Dear Yvonne,

Welcome back.

One of my favourite "End Racism Quotes",
comes from Hal Crowther, who speaking in the US stated
about certain groups of people, that they were -

"...Essentially entertainers, entertainers who
stimulate prejudice, selfishness, and meanness the way
a comedian works for laughs... they offer their
audience partisan belligerence and a complete package
of hatreds - designed for the coneptually and
ethically impaired..."

Thankfully in this country of ours,
these people are a small minority and are growing less
and less in number. Some people -
are not racists - they just hates everybody and anybody
who's different to them.

James Baldwin wrote so many years ago:

"It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate
the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater
miracle of perception and charity not to teach your
child to hate."

It's only by studying history and learning about the past,
including the history of Indigenous-Settler relations -
that we can try to ensure not to repeat the same mistakes.

But knowing brings burdens which can be shirked by those
choosing to live in ignorance. Because with knowledge the
question is no longer what we know - but what we are now
to do, and that is a much harder matter to deal with
and will probably continue to perplex this country for some time.
However adds like the recent "Beyond Blue," campaigns may
just reach some people. They're worth doing.

Of course you're right - we should be able to have
civil discussions on a wide variety of issues even though
we may not agree. But some people are not capable of civil
discussions, they prefer arguments, condemnations, and
unsubstantiated accusations - despite the evidence and
documented facts that exist.

Perhaps this is to be expected on public forums such as
this one. People can hide behind the anonymity of their
keyboards. Although its a sad state of affairs in terms
of how we inter-act with each other.

Foxy,
You said, 8-8-14,"But some people are not capable of civil
discussions, they prefer arguments, condemnations, and
unsubstantiated accusations - despite the evidence and
documented facts that exist".

I take it you are referring to yourself in the above.

Remember, you said, "People who are in denial about racism in this country are simply ignorant. Lets look at the facts - we imprison
brown asylum seekers, we once celebrated our national day
with a white racist riot. There were assaults on Indian
students, a little political organisation called
One Nation, and of course "the intervention" - the heraldic
beak on our long hawkish treatment of Indigenous Australians".
Foxy, OLO Friday 18-4-2014 12.18.35.

So again I call on you to present your evidence that your 'racist facts' are not your misguided spin, which you posted simply to rubbish Australia. I am happy to debate each event with you.

[This person is a sock puppet who has been barred from the forum for offensive behaviour. If anyone notices someone like this turning-up again can you please notify me? Their previous persona was Jay123. Thanks, GrahamY]

As race is a myth, how can there be racism?

Jay123,
Desperate to get some attention are you?.

The ultimate in name calling, gee, golly, gosh.

[This person is a sock puppet who has been barred from the forum for offensive behaviour. If anyone notices someone like this turning-up again can you please notify me? Their previous persona was Jay123. Thanks, GrahamY]