Racism is real, it's in every society, it's a fact of all life even in the animal world. Racism is also a catchcry & for many it's a disgusting excuse to divert attention from personal or communal dysfunction. It's become so easy to cry racism when in actual fact it is an issue of attitude & not complexion. the worst thing about racism is that those who bleat discrimination are more often then not the perpetrators. What's the old saying ? attack is the best defence ! Any racist will deny it & therein lies the proof. i put it to the bleaters that they don't even understand racism they just find it a convenient excuse to draw sympathy from the indoctrinated & get more funding from government agencies. It's a sick thing indeed but what can be done when so many insist on dragging this stupid attitude out of the depths of hypocrisy over & over. I think the only hope is that decent people simply get sick of this nonsense & stop taking notice.

This article is barely worth reading. In fact you could probably label it as racist. It twists the truth to make one race look worse that they really are and one look better than they really are. Is that not racism? The thing is that whites are made to look worse and blacks made to look better.
Let me ask this question again. I have asked it before with no response. For 80000 years the Aborigines were on this land and made very little progress. Had it not been for the whites they would likely still be there. After all in 80000 years nothing had changed, why would it now change in the last 200 years. They would still be stuck in the desert, chasing food when possible and killing each others tribes.
Also what was their life expectancy before whites arrived and what is it now? Has in improved or gone backwards. I suspect it has improved radically.
Still if you haven't been successful you might as well blame the whites. Its easy to do.

ozzie try leaving the comments for intelligent human beings.

When I was 12 years old, I was chased down the street by three Aboriginal kids of about the same age as me, screaming abuse and threatening to beat me up. I got home and told my parents that I'd been chased "by three Abos". My parents' reaction? "Don't call them that!"

Just goes to show how this country is concerned with image over substance. We ignore real issues in favour of semantics. Let's face it, nobody is denying Aborigines an education, nobody is making them drink alcohol. They need to take responsibility. Tony Mundine exercised a great deal of responsibility in raising his son Anthony, teaching him the value of a healthy lifestyle, making the most of himself and avoiding alcohol and drugs. If he can do it, so can others.

Jeez, aren't we whities sensitive! Joshua writes a thoughtful account of his experiences encountering racism in rural NSW and he's accused of naivety and academic anti-white racism (whatever that is!)

Imagine if these sooks (Runner, Hasbeen, Individual, Saintly Sinner) had been born black and endured the relentless racism experienced by my Aboriginal friends here in Qld, NSW or the suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne.

Yes blackfellas mug white people, and some break and enter and behave criminally, and, shock-horror, some have even made disparaging comments about whitefellas but when a white fella mugs someone in your town or suburb do you sound off at white people? Are all white people crims if one engages in criminal behaviour? I do not condone violence committed by individual Aborigines any more than I'd condone it from whitefellas but there is a peculiar trait in white Australiam discussions of Aboriginal people and that is our seeming inability to distinguish between individual blackfellas and the rest of the Aboriginal community. The same sadly applies to Lebanese and even Indians. They are "the other" and apparently in our eyes just an amorphous mob with no individuality.

I have lived and worked with blackfellas in NSW, Qld and the NT, in the city and the bush, and overwhelmingly I've been treated with respect and hospitality. Rarely, maybe 2 or 3 times, have I been abused and when this has happened it has been from someone so marginalised, so disempowered, that the impact on me has been totally negligible. But then clearly I'm not a big sook like some of the correspondents on this page.

White Australian racism against Aborigines is driven by guilt and the refusal to acknowledge the crimes committed against Aborigines. Having refused to open our eyes the best response is to depersonalise Aborigines and blame them for all that has happened and continue to look for excuses to deny them justice and recompense for their appalling losses.

Read history, learn about the past, open your hearts, befriend your Aboriginal neighbours and become real Australians not the ignorant bigots you currently demonstrate yourselves to be.

Individual and others

Joshua's article is a tad idealistic and naive, he does raise some telling points.
> "262 of the 288 incidents, or 91 per cent, of these kinds of assaults in the area were allegedly committed by non-Indigenous people."<
91%! by bloody whites! we're a violent lot.
Talk about calling the copper black!

Are you suggesting that a broken nose, jaw, arm or a glassing by a white assailant is less injurious? painful? Or that white violence is more justified than indigenous?

IMO there is no justification for violence by anybody.

As for the genius who said "racism happens around the in every race" or words to that effect. So does murder, incest, bestiality and whole list of nasties are you suggesting we shouldn't try and reduce them...including racism?
Rather frightening moral code you lot seem to have.

By trying to justify the unjustifiable, with almost every keystroke you dig yourselves deeper into the mire. , proving the point. Racism is alive and well even on OLO.

Why not accept the truth and try to do something about it ....er... maybe not adding to the cumulative load?

Old saying "when you're up to your neck in $hit don't sing about it."

Runner, You're right there are other reasons that contribute to the lack of indigenous workers.
The question in my unchristian mind is why and what we as a society can/should do about it? See them as individuals/people not some lesser anamorphic mess of crime, destitution and in need of religious saving.