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I'll start my reply by saying that there are racist people in Australia, just as there is in any other country you care to mention.
But Australia is not a racist country.
With all due respect to the author of the original post, your evidence is pretty thin the be branding the whole country "notoriously racist". You have a cousin who once lived in Australia, you spoke to a person who once wrote a book (so he is therefore "qualified"), you had a friend that lived in Sydney, you didn't see many non-white faces on television, we protect our borders against unauthorised entrants (what country doesn't?), Thomas Hickey fell off his bike and died - after he had fled from the police, and the Cronulla riots. Am I the only one who sees the irony in your statement? Again with all due respect, only one of these incidents could be contrued as having any root in racism. The Cronulla riots. I'll get to that later.
The little known second verse of the Australian anthem includes the line "For those who come across the sea, we've boundless plains to share". Share those plains we have, and we continue to share those plains to this day in a largely harmonious way. Australia is one of the most culturally diverse nations on Earth, with a correspondingly high rate of inter-racial marriage. I invite anyone to refer to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Census for some interesting statistical facts on this.
The thing is that Australians recognise difference and are comfortable with it. I feel that rather than being racist, our culture is mature enough to recognise difference, celebrate it, incorporate it and move on. For some people recognising any difference at all is racist. For example the statement "Chinese have black hair" will be racist to many, regardless of factuality. For some people this recognition of difference is completely shocking and the only way they can define it is by branding it racist. I defy anyone to find a single racist policy in Australian law. The interpretation that by turning away boat people we are racist doesn't hold up to scrutiny at all - in fact that interpretation is probably racist in itself. I can't think of any country that willingly allows unauthorised entry of its borders, are all countries thereby racist?
The Cronulla race riots are often cited as evidence of Australia's intrinsic racism. Very few people look at the root causes of what transpired that day. There is a problem with Lebanese crime in Sydney. Racist comment? No, it's a fact. Young men of Lebanese men are over-represented as a proportion of those convicted of crime, particularly those relating to violence. Young Lebanese men are also over represented as a proportion of the population in prisons. The problem is widespread enough that the NSW Police set up a taskforce to tackle the specific issue, namely Lebanese crime. Is that racist? In the weeks leading up to the riot there had been an increasing incidence of groups of young Lebanese men attending the beach and verbally and physically abusing "Aussies" particularly young women. This culminated in an assault on a volounteer lifesaver at the beach. The gathering on the day of the riot was initially intended as a "reclaiming". Racist elements took over and the rest is history. I'd like to state that I find the events of that day to be as repulsive as any decent and fair minded person. Who made those thugs the arbiters of who is or isn't Australian? I certainly didn't ask them to speak for me! But what happened that day stemmed from genuine frustration. Far from proving that Australia is intrinsically racist it served only to prove that there are racist people within Australia.
It could therefore be argued that even if my point is correct this proves that Australia is racist. By causing people to become so introverted within their own community, their own culture, they feel a need to lash out at the members of another community.
I'm going to propose another idea which may well be branded racist.
Multiculturalism is to blame to a large extent. Multiculturalism by its very nature is racist. By putting people in a particular cultural "box" we segregate them. John is Chinese, Max is Anglo, Jill is Sudanese, while that may be an inoffensive fact, if we have many cultures existing within our society we will have an identity crisis. When there is no Australian culture, but multiple cultures, segregation will exist. People are separated from each other by virtue of their culture. How can I identify with Chinese culture if I'm not Chinese? How can I enter that culture? I believe that Australia should be mono-cultural. I believe that we should strive for an Australian culture, a multi racial Australian culture - not a multi-cultural Australia. Australian culture does exist (contrary to popular belief). Think of the things tat people think of Australia and Australians from the outside and you'll probably come up with a few things; warm, friendly, tolerant, good at sport, easygoing. That is Australian culture. You don't need to be of any particular race to join Australian culture, you just need to be part of Australian culture, a culture based on the "fair go" for everyone. That isn't to say you can't celebrate your cultural ancestry, you just have to accept Australian values. By having first generation Australians identifying themselves as "Lebanese", "Chinese" "Scottish" or whatever is a cultural failure, a multi-cultural failure.
There have been racist policies in the past, such as the White Australia policy, but you need to put them in the context of their time. For comparison, many US stats had an active policy of segregatation between black and white. Some people may say "Ahhhh, but Australia only gave the vote to aboriginal people in 1967". This is actually wrong. The Ammendments to the constitution were as follows:
Section 51(xxvi) was removed. This section stated [Federal Government had the power to make laws with respect to] "the people of any race, other than the Aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws."
Section 127 was also removed. This section stated "In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, Aboriginal natives shall not be counted."
There are good reasons why these sections of the constitution written in at the time of Federation in 1901. The reason was that there was an acute understanding that the aboriginal people were the original inhabitants and that it was felt unfair that "White Man's" law be impose upon the aboriginal people who had their own set of laws and customs. As a matter of fact, this had the effect of creating two nations in Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia, and the Aboriginal Nation. Many poeple will also argue that Aboriginals were also given only given Australian citizenship in 1948. That is actually correct, but the rest of Australia was only given Australian citizenship as weel, prior to that there were no Australian citizens, we were "British Subjects". Aboriginals always, from the time of Federation, had the right to vote. Due to the fact that all citizens of the states of Australia had the right to vote in Commonwealth elections, all aboriginal people had to do to vote in Commonwealth elections was enroll with their state electoral commission.
The ammendments to the constitution were made because the wording was racist, rather than their having any racist effect.
The racism debate happens almost daily in Australia. To the point that I just think that everyone should take a deep breath and relax. We do pretty well. If other people from other countries want to brand us racist then let them. They obviously haven't been here, haven't experience the wonderfully tolerant, diverse, harmonious society that we've all worked hard for. It isn't perfect but it's incredibly successful. I think a great characteristic of Australia and Australians is that we can have a laugh at ourselves, not take ourselves too seriously. So lets keep having a laugh at ourselves, and a laugh at others, it's generally done in an affectionate way anyway. If others can't deal with it then that's their problem. There is no right wing nationalist movement in Australia of any scale in Australia, show me any other nation in which that is true. One Nation came and went in four years and disappeared without so much as a whimper. Yes there are racists in Australia, but Australia is not a racist country.
I'm sorry to be so long winded but I have travelled through many countries where the racism is much more pervasive than Australia. In fact I find it difficult to remember a less racist country (maybe Canada). I think the problem that many people see in Australia is not racism but our laconic attitude. Oh, and in case you are wondering…… I'm a first generation, mixed non Australian, non-Anglo ancestry…… Australian. |
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