Rainer why do you think that your negative attitude towards the white man ISN'T racism?

Is is maybe because you also think you are superior?

I agree with Robert in that it is not equality in outcomes that we should be aiming for but equal access to opportunity for all.

You can't demand a person who chooses to spend their day not working and who is on welfare to have the exact same lifestyle and outcomes than the person who spends their life working hard to get ahead!

It just isn't fair.

Spendocrat – I am not against providing help what I am saying is the aboriginals need to do more to help themselves! You talk about remote communities with no running water (sealed roads is irrelevant there are many areas of Australia which do not have sealed roads) I have not heard this, so where do they get there water from? Traditional ways? The question also has to be asked as to how many jobs are there out there in those communities? Apart from police officer and community workers I can see there being many industries in remote Australia, well hardly enough to support all the aboriginal people there. When there are no jobs and nothing to do why not just sit around drinking grog and sniffing petrol all day? After all the aboriginal get very nice benefits from centerlink.

Sure the western way of life may not be the best in some peoples opinion but if you have a baby with a heart defect you want a western doctor to help you out, if you are attacked by a bigger enemy you want western weapons to defend yourself, if you are starving due to drought and famine you want western agriculture and or economic help. Western culture may not be the best in all peoples eyes but it is what is wanted by all people. I can hardly see someone preferring a grass hut that you share with mozzies to a nice air conditioned home.

Amel – With that statement you go to show how poorly educated you are. Your grasp of economic development I would say is practically nil

Amel,

Fair enough.

To everyone: the discussion, while interesting, has certainly strayed right away from the subject.

I’m not saying this to delight Ranier, but I think aboriginal Australians do deserve “special interest” status in view of their 40,000 years presence in the country, and to discuss them under the heading Are Migrants Racist seems a bit pointless to me. I said as much to him.

Perhaps Ranier might like to be proactive and kick off a new discussion with what really pisses him off as person with aboriginal heritage? No point scoring or nastiness. Just good discussion which could help us all

Joland, Robert and others,

I disagree, for example, "equal access" to education has failed dismally for Aboriginal people. And it was only in my own lifetime that support for access to secondary education was enabled.

The quality of access, the curriculum used in many remote schools, the ability of teaching and administration staff meant that even if you reached the final year (as many did) it did not make you anymore competitive in the market of jobs or further education.

If the intention of a good education is clearly defined from the outset this would also dictate to a certain extent the quality of access.

Affirmative action (which I support) did not in many cases address structural and institutional cultures that were themselves not historically developed for 'Aboriginal access'.

The myth surrounding the so called equality of access that the 1967 referendum apparently delivered unto us continues to misinform perceptions about the actual quality of Aboriginal access to good and services.

Aboriginal gains from “liberation” politics included access to white citizenship, incorporatist models, institutional and internal assimilationist policies and
practices. In short, an opportunity to act and think white. It failed dismally.

Don’t get me wrong - The underlying egalitarian philosophy of “equal access” is important and commendable but it is absolutely useless if it does not – in its implementation- address the very reasons why access was previously denied.

This is where Noel Pearson and I agree in terms of our critique on leftist progressivism in that it assumes simple access without clear purpose is blind and ultimately destructive.

Robert,

Yes to most of that. I do think, though, that the "discrimination" re dry communities was the idea of the community elders themselves. I have also read that in the wider aboriginal community - outside the communities - the problem with alcohol is slightly LESS than it is among the rest of us.

The booze doesn't discriminate between races and cultures.