaged or disadvantaged and the deciding factor for that occuring is their perceived racial characteristics".

Now I tend to find it unhealthy to live to close to an ideology. Lots of innocent people tend to get hurt when idology's become more important than getting on with life. They are a nice guide which need to be tempered with the needs of the real world.

Sometimes it becomes very convenient to use race (or other potentially discriminatory criteria) to work with a group whcih is perceived to need more help than others in an area. You might find that certain health patterns for indiginous australians fell well outside the norm. Some of those indiginous australians might be healthier than the norm and some non-indiginous australians might be unhealthier than the norm for indiginous australians but overall indiginous australians might be seen as a group needing special help with health issues. Potentially racist, yes, a pragmatic solution yes.

I take the view that a lot of "racism" falls into a similar thing, an administrative tool to help people avoid the complexities of treating people as individuals. Most "racism" is more about underlying cultural issues and disagreements than about the colour of someones skin. Net result on people impacted by it is the same

That view is one reason I try not to float the racist tag around to much. I'd arther try and find a way to get to the underlying issues. There are some racists but I suspect most are responding to other issues be they fair or not.

R0bert