Is racism still alive in Australia?

Yes

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by Russell Waldron

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Racism in Australia is alive and well. Numerous racist attacks on Indian students and a host of international visitors has thrust the racism issue in Australia right back into the limelight. While the Indian government is up in arms, so too are the good people of Australia. While mainstream Australia views racism as wrong, many of the do-gooders hide behind their double standards. Raising their children to be racist at home, yet supposedly against racism when out in public. Sadly racism is fuelled by those who voice their dislike of migrants while in polite company. Children listen and therefore hop on the bandwagon of dislike for foreigners.

Although racism does carry some guilt with it, it certainly fails to stop many verbalizing their thoughts in a derogatory fashion. Go home wogs! which was once thought of as the most derogative comment one could make back in the 60's and 70's, has now resurfaced. The quiet soundings, the whispers etc at social gatherings which eventually leads to some stating, I'm not racist but.' is the most hypocritical statement ever made.

A plethora of Australians believe that Pauline Hanson ( political candidate hopeful for the One Nation party ) should be held accountable for the increase in racism. Her comments Please explain! I don't like it." Or " I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians! in lieu of immigration, Asians and foreigners etc did nothing for the tolerance of Australians towards outsiders. This woman with no P.R skills whatsoever should never have stepped within the world of politics. Although some of her ideas are well worth taking on board, she degrades Australia with her thoughtless comments. There is no element of class about the woman in lieu of presenting her opinions in an educated manner yet she presents herself above others. The eyes are said to be the window to the soul and this woman's eyes display her dislike of foreigners intensely. The sneer which always accompanies her comments about Asians, Aborigines etc is as prominent as her red hair.

Racism has woven its way through Australia like a virus, hard and fast. It was highlighted when the Aussies engaged in crude verbal attacks during the latest Australian cricket tour of India. Racism is quite blatant in Australia's not so civil society. Vicious and crude text messages in reference to Indians, refugees, Aborigines, Jews and Muslims, has escalated. And we call ourselves a proud tolerant country, the land of the free?

The dominant Anglo/Celtic cult demands that new Australians from assorted cultural backgrounds sever their cultural ties completely and enter the mainstream. Sadly these demanding, misguided racists, forget that they would not appreciate being told to completely sever ties with their cultural history. Those targeted are expected to absorb our culture and mannerism quickly, learn our language and show a suitable degree of deference. But many of these expectation border on the edge of dictatorship.

Racism in Australia has been a fact of life since Australia was first discovered. Take the treatment of Aborigines into consideration. The stolen children episode is a classic example. Government officials deemed it humane to take Aboriginal children off their parents and place them in the homes of the white community. They justified this move as beneficial to the children. Says who? How on earth can they justify taking a child off its parents? Families were torn apart and this was supposedly to better the lives of the children. How dare they play God! Simply because the parents were black many were deemed unfit to raise their children. Yet the aboriginal society elders had much more control over their own than the parents of the white generation. They had and still have their own laws, what made white man think theirs were better?

The treatment of aborigines is appalling, and that is no understatement. We took them from their natural environment, told them to cover themselves better. Taught them the white man's way of claiming the dole check, drinking alcohol and so forth and then hammered them with comments such as dole bludger and so forth. How hypocritical is that? They were living life well until the do good society decided to interfere. Even regarding the law aborigines are not treated equal. A host of Aborigines die in the rear end of prison vans, are frequently brutalized by the police. The white-fellas speak for them and make decisions on their behalf. They call that equality? We even notice that rehabilitation programs for Aboriginal prisoners are minimal and a great number of prison authorities display racial prejudice and this even extends to the Aboriginal person's visiting relatives.

Ironically the ones who are the only true Australians are the victims. Once white settlement occurred the intense racism appeared. In fact Aborigines were placed in the same category as Australian fauna. Such disgusting treatment of human beings this is. But it did not end there, Asians were then deemed a threat to the wage structure and racial purity and thus racism escalated even further. It's well known that the Union Movement and The Bulletin magazine placed great emphasis on maintaining a white Australian policy. This saw the S members of the so called professional middle class society nodding vigorously.

The White Australian Policy was said to have officially died with the election of the Gough Whitlam Labour government back in 1972, but this was a very short term misconception. The attitudes of the white middle class racist bully never altered at all. It was deemed a badge of honour back then to go against anything the Whitlam government instituted, so racism increased instead of decreased. When Malcolm Fraser was elected his attitude towards refugees, aborigines and Apartheid was disappointing to say the least. He was eventually dubbed a Party and class traitor.

The good citizens of Australia were initially impressed with Hawke and Keating who aided in increasing public decency towards refugees, minority groups and Aboriginals. The week long celebration of the worth and value of refugees known as Refugee Weeks was a commendable move towards suppressing racism, yet it died once the Howard Government appeared. In fact Howard's treatment of refugees who arrived by boat and was state sponsored, was nothing but sanctioned racism no matter how one looks at it. His actions only encouraged racism even more. Now we see the Rudd government re-enacting the fundamentals of the Howard government's intolerance towards refugees and Aborigines.

Racism in Australia? Oh yes, and that's an understatement indeed!

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