PS Thinking about friends and colleagues of mixed descent, eg people with Chinese ancestry ca 1890s, or Indian a few generations back, intermingled with a few other lineages on the way, mostly you would never guess from their appearance, accent, or behaviour. Even Shocakdelic meeting them would assume they were 'ordinary' Australians, because that's exactly what they are.

Indeed the point I was making earlier is that in another 100 plus years Australians descended from multiple ancestries will not identify with any of those lines - they will just be 'Australian'.

We can help by not demonising any current ethic group and making them feel that they have to stick together for safety.

Cossomby,
So what, do we need to ask anyone's permission to call ourselves White?

Cossomby, So what, do we need to ask anyone's permission to call ourselves White?

Jay, You can call yourself whatever you want. Where I would object is when by calling yourself 'White' you claim some sort of special status and use that to put down other people.

I personally have no desire to call myself 'White'. I am happy to call myself Australian, British by descent (Irish, Scottish, English with more than one Viking/Scandinavian line). I keep meaning to get my DNA tested to see if the Irish etc line comes from those Iberian peninsula prehistoric lineages or some recent African input. My skin's kind of pink, but I'm not an albino so it's not actually 'white'.

I think the Westminster system of government is the best we've come up with so far, but only because the alternatives are so dismal. I'm happy with a background of British culture, while recognising it's had bad as well as good points. But I'd be equally proud to have been of Greek descent (they started the whole democratic thing), or Chinese or any number of others. I'd also be proud to be of Aboriginal descent, if only for their decency (at Sydney Cove they were appalled at the cruelty of flogging and hanging, and they have generally refrained from terrorist / freedom fighter activities even though sorely provoked. (Please don't go off on a tangent about current social problems, which result from a history of poverty and exclusion.)

But call myself 'White' in a political sense? Why on earth would I do that....? Identify (or be seen as identifying) with the National Front, the Ku Klux Klan and so on....? Why would anyone?

@Crossomby,

<<But call myself 'White' in a political sense? Why on earth would I do that....? Identify (or be seen as identifying) with the National Front, the Ku Klux Klan and so on....? Why would anyone?>>

Hmmmm quite interesting --AND TELLING!

So Crossomby, do you make similar extensions/associations re anyone who calls themselves black --or yellow --or red *in a political sense*?

Or, do you reserve your disparagement ONLY for those who identify as white *in a political sense*?

Yes (to the first question). I think politically identifying by any 'colour' is not useful.

I can see why 'Black' became an identity - in reaction to 'White'. 'Whites' labelled Africans, Aborigines etc. as 'Blacks' as a negative, and the latter then adopted the term as a badge of pride.

I'd like to see all these terms dumped. They are a hangover from an antiquated racial typology that attributed moral character and intelligence to skin colour. A similar claim was that criminality was expressed in the bumps on the skull.

Clearly human beings are varied in physical attributes - but the use of the colour terms was a political tool to justify slavery and other forms of discrimination.

Cossomby, the problem is that the people you're swapping posts with will NEVER stop thinking of themselves as "white". They feel persecuted, discriminated against and under severe threat. A good example of the crimes committed against their "whiteness" is the fact that there's more than 2 Chinese restaurants in Preston. Obviously (to them) this means the Chinese are taking over Preston and forcing all the "white" people out. Goodness me, it's almost a war crime. How dare those Chinese illegals do that.

Yep Cossomby, THAT'S the way they think. To them, it will ALWAYS be a race war, and they are happy to see it only as "whites threatened by those horrid black and yellow skinned illegals".

Rational discussion with ingrained and brainwashed racists like them is impossible. To them, the whites are the good guys, and the black and yellow skinned people are the threatening foe.

You won't change their minds Cossomby. They will go to the grave that way.