It looks like that little girl may have been right after all.

Ape-like feet 'found in study of museum visitors'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22728014#

Indy: In my opinion those who so selfishly & constantly search for loopholes to play victim are causing many innocent & decent real indigenous who are in fact the majority, a lot of pain.

I agree.

Now, Say I have terrible neighbours. They play head banging music loud all day, don't work, a dozen unruly kids that are never supervised. The guys got a rats tail & beard & wears black filthy clothes & is either drunk or on something. The woman is always in trakie dakies that have long seen better days, is a fat sloppy pig with a loud foul mouth & screams at the kids all day. The yard & house is full of crap & unkempt, broken panels & windows. Police are around every second day.

You know the type I'm talking about; in fact YOU may be the type I'm talking about (Alice’s Restaurant.) The Wal-Mart type, as seen on uTube.

Now if I say they're apes, am I racist? Oh, Sorry, did I forget to mention, they're white. Or, would I only be racist if they were Aboriginal? It's a dilemma, eh.

Lexi: The Cronulla Riots - the Lebs were to blame for that
in Sydney, of course.

Eh, they were.

If you were the girls that were accosted, sworn at, pushed & poked, called sluts, just for being at the beach in a bikini & no one came to help you. What would you say? It's OK because they're Lebs (Muslims.) Of course, you would be a racist if you complained, eh. After all, they're are, a minority.

Or, would I only be racist if they were Aboriginal?
Jayb,
Yes, in the eyes of Lexi, Poirot, Paul 1405 et al. In peoples' views unimpeded by rose or pink tinted glasses you wouldn't be.
I fully accept that there are pretty bad racists among the non-indigenous however, a little looking into will show you that per capita they have the edge on us. It may not be comfortable to hear for some but hey, those sort of people would deny that water is wet if it could linked to racism.

White people of middle class backgrounds are privileged in our society. We have not experienced racism in our country or have had to live through a history of prejudice. Indigenous people were not allowed to vote until the 1960s and are still not recongnised in the Constitution.

When a white middle class person commits a crime it is never considered a crime of their class/colour/ethnicity but a crime of the invididual. When an Indigenous person, a black person or a Muslim (input minority group) commits a crime it is often treated as a collective trait of all those in the group.

I am not saying all Australians are racist but I think Australians are more racist than they think they are, but not as racist as some. However it is not a competition and I think we tend to think of racism in this context, including myself. It is not about being less racist than another country or group but about doing better. There may be on occasion some oversensitivity over racism but when there is no longer any racism that will no doubt cease. All things take time and on a positive note things have improved on 30 or 50 years ago and no doubt will continue to improve.

When you call a white person an ape it is not the same as calling a black person an ape, where there is a history of prejudice, slavery, genocide, stolen generations. And where the experiences of Indigenous Australians or African Americans (such as in the USA) is one of being treated as less than human and akin to an animal. That is why 'ape' is not appropriate. There is a difference.

The poster is well within his rights to take offence at the naming of the dog in this context.

pelican: When you call a white person an ape it is not the same as calling a black person an ape,

BullS#!t. That's discrimination.

And where the experiences of Indigenous Australians or African Americans (such as in the USA) is one of being treated as less than human and akin to an animal.

That's America & the Churches view. It doesn't apply to everybody in Australia. Mostly just to white folk in the South Eastern Corner of our Country.

That is why 'ape' is not appropriate. There is a difference.

You're saying that if someone calls me an Ape, Migaloo, Gubba or anything else, because I'm Middle Class white, it's not offensive.

BullS#!t! That's discrimination & I'm offended. Oh, I can't be, can I? That's right. I'm white.

There is a lot of two faced, whited scepulchre & picking & choosing going on with this post.

Hi Pelican,

I didn't realise that white people are explicitly recognised in our Constitution :)

Yes, you're right, and given that the 1967 Referendum occurred 46 years ago, when one had to be 21 to vote, a person has to be 67 now to have participated in that limited form of 'recognition'. And around that age to remember how life was back in the bad days.

Since then, the land rights movement, the Mabo decision, the Native Title Act and various well-publicised cases have gone some way to bring about recognition.

The Aboriginal Flag is officially recognised, I believe, in the Commonwealth Flags Act, as is the Torres Strait islanders' Flag.

Aboriginal art is prominently displayed in government buildings, and on some Qantas planes. It is immediately recognisable to overseas visitors as a gesture of recognition of the Aboriginal foundations of Australia.

The various enactments of Reconciliation, from Hands, to walks across bridges, to the compulsory teaching of Indigenous studies, by whatever name, in many educational institutions, may be seen as forms of recognition.

Mr Keating's Redfern Speech and Mr Rudd's 'Sorry' speech could perhaps be seen as other forms of recognition.

The uncritical acceptance of the notion of a stolen generation, without evidence, could also be seen as some form of - perhaps warped - recognition of a garbled perception of history.

But if all of that is not enough, then let's have yet more symbolic acts of recognition.

And move on to a world in which all people are free to act, and interact, as fellow humans, to actualise their many potentials, free of the burdens of history.

Joe