Sharkfin.

The issue with racism and Aboriginal people is similar to that of stance of the Muslim people. Aboriginal people also tend to scream Racism over everything. They don’t stop to think that maybe it isn’t their colour that people have a problem with; and that more often than not it is their attitude, actions and lifestyle. That isn't to say that there aren't people who are prejudiced against those of darker skin as they certainly do exist, but because there is so much mixing it is only a minority. People have a problem with people's behaviour and attitude because it negatively impacts them directly or indirectly.

It’s like the Mundine fight the other night. Lots of people are disgusted with Mundines attitude. His colour has never really been an issue; it is his attitude that is the problem. It wouldn’t have mattered what background he was; anybody with that attitude isn’t going to gain sympathy and make many friends. The Aboriginal people of course scream Racism because he is Aboriginal and many Muslims would probably say it was racism because he is Muslim. Thing was it is neither; he just has a big mouth and comes across as very rude and disrespectful. People don’t like that.

I guess I can understand why some Aboriginals have an attitude towards Australians but I can't seem to get my head around some Muslims attitude to Australians especially given that Australia has taken them in in order to help.

A very good post jolanda that last one hits the issues on the head.
Our gentle man fighter,in a country that worships its sporting hero's has few friends.
Nothing to do with race or religion, if the gentle man rode the next ten Melbourne cup winers, won every boxing title in every devision in the world he would still have few friends, nothing to do with racism.
Victim mentality from minority's who in fact act very much in a raciest way hurts only them, be it some within the Muslim faith or our first Australians.

well I keep to using my 1950s dictionary, not because I dont accept that language changes but so I can see things without media/polly spin

the words racism and racist did not exist then [fortunately] and it is illuminating to see that apart from the title ["racial discrimination"] the act itself simply uses the phrase "because of race"

when I go to the dict to see what that means there it is far more global than ethnicity, and in fact "the race of men" is mentioned [as being far more obvious because man has penis and woman does not] but SMALL ethic differences [eg people pray to different "gods"] dont get a gernsey

so good question by the OP - but pity everyone went for the popular media definition

as Hitler said

"it is fortunate for governments the people do not think"

Divorce Doctor. People are not being taught to think, they are being taught what to think.

Correct - that is the whole "raison d'etre" of Political Correctness

It gets the Mushrooms "thinking" what the masters WANT them to "think"

more to do with robots - the same robots who vote [as Hitler well knew]

A logical approach to this question would be as follows:

Genetically, all members of the (one) human race are 99.99% exactly the same. The genetic variations which result in physical differences between any given individual such as sex, skin tone, sexual orientation, brow ridge, nose size, height...whatever - are as minute as the unseen variations (for example, there is zero correlation between the genetics that determine your appearance and the genetics that determine your IQ. This is dramatically simplified for the purpose of this post, of course). This means you are as genetically similar to someone of African, Asian or European descent as you are to your neighbour - even if it doesn't look like it.

Racism, then, must be the ignorance of these facts. It assumes that differences in values and customs are not due to the circumstances and location of ones birth and upbringing, but instead inherent within different gene pools. Of course any basic high school understanding of biology will tell you this is not the case. So why do so many fear those who appear different?

Well, in evolutionary terms - fear of the unknown was a genetic trait that obviously proved to be advantageous, those with more fear were more likely to survive to reproductive age, and thus pass on said fear genes (in ALL humans). Today, the fear is irrational (and rarely useful as a survival tool), but still quite powerful, often even more powerful than that of logical deduction.

You fear them, they fear you. The only solution is for all to forget the concept of 'them' and 'you', and come to terms with the unavoidable fact that we are all part of only one race - the human race. It's not easy - fighting millions of years of inherited fear. But it is the only solution we've got.