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Dear Josephus,

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You wrote :

« Banjo believes that aboriginals have not been given a fair go … compare your life and income with the like of Marci Langton, Linda Burney, and elite aboriginal sports persons. »
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I did not express a belief, Josephus, I expressed a judgement : “it seems only justice that they too should have “a fair go”.

You ask me to compare my life and income with those of Marci Langton, Linda Burney, and unnamed elite aboriginal sportspersons. I’m afraid I know nothing of their lives and income, but I hope they are as happy with theirs as I am with mine.

I don’t know about you, but I should say the same thing about people like :

• Harry Triguboff: $22.45 billion.
• Bianca Rinehart and siblings: $18.11 billion. ...
• Anthony Pratt: $16.8 billion. ...
• Mike Cannon-Brookes: $15.6 billion. ...
• Scott Farquhar: $15.3 billion. ...
• Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins: $10.43 billion. ...
• Sir Frank Lowy: $8.69 billion. ...
• Richard White: $7.8 billion. ...

I think I understand what you are trying to get at in the rest of your post : no matter if we are indigenous or Caucasian, we all enjoy equal opportunities in Australia.

I agree with you to a certain extent, but I do think you are being a bit too optimistic if, as it seems, you consider that everybody is capable of seizing those opportunities. I’m afraid it’s far from the case.

Despite the absolutely remarkable evolutionary leap of our indigenous peoples from the primitive hunter-gatherer state of those individuals that Lieutenant Cook was unable to communicate with, in 1788, to Dr Charles Nelson Perkins AO, in 1966, the first Aboriginal man to graduate from a university in Australia – many still have a long way to go.

It would be criminal to hinder their progress. Don’t you think we should offer them a helping hand ?

http://www.google.com/search?q=true+blue%2C+Youtube&rlz=1C1ASVC_enFR879FR890&oq=true+blue%2C+Youtube&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l2j0i22i30l7.13807j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b00f31e1,vid:qfmHPF5qoV0,st:0

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Dear mhaze,

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You wrote :

« When all you've got is supposed historic injustice to support a claim for present-day injustice, you've really got zip »
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« When people only talk about things they understand, then a great silence will descend upon the world »
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That’s an ancient Chinese proverb, mhaze.

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Chinese proverb....okaaaay. Utterly irrelevant but.....

No, the test is for unconscious bias. People tested are usually unaware of their prejudices.
Banjo Paterson,
A negative view is not Racism & if something is unconscious than it doesn't exist. I suppose you/they meant subconscious which is instinctive & how someone can be accused for having instinctive reactions is something I find distinctively opportunistic & stupid.
A person can have a negative sense for another person for various & quite natural instinctive reasons. To twist that into racism is actually racist.
Much of the Racism of today is merely attention seeking opportunism due to lack of substance for a real argument. A person can have an instinctive dislike to another of the same ethnicity/race & even towards someone of the opposite sex to which one is supposed to be attracted in the normal sense yet, only when it involves someone of a different race can it become but is not necessarily racist. Racism is a bleating tool, nothing else ! I have been robbed several times by black people yet my beef is with the white bureaudroids who let them be unpunished thus encouraging the offenders to offend again. To accuse a whole race of people because of what a few do is as stupid as accusing someone as racist when somone of another race has a legitimate claim to point the finger. Racism has become a business & is in the process of becoming a political power because of other races being too stupid such as the one I was born into !

Banjo,

The problem is not the wealth of these Aboriginal activists but how they used their activism to acquire some or all of this wealth. For most of them, this is a huge gravy train that will enrich them further.

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Dear Paul1405,

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You wrote :

« I've said many times that the majority of racists, are not your typical goosestepping, cross burning, white sheet wearing haters. In fact many past and present "racists" are kindly folk, with sometimes good intentions, but harbouring misguided innate prejudices towards others. For some its simply a belief in their own superiority, and the inferiority of lesser people. For others its stereotyping, finding fault in all, by the actions of a few. For still others its just self deluded beliefs in their minds eye to justify the racists views they harbour. To brand some folk racists it may be too strong a word, in fact they suffer from inbuilt prejudices without any great malice intended. What is your opinion? »
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Yes, I think you’re on the right track there, Paul.

I see racism as an existentialist problem of the individual, of his situation in the world, and of his ultimate significance – a problem of his identity as an individual and member of a clan. I see it as narcissism, fearful of the Other who is different.

Fear of the Other and all its destructive consequences had a life-preserving purpose in our collective past. Fear of the other is clan mentality. It’s human narcissism in its raw, unadulterated form. Basically, it says, “That which is like me is an extension of me and therefore safe and good. That which is unlike me is not an extension of me and therefore unsafe and bad. I must defend myself. I must flee or combat and eliminate it.”

This sort of narcissism protects the individual in a tumultuous, often hostile world. But like all cognitive and affective biases, it often leads to catastrophic breakdowns, irrationality, inaccurate judgments, to flawed perceptions. Narcissism automatically labels as bad and wrong anything that seems different from us and good and right anything that seems the same as us.

Racism has its roots deep in the human psyche. It is an identity that has rigidified and ceased to evolve.

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