Is Australia A Racist Country

[Bum Crack]

Am I a racist if I think this looks like Serena Williams???

[aceman]

Am I a racist if I think this looks like Serena Williams???

No, and it looks more like her Mum!

[aceman]

I dont think we are racist.

However, the goalposts have well and truly moved on what 'racist' activities are these days. Thats the problem. Too many thin skins.

Bingo!!
Ah, the "do-gooders & social outcasts" that change their point of view more often than you change your jocks, you gotta love them.

[JK]

A country isn't racist, it's people can be though .. I would guess that Australian citizens aren't too different to those of other countries in that regard.

[redandblack]

I dont think we are racist.

However, the goalposts have well and truly moved on what 'racist' activities are these days. Thats the problem. Too many thin skins.

Bingo!!
Ah, the "do-gooders & social outcasts" that change their point of view more often than you change your jocks, you gotta love them.

"Do-gooders and social outcasts", aceman?

"Do-gooders" is the usual generic name-calling, but social outcasts?

PS: I agree completely, CP.

[Zorro]

Crikey Yetti, reading some of your post I thought you lived in Germany in Nazi times. It's scarey how not that long ago in this country we had similar ideals to Hitler but it is also very encouraging how far we've come and so quickly.
Personally I'd like to see a new flag and Australia Day moved to January 1. It's funny that the only date we celebrate Australia day is the anniversary of when the only non peaceful folk came to our great country and how the only other flag on our flag is that of the only country who came here using force.
Australia is a multi cultural country represented by people from all over the world. It's time we celebrated our country and not that of the only one that invaded our country by force IMHO. Until we grow up as a country and do that we will probably be seen as immature and racist by others and who could blame them?
Just my opinion and not a pom bashing exercise as in the poms favour when they invaded our country it was the accepted way of aquiring new land by most European nations.

Agree with some of that Wedgie, but why January 1? We already have a holiday for that?

[Dog_ger]

I voted Yes.

We all hate Un-Australian.

We all stand TALL for a united Australia.

[Barto]

I'd like to think that we're not a racist country but it's pretty hard to maintain that we have that "fair go" mentality seeing footage of the Cronulla riots etc. You've just got to convince yourself that they're the screaming minority and there are other worse nations around, at least it's not policy any more I guess.

[Psyber]

As others have suggested some Australians are racist, and some are not.
On the other hand some people are hypersensitive to any hint of racist implications and see them everywhere.

[redandblack]

And some people are blind to obvious racist implications and never see them, preferring to just label others as 'do-gooders'.

[Bum Crack]

And some people are blind to obvious racist implications and never see them, preferring to just label others as 'do-gooders'.

I bet you've been called a do-gooder.

[redandblack]

Regularly on this forum, but I'm in good company on here.

'Do-gooders' is a devastatingly intellectual debating point, but I've always wondered why people are happy to be 'do-badders' or 'do-nothingers'.

It could be though, that I try to judge people by their character, not where they were born. I'm happier welcoming people from different backgrounds, not rejecting them.

[Bum Crack]

Regularly on this forum, but I'm in good company on here.

'Do-gooders' is a devastatingly intellectual debating point, but I've always wondered why people are happy to be 'do-badders' or 'do-nothingers'.

It could be though, that I try to judge people by their character, not where they were born. I'm happier welcoming people from different backgrounds, not rejecting them.

Well said.

[Punk Rooster]

Australia, as a country, is a hell of a lot less racist than other countries...
The moral minority see fit to label people here as quickly as possible, thus creating the false belief that we are racist.

[Barto]

I was born in 1956 in Toorak Gardens. Pretty much of German Grandparents.
My Mum and Dad only spoke English, and that is my one and only language.
My Dad was a jeweller and mum was a housewife. I have an elder sister.
We were brought up as Lutherans in the South east of SA. My Dad played the organ every Sunday and I went to Church every Sunday until I left home at 17 to come to Adelaide and studied to be a teacher at ACAE

My mum called Catholics Pussy Lickers. My dad called anyone who wasn't Australian ...New Australians or Poms.
Went through the Public School System.Both my sister and I were lucky enough to be Tertiary educated.

At School we were taught about assimilation, and how we were trying to get aborigines to assimilate to our way of living, and not be nomadic, hunters and gatherers. We were taught how the Europeans were coming to Australia and assimilating to our culture. We were taught that Indians were Hindu's and would not eat cows yet they starved to death ( I never understood that for a long time). We were taught that the peasants in Asia needed to develop to our standards to be successful. Japanese stuff was sold in Coles for sixpence or less and was inferior

Evey Monday we had assembly and swore an oath to the queen and then marched in to the beat of a big drum which I was selected to bang for grade 6 and 7. ( a great honour). In grade 3 I was second in my class and I got 57 out of 60. The dumb kids or the ones with polio who missed a lot of classes and did not get 30 out of 60 were TOLD to stay in grade 3.
In grade 6 and 7 I was second again But I got 6 A's and a B. Those that got E's stayed in grade 7.

We had about 7 aboriginals in our high school. 4 had white mums and dads and the other 3 lived down the road from us and their dad was a shearer. Little did I know that those 4 kids were part of the stolen generation.

Yep I used to say Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong Money please. I called Italians and Greeks ..Wogs, Dagoes and their lunch stank. I called Aboriginals,,Boongs, niggers and Black Fellas. I. I saw my first real asian when I was 17. I would not eat chinese food. Meat and 3 veg 7 nights a week.

I was brought up and maybe taught that we were superior to all of these people.

My boss was a Greek, our biggest customer is Vietnamese and my wife is Irish.

If I am racist ...Can you blame me. If I am not racist I have had 30 years of learning that had to be totally changed. I think my mum and dad were good people but like many of the older generation were ignorant. My dad once said to me to explain racism. Once we hated the Poms.
Then came the Italian and Greeks and we hated them and tolerated the poms.
Then came the other Europeans and we hated them tolerated the Italians and Greeks and loved the poms.
Then came the Asians and we hated the Europeans , loved the Italian and Greeks and married the poms.
and then along came the next race etc etc

This makes me think about when I was a kid and my parents were pretty racist IMO, even though dad would constantly say that you shouldn't judge a man on the colour of his skin. He used to trash talk "wogs" all the time and I thought that was OK. There was still some southern European immigration when I was at primary school and I recall this Italian kid who couldn't speak English in grade three and the poor bastard was tormented by everyone. I feel shithouse in hindsight and it's easy to see why many people "stick with their own" and identify with a country of origin, even three generations later.

When Asians started emigrating more, I recall an Asian bloke driving a Merc and mum and dad saying shit like "we've been here all our lives, where's our nice car?". I thought perhaps the guy worked hard went to uni and could've been cluey in computers or some shit but there's this ingrained myth that refugees and immigrants are "given everything".

About the time I moved to Perth, I was pretty keen on this Chinese chick that I was seeing and mum was doing her usual asian bashing over lunch and I said to her "how about if I came home with a chinese wife" and her reply was "you'd better not", this was in the year 2000. My parents always wondered why I never had much to talk about with them and thought I was being a prick.

Crikey Yetti, reading some of your post I thought you lived in Germany in Nazi times. It's scarey how not that long ago in this country we had similar ideals to Hitler but it is also very encouraging how far we've come and so quickly.

The White Australia Policy was only repealed in 1975. That's in living memory for most of us here.

Aborigines were only considered citizens after May 1967, prior to that they were considered fauna.

[The Sleeping Giant]

Are gingers a race? If yes, then I am racist.

[The Sleeping Giant]

Interesting story developing. Wasn't this murder a contributing factor to all this racist hysteria?


http://www.news.com.au/national/married-couple-arrested-after-indian-mans-body-found-burnt-dumped/story-e6frfkvr-1225824337745

[rod_rooster]

Are gingers a race? If yes, then I am racist.

No, not a race therefore you are not racist rather discriminatory against rangas.

[Psyber]

Regularly on this forum, but I'm in good company on here.
'Do-gooders' is a devastatingly intellectual debating point, but I've always wondered why people are happy to be 'do-badders' or 'do-nothingers'.
It could be though, that I try to judge people by their character, not where they were born. I'm happier welcoming people from different backgrounds, not rejecting them.

Although I've occasionally been called "racist" here for disagreeing with PC views, I made my first Chinese friend at school in 1960.
Many of my other school friends were Ukrainian or Polish.
In Melbourne one of my closest friends was Indian and we went to his daughter's Hindu "coming of age" classical Indian dance performance.

However, as a country, we have been a bit indiscriminate in our immigration policy at times and have imported some criminal elements.
I suspect some of our "race riots" may be more aptly described as "gang wars".

[Gingernuts]

Are gingers a race? If yes, then I am racist.

Bastard.