Accusations of racist behavior have stemmed from several sources.
I will start with the KFC advertisement.
The Americans see it as racist. One complaint is that we should have known that African Americans ate fried chicken when they were enslaved. The people in the advertisement were West Indian. So- first they assume we understand the stereotypes that they have created!? Then they apply these stereotypes to a different culture; a culture that may look on fried chicken favorably. LOL
The other instance I can think of is the black face incident.
Now this probably was insensitive (even I knew that was racially inappropriate in American culture).
We are not the US.
Must we import the stereotypes and cultural faux pas along with the spate of other American crap we are forced to swallow.
In the end I (perhaps naively) believe that Australia is the Kid who walks in on his parents having sex and asks them why they are wrestling.
When it comes down to semantics, the very idea of racism is racist.
Defining stereotypes based on race and then assigning them levels of social acceptability is fundamentally racist.

Bit like the idiocy of Atheism too.

The septics dont seem to understand the aussie sense of humour.

They are the weirdest bunch of people on the planet. They bomb and destroy any number of countries but then wonder why everyone hates them. They give guns to virtually everybody and then wonder why so many get shot. They call themselves christians but are the home of porn, gambling and decadence. They decry illegal immigrants but then employ them as maids and cleaners and farm labour. They have comedians like Eddie Murphy, George Carlin and Robin Williams but they cant get a joke on hey hey.

Australia is a racist country but not because of Hey Hey its Saturday or a KFC ad. It is because a young black kid cant get a job or a black family that keeps getting knocked back for a place to rent. It because a black lady with a limp gets asked to leave a club for being drunk when her two white companions, who were drunk, are ignored. Its when the media shock jocks spout about "lebanese gangs" or "men of middle eastern appearance". Its when dog whistlers like johnny howard or pauline hanson spout about "asian hordes". Its when white people like us turn our backs on the degradation and poverty of our indegenous folk. Its when white leaders enforce draconian, authoritarian "interventions" to supposedly "save the children" (where have we heard that one before? hmmmm). This is racist australia and we had better do something about it soon before the rest of the world notices that rather than a KFC ad.

Well said mikk. I'd only add to your comment that most Australians are in denial about it.

All this racism hoolaballoo is becoming pretty tiresome. Why not accept that there're morons out there en-masse who will always object to other's reference to complexion because it gives their mindless attitude an excuse to stir crap. Keep in mind also that there're even more decent people of all complexion who don't give a hoot about what we were born as. What the incessant bleaters of racism either don't comprehend or more than likely exploit is the fact that if I say blue & someone else insists it is red then no matter how deep a blue it is the stirrer will alway dispute it because it is dispute & disharmony that the stirrer seeks & thrives on. As long as people can deny facts & make deliberate misinterpretation without impunity then we continue to have a problem of great magnitude. I can only speak about racism from personal experience & I am 101 % convinced that the bleaters of racism are in fact the real racists. Until they come to grips with their miserable existence & get a real life well..?

I do understand that there is disadvantage among indigenous Austral9ias. For less than 2percent of Australia they receive a disgustingly low percentage of govt support. But I am not aiming at the national subject of race. I am speaking of the fallacy that is racism. In a perfect world we might be blind. But in the end, yes there are racists in Australia. But I will not label an Australian a racist using an American construct of racism. Their stereotypes are meaningless to me.