Racism

[Chibam]

Okay, first off, to limit any confusion, I'm white, 3rd generation Australian. Raised Christian, but I'm not a disciple of any major religion.

I just read this article about what some muslim women are going through here, in light of currant events, and it's pretty sad. The ones who were interviewed seem to be feeling phsyically threatened, or at the very least shunned by the non-muslim community as a whole and for various reasons, I don't believe it's an overreaction on their part.

I wish someone had some good ideas about how to stop the racism. It makes me feel dirty to know that this is such a strong aspect of the community I'm supposed to identify with. But perhaps what disgusts me more is that in some way I can actually relate to it.

I was bought up to be racist. From a very young age I remember sometimes hearing my dad rant things like "All (Ethnic Group A) are grubs!" or "Ah, you bloody (Ethnic Group B) ratbag!" while watching the news. My community was virtually all white Christian, especially my classmates. Throughout my school life, I never actually had significant contact with anyone from ethnic groups "A" or "B" to be able to make up my own mind about these people, so basically my whole experience of these other ethnic groups was through the racist rantings I got bombarded with in the privacy of our home. By the time we learned in school about the Nazi holocaust and how terrible a thing racism is, I think the damage might've already been done. I like to believe I'm not at all racist. I know it's absurd to judge someone based on their race, or the behaviour of a handful of members of their community. But deep down, gut reaction-wise, I get uneasy around people from ethnic groups "A" and "B". I try not to let it show - my problem shouldn't become their problem - I never have anything derogatory to say about them. But I just really wish I didn't have this disease. I wish we, as a country didn't have this disease. I wish it wasn't part of who we are.

It makes me wonder, is this generally how the story goes? Does all this ridiculous hatred come from a bunch of nonsense ranting people heard as kids? Were we so bombarded with cultural horror stories of vampires and werewolves that now whenever we see someone wearing a funny cape or who is especially hairy we believe their coming to suck our blood? It seems so ridiculous that these hollow statements are causing so much pain.

[Idek]

Rasicm is a very hard topic to discuss about, especially since it causes such significant damage to numerous people's lives.

As an Asian teenager born in Australia, it was a little hard to fit in. Throughout my life, nothing seemed strange or different until I reached high school. High school is already bad enough as it is but throw in all those little rasict slurs and jokes about different races and cultures, and it basically becomes a living hell. Especially in year 7, the jokes really impacted the way I viewed myself and the world. I started to become ashamed of my background and I would begin to hide anything that would relate back to my ethnic background because I didn't want to bring attention to my difference to others. I specifically remember this time in year 7 when this guy in my class was telling a very disgusting joke that would stay with me for the rest of my life. He was going on about how a TEACHER was explaining how his son made a video imitating people of different races. I'm not quite sure why the teacher's son would do this but anyway, he then began imitating different types of people and he then came to imitating asians. I remember in detail him saying "if you do not get an A in your test, you will not eat fried dog for dinner." To be honest, I was and still am hurt by this comment and I'm so sick of people judging and humiliating people of different races because of stereotypes and horrific prejudice thought. Surprisingly, prior to the event, I already knew that common Asian stereotype but I never thought i would ever hear it come out of someone's mouth. I'm also so tired of being labelled "Asian girl" instead of people asking for my name, being associated with rice or noodles, people thinking Asians are entirely fixated on achieving good grades, being goodie two shoes, being judged as dumb drivers, being called typical Asian names, or being seem as cruel people who eat dogs, etc. And the worst thing is, when people are caught saying or doing something rasict, they just look awkwardly around to the people surrounding and laugh it off not even apologising. I don't know, I guess all I want to say is rasicm sucks and it really can change someone's life for the worst. And no matter what, please do not participate in anything that would negatively impact someone's life because of rasicm.

Honestly I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be an African American in America or a Muslim either. I hope discrimination stops soon!

[SubduedBlues]

Everyone here speaks of multi-culturism and our non-racial/non-prejudicial freedoms. Where that may be true in many cases, it is not completely true.

My heritage includes those of the natives, but I am not a redskin. I'm barely even a half-breed; it was may generations ago. On one side, me being a waabiingwe (fair skinned) means I don't get treated by the pale Americans as savage. But on the other I am looked down upon by the darker redskinned brethren, as an abomination that was soiled by the paleface. I lived between two worlds; I lost on both sides.

Coming to Australia didn't change much. Now I am seen by Australians (of all cultural backgrounds) as the perpetual outsider. Even though I naturalized in '92, I am always seen as American first and only; never accepted as an Australian; never an equal. Peoples from every other country in the world are accepted as Australian, but not Americans, we are never accepted.

Australian media treats all Americans as dumb-ass rednecks. The politicians treat anything of commercialism or capitalism as Americanization, something that no sane person should want; implying that Americans and their culture are the worst on the planet.

Sorry, but racism and prejudice is not just present in Australia, it thrives here, in society & government. Even entertainers regularly make America the butt of their jokes, whilst claiming that they are not prejudiced. Yeah, well bull****. It is blatantly obvious they are prejudicial against all things American; especially the people.

Tolerating a religion or people that are not of your background, doesn't mean that you are racial & prejudicial free. To be truly fair you must to accept everybody not just some/most of them.

My view is simple:

The biggest promoter of racism is the government. And I am not speaking about whichever political party happens to be power, but the government as an entity in its own right. If governments truly desired the end of racism, they'd lead by example and legislate that it'd be illegal to ask any person of their race or ethnic heritage on any government document, census, health/hospital form, life insurance, et cetera.

So long as the government continues to categorize people by their race, and/or their ethnic heritage... racism will remain as an active part in our society. People learn to be prejudicial and racially biased, because they taught to be. And they are taught by our society, our entertainers, and those that govern our society.

SB

[pipsy]

Hi Idek. Like you I'm sick of the constant 'digs' I have to endure from people I work with. I'm from N.Z and there is one person I work with who constantly tells me 'Kiwis are obviously recognizable due to their speech'. He thinks it is amusing to repeatedly ask me to repeat certain words in my 'accent'. This is harassment, in the schoolroom/workplace and should be brought to the notice of whoever is in charge. Australia tries to promote that 'citizenship' does not and should not mean renouncing your heritage. Having said that, I do feel that you should try to accept the country you choose and try to live by those rules. No matter where you live, the rules of that country should be abided by. We are a multicultural society - yes, but there are many o/seas races here who cannot speak English, thereby making conversation extremely difficult. We have a Polish immigrant employed as a receptionist. Because her knowledge of English is so limited, we frequently receive complaints by clients who phone to book seats for shopping, Dr's appointments, hospital appointments etc. These clients are forgotten or our receptionist fails to understand the booking and the complaints are ongoing. If our receptionist would get some help in learning English it would be helpful for her and us. I realize there are people who harass and deride our o/seas residents and I feel this is wrong and should somehow incur some sort of public apology on the part of the person committing the offense. It is offensive to be constantly derided and harassed for being an immigrant.

Lynda