{Cont.] An extra thought to add on to my last rant.

- Let's be honest about it, the only reason I have to speak to a foreigner in the first place, is because it would be illegal to pay an Australian as little as they pay the foreigners to do the same job.

Dear AC,

Thanks for your comments. I felt as if I had a mirror
held up to me on some of the things you pointed out.

It is normal to want to spend time with people that
have the same interests, background, culture,
language and so on. It creates a sense of belonging.
I guess the downside is that it can also set up
differences between us and other groups and this
might lead to us thinking that our group is better than\
others.

Also we often blame people for our problems.
People whop are different are an easy target.
"Those people take our jobs." or - "They get government
handouts." Nearly all the time these statements are wrong.

Slight correction to last post: "another person ^of^ group" was meant to be "another person or group" in the first sentence:

A racist action is one where some individual or a group people does something to another person or group because of the "race"* (or better said "ethnic identity") of those others.

Dear thinkabit,

Thank you for responding to this discussion.

A lot of our attitudes are shaped when we're young.
When our family members or friends express racist
opinions it's common that we'll take on those views
ourselves.

The problem is that unless we do something about it
these views can stay with us for a lifetime.

We often put labels on people. And we stereotype
people from different backgrounds - "lazy" "brainy"
"aggro" and so on. However, if we get to know
them - we might just realize how much we have
in common.

Hi Foxy, very good topic.

I find racism in Australia often than not stems from "negative stereotyping", where people have formed a general opinion of a particular group without personal experience, based on singular examples of behaviour from news reports, hearsay or general scuttlebutt like you find posted on this forum, this negativity comes from all kinds of sources. Negativity brings on feelings of mistrust, misconceptions, dislike and ultimately it can lead to outright hatred. Politicians like Hanson can play into this general ill will for their own advantage. The politician is more successful with those that already have a pre disposed negative disposition towards the group that is targeted, Hanson with Asians and Muslims. On a broader scale economic fear of completion from a group for jobs and housing etc can bring on racism, in Australia's case based on irrational thinking of unjustified advantage given to the competitive group such as immigrants, aboriginals, ex-prisoners, all sorts by government.

cont'd ...

People don't often realise that for anyone
experiencing abuse or comments - this can have an
impact on their well being. Their mood of it happens
often enough can negate their self esteem and confidence.
It can also make them feel unsafe or put them in
physical danger, and so on.

Adam Goodes had a bad experience not so long ago.

The recent "Black Lives Matter" global
movement was a direct response to police brutality
against black people in the US which also gained
traction here for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people - showed that systemic racism which
occurs in organisations such as governments, media,
companies, police, hospitals, schools,
when they discriminate against certain groups of people
is something that must be corrected.