Hasbeen,

Indigenous people make up 28 % of people in custody.

22 % of deaths in custody are Indigenous, but Indigenous people make up only 2.8 % of the Australian population. So, the logic goes, only 2.8 % of deaths in custody should be of Indigenous people, and no more.

And if only 1 % of people in custody were Indigenous, what % of deaths in custody should be Indigenous, and no more ? 2.8 % !

And if, like in the NT, Indigenous people make up 80 % of people in custody, what % of deaths in custody should be Indigenous, and no more ? 2.8 % !

If there were no Indigenous people in custody, what proportion of deaths in custody should be Indigenous, and no more ? 2.8 % !

If everybody in custody were Indigenous, what % of deaths in custody should be indigenous, and no more ? 2.8 % !

Says it all, really.

I see everything twice !

Joe

I've followed this thread with dismay but very little surprise. The terms used towards Adam Goodes, first from a child who had no idea of the real implications of her remark but certainly knew that it was meant as a negative, and had to have learnt that somewhere, then from Eddy McGuire who certainly knew and indeed has spoken out against racism, show just how deeply entrenched in our collective and personal subconscious lies the concept that Aboriginal people are lesser humans, even among people who are believe they are not racist or try hard not to be. Some of the comments in this discussion are similar; the worst are those from people who say ' some of my best friends are...' or 'I grew up with ...' as though that's a licence to say whatever they like.

The labelling of Aborigines as 'ape-like' goes back a long way: 'Monkey' was a common name given to Aboriginal individuals by early Europeans who couldn't be bothered with learning how to pronounce using their own personal names, along with a lot of other demeaning terms. And it's not just a thing of the past, as the Goodes story shows. I've come across it myself: an example - about 10 years ago I was looking after a photo exhbition which included some pictures of Aborigines. A white man in his 40s, well dressed and well spoken pointed to a picture of Aboriginal children: 'Look at their monkey hands' (they looked like normal human hands). When I challenged him he was adamant: their hands looked like monkeys, and this was because they were more primitive than Europeans.

It is essential to speak up. Good for you Jansey. Good on Adam Goodes.

And re the posts on Aboriginal drinking and dysfunctional settlements - catch up on the replay of 'Head First' , on ABC 2 earlier tonight.

Congrats are in order the thread has been a good one.
MAY I WITH A LITTLE AID FROM EVER PRESENT TRUTH BE RUDE?
I am appalled and always will be, by Americans of African descent, [we all are by the way] using true filth!
Saying some one enemy or friend, has had sex with his mother.
or Is a female dog.
And how can our culture be insulting when talking about KFC?
America branded us racist over an add.
Now sneaking in here, to again lay my past words out for inspection.
I fishing at Evan Head Australia's best beach fishing spot.
The only white but with true mates.
Heard and continue to, hear my mates call each other filthy and racist words, that I never would.
If I did? it would be racist, why is it not if they do?

Heard and continue to, hear my mates call each other filthy and racist words, that I never would.
If I did? it would be racist, why is it not if they do?
Belly,
I know exactly where you're coming from. The situation is such that when an opportunity arises to bleat racism the opportunity is exploited. It somehow makes a right out of two wrongs. It's what has been drummed into the indigenous from the day they are born by do-gooder academics & white Aborigines.
The indigenous would be a decent lot if only they were left alone instead of manipulated by academics & bureaucrats. You know those social experts who know everything.

"Indigenous people make up 28 % of people in custody.

22 % of deaths in custody are Indigenous, but Indigenous people make up only 2.8 % of the Australian population. So, the logic goes, only 2.8 % of deaths in custody should be of Indigenous people, and no more. "

You do realize this 'mathematics' for want of a suitable word, is a nonsense.

28% of people in custody are aboriginal, so aboriginals should make up 28% of the total number of deaths in custody if the deaths are distributed independent of race.

So if they only make up 22% of the deaths in custody, they are actually less likely than non-indigenous people to die in custody,
once they are there, though much more likely to be in custody in the first place.

So we should be doing more to find out and prevent non-aboriginal deaths in custody, or work out why aboriginals fare so well in custody, and try to use that information to better understand how we could perhaps prevent non-aboriginal deaths in custody.

Logic is a funny thing isn't it. So elusive.

Well, yes, Monsieur, that was my point :)

An article in The Australian last week by Anthony Dillon covered this, and pointed out, for those who wished to take any notice, that suicides and other violent deaths OUTSIDE OF custody were far, far higher amongst Indigenous people - up to fifty times higher, and especially in remote hole-in-the-wall settlements.

The Deaths in Custody Royal Commission presided over a scam, and a cover-up of what was happening outside custody. And yes, the question is not so much to do with deaths in custody as incarceration rates, and that in turn has to do with the rate of criminal activity: how to bring those rates down is the issue.

But that gets us into questions of Indigenous behavior, conduct, attitudes to the rest of society, where the ball is so much in their court. Easier to blame whites somehow for deaths in custody and other red herrings.

Cheers,

Joe