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The Forum > Article Comments > Racist Australia > Comments

Racist Australia : Comments

By Bruce Haigh, published 11/6/2009

Polite and sometimes not-so-polite racism is the underbelly of conservative politics and conservative attitudes.

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A few years ago Dr Eva Sallis, who lives in
Adelaide,SA., wrote an excellent article
(in my humble opinion) for The New York Times,
Dec. 17, 2005, called, "Australia's Dangerous
Fantasy." The article was on the Cronulla riots,
and racism in general. For me, it was a real
eye-opener - because I was buying into the media
'hype,' at the time. If anyone's interested you
can read it at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/opinion/17sallis.html

I fully agree with Sallis when in ending she says:

"What happened on Cronulla Beach warns us that
our self-inflicted wounds are festering. A volatile
part of our-community is deeply alienated, unable
to belong, and another volatile part has retreated to an
irretrievable past and a mythical notion of racial purity.
If contemporary Australians are to live at ease with
ourselves, we need more education, less fear mongering
and, not least, greater honesty about the culture of
racism that is so damaging us."
Posted by Foxy, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:17:09 AM
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This is the best 'dog whistle' ever. it will bring out all the socialists, greenies, do gooders and advocates for multiculturalism and illegal boat people. They will shout 'Of course Australians are racist just look at the bashings and robbery of the Indian students'. But i suspect this article was written before the later information about other ethnic groups being responsible.

You can't beat a good racist story and authorities in Vic and NSW, by ommission, let everyone believe that anglo Aussies were the ones making life miserable for Indian students. This was followed up by the media broadcasting the same to the world via the wire services and internet. No doubt they will find a way to say anglo Aussies are giving us a bad reputation overseas.

The simple fact is that critisism of a culture or religion or a persons actions is not racism. Some people refuse to acknowledge this and see that there are some groups that can't or will not integrate because of their culture. Their are some groups that will not abide by our social standards and are blantly contemptous of our laws and our authorities.

If we really want our country to have a cohesive society we have to dispense with the idealogy of non-didcriminatery immigration and dissallow those groups in that have shown they will not integrate.
Posted by Banjo, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:18:13 AM
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The thing about all of this 'racist' hoo ha is that people get sick and tired of being told they are racists, and switch off. The continuation of a few Indian students demonstrating makes people switch off. The whole thing becomes boring, and everyone loses interest.

By the time people like poor old Bruce Haigh get around to it, its over and done with.

The business of a few Australians of a certain type calling other Australians (the majority) racists has lost its impact. We expect the idiots to always be mumbling about 'racism', and, so what? The have reached the very, very boring stage; and it's high time they thought of something else to lambast us with.
Posted by Leigh, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:27:16 AM
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Bruce Haigh states the obvious - at least it's obvious to those of us who aren't blinded by racism. As a nation, Australia was founded on racist ideology which persists just below the surface of polite discourse to this day, and constitutes much of the less polite discourse.

However, I don't think that Australia as a nation is any more racist than other comparable States these days, at least since the White Australia policy was dropped by Whitlam and Aborigines and Islanders achieved full human status under Fraser. Mind you, that is certainly not to say that many Australians don't subscribe to ideas that are plainly racist and/or xenophobic.

Also, I don't think that persistent racist sentiments are solely the province of "conservatives" - where I live I'm frequently regaled by ALP-voting acquaintances with tales and jokes about "coons", "curry-munchers", "ragheads", etc etc. Mind you, it's probably arguable that voting ALP these days *is* "conservative".
Posted by CJ Morgan, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:32:16 AM
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I guess I'm a lot older than any of you so I can recall the time when all Italians and Greeks who came to this country were "itys" and "wogs".I believe that we humans are tribal in our relationships,therefore,everybody who is different from us in some way, is to be feared.
Posted by poddy, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:46:02 AM
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Are the attacks on Indian students racist, or do people walking home alone from railway stations late at night simply stand a higher chance of being assaulted and robbed?

How many people who weren't foreign students were assaulted and robbed in the same timeframe?

Oh, that's right, police don't profile cases that way - it would be racist.

All that aside, I've no doubt there is racism in Australia, and racism is simply unnacceptable, but for heaven's sake, let's have some sense of proportion.

Indian media have made much of this issue, which I find interesting.

When 1,000 people are killed and 150,000 displaced by religious/ethnic riots in Australia, or when there are riots over the result of an international cricket match, then perhaps I'd concede that the Indian media have a right to criticise Australia.
Posted by Clownfish, Thursday, 11 June 2009 11:52:05 AM
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