Unfortunately, the cry, "racist" has become hackneyed and is now used for anything that has to do with immigrants, Australian aborigines and frequently (and incorrectly), issues relating to different cultural or religious groups. Where I live indigenes describe anything that doesn't suit them as being racist (against them), but never call the racially positive programs (for them) racist. There's a lot of contradictions.
When someone asks me if I am a racist or if Australians are racist, I always ask what is their definition of racism. Here's what The MacQuarie Dictionary says:
- "The belief that human races have distinctive characteristics which determine their respective cultures, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate the others.
- Offensive or aggressive behaviour to members of another race stemming from such a belief
- A policy or system of government and society based on race"
Do I believe that my Caucasian race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others? Definitely not. That each of the races is different is an undeniable fact.
Would I be offensive or aggressive to members of another race? Definitely not. I believe in the worth and right to dignity of every living thing.
Do I believe Australia is a racist country? Yes, with qualification.
Australian has policies and a system of government and society based on race. To make it sweet, governments have passed legislation to say their policies and system of government are NOT racist. That doesn't change the facts that they are, it simply protects them from prosecution. Australia remains a country that is racist.
Now for the people.
I believe with all my heart that most Australians have a similar perspective to mine. What is often misconstrued as racism is actually disagreement with such government policy as the refugee policy; allowing people to immigrate here and then sit around on welfare; whining by religious groups for rights that aren't congruent with Australian society eg, like implementation of Sharia Law, people who want to take from Australia but not contribute, and other peripheral matters. Australians will accept anyone who makes an effort to integrate, doesn't try to change our culture, values etc to suit them, and who contributes. There are millions of immigrants here today who can attest to that.
Endnote: There are five identified races:
- Caucasoid
- Negroid
- Capoid
- Mongolian
- Australoid
Some races have people with different coloured skin or slightly different features. For example, Indians are generally part of the Caucasoid group which also has people with stark white skin.
Are you a racist? What race are you? Want to share your views? Please do.
Hi Guys
ReplyDeleteJust checking if Australians are racist or not.
I am a muslim, living in Calgary, Alberta.
Have a good life here but just not comfortable with weather here.
I can and I am living with english laws here and believes if one dont believe on this system, then he/she should go and live wherever they find a system they want to be with, there is no obligation or pushing from anyone.
Being a muslim, I know that a "very very" small number of muslims have ever read the whole Quran (our holy book) and understands it.
Our holy book never restricts us from living with other nations, not at all.
It's not the Quran Muhammed that is the problem. The problem is that muslims interpret the Quran in ways that result in conflicts with Western culture eg, muslims can have more than one wife. In Australia and Canada one can't. Muslims have Sharia Law in muslim countries; in our country we have one law and don't want Sharia Law. We also don't expect people to cover their faces and so on. Muslims in Australia are a relatively small group, but they have caused a lot of trouble because they don't respect our laws and customs. The fact is, most muslim people are good people ... I have many muslim friends, but we don't need any race/culture based problems in Australia and therefore, muslim immigration should be stopped. If we let muslim immigration get to the millions, as it is in France, we will lose our culture and have muslims dictating how we should live. No real Australian wants that. If muslims wish to immigrate, they would be better off finding a muslim country like Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia or any of the hundred other countries whose cultures are similar.
ReplyDeleteYou should do likewise.
Hi im a human being,
ReplyDeleteNo one has the right to say or decide where any other or fellow human has to live...Are you the person governing the laws of your country's government? who gave u such a right to tell a person / a human to go back.. After all everyone of u or majority of them in ur country are immigrants from other part of the place... pls dnt forget ur country's past histroy... you claimed if other people comes inside ur country u will lose ur culture???? what is Aus culture ??? If aboriginal people think in that way now where is Aus??? Who is a real Australian ???? wats that term means??? culture is not something that can be hidden its a custom, its a practice, its there way of living no one wants or force u to stick to that... By the way australia doesnot belong to anyone ... If a place is incapable to allowing people to live its called something else... i believe Aus is one of the beautiful place plz dont spoil its beauty beacause of the racial concepts!!!! plz treat humans as humans with equality .. no one is gonna take anything even a piece of land wen thy die... im not a muslim or belong to any part of religion.. im a human i have the right to speak for other human...
Thanks for your response human. People like me elected the government; we were born here, live here, pay tax, work, bring up our families and because Australia is a sovereign country ie, it is a single entity that belongs to the people, as a nation we can decide who can come here and who can't ... in the same way you decide who can or can't enter your house.
ReplyDeleteDo you think I can just go plonk my bum in someone else's country? No. I have to apply for a visa. If they don't want me to enter, they can say no.
We have a good country because people like my forebears (for seven generations) worked hard, built a democracy that works, an education system, infrastructure and all those things we have now that make Australia a great country. Thousands of our people died in wars to keep Australia free and democratic and we don't want that to change.
The majority of Australians don't want some people to enter our country and we have the right to demand that our government respect our wishes.
You may not like it, but it doesn't change the fact. Whatever country you are from is no doubt very much the same.
I see while we have been offered a definition for the word Racism, no one here has offered a definition of the term Racist Country.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a racist country, and what distinguishes it from countries that are not?
If we were to accept the definition that a racist country is a country where racism
I am a Student 19 years of age..
ReplyDeleteand here in Australia what i have experience is that its very very hard to get work when someone has a brown or black skin,
Ask this question to your self in the most of the corporate world how many brown skins get in to ? in the Fashion Industry how many Brown or black skin people have work and jobs ? the answer is none or may be very less.
The Government says that people dont fill in the vacancies listed in the demands of immigration, first the government has to know why these people cant fill vacancies ? because racism still exist. they dont get the right position just because they are Brown or Black.
so the only alternation is to do lower levels of work, they have to feed themselves somehow..
The Corporate level knows that if the white people get jobs then it will remain like that for years, because at the management level of the company's most of them are whites and they only take in people who are the same as they are...
you can see this all around you, go to supermarkets and observe the managers are they white or brown or black, by far as i have observed is 80% of the Managers are white.
i am not just talking about supermarkets, i am talking about most of the giant retail outlets, go and have a look & observe.
and according to this grounds i am stating that Australian (Caucasian) are racist against anyone who is not there color.
Sam
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised at your comments. Where I live there are many Asian and African people working in jobs at different levels. I believe that those of us who are Caucasian accept people who integrate and work. In many cases, we need the skills these people have, they are nurses, doctors and numbers work in supermarkets etc.
Australia has had coloured immigrants for a long time, so I'd expect they are accustomed to dark skinned people by now.
Sometimes foreign accents can be difficult in jobs where a lot of telephone work or customer service is involved. I can understand why native English speakers would be preferred there.
Maybe in situations where there are numerous candidates for a job, people take the Caucasian because they expect them to know more about our culture, business values and so on rather than risk an unknown.
But keep trying Sam and I'm sure something good on the job market will happen for you.
Thanks for your comment.
Australia is not a racist country at all. It is a hypocritical country. A bunch of Europeans settled here, shackled the native populations and set up their own way of life as they had known it back in Mother England. Rolling hills of grass for grazing sheep and cows, hedges and oaks and roads and brick buildings. Meanwhile, the native beauty was destroyed, leading to climate changes and soil erosion. Aboriginal plant food sources disappeared and in their place European foods were grown that were foreign to the native people, leading to obesity, nutrient deficiencies and in turn behavioural changes, as the Aboriginals vainly sought the missing minerals from their diets in sources like crude oil (petrol).
ReplyDeleteFor any immigrant to even speak about other immigrant groups coming to Australia or living in Australia or their rights to do so is completely ridiculous and irrelevant, like a pair of fools arguing in the middle of a train track while the train approaches them at great speed. There can be no 'right' opinion on immigration while this country is ruled by white men because anything white man's society creates on this soil is founded on the blood shed by thousands of innocent natives whose souls will always cry out for justice. You can fool the new boat person but you can't fool the soil you stand on and on which you execute your many crimes. And you can't fool God.
-one proud indigenous woman
Even the indigenes in Australia came from somewhere else ... Africa. So in a sense, we are all immigrants.
ReplyDeleteWeeping about the past is of no benefit. We can't change it. Terra Australis was a large piece of land occupied by a handful of primitives, so it was only a matter of time before a technologically advanced group took over.
The indigines of the time could have done much worse than be taken over by the British who were relatively civilised (for their time). They could have been taken over by the Japanese, Chinese, Portugese, French, Dutch, and perhaps others and the consequences could have been much worse.
Learn from the past but don't dwell on it. Work towards making the future better for all of us.
I think each country has a learning curve and it took a Martin Luther in the US , Mandela in SA for helping raise the maturity level of the country to look at racism in neutralism. Australia probably does need to go through a metamorphasis to arrive at the maturity. Probably another 50 years and it would learn how to deal with Maturity. The Australia Govt & Ms Rudd have a long way to go. Australian need more of global exposure to get to understand the deal with issues of racism
ReplyDeleteWhat is the problem with Islam and why people hate it that much!!!!!
ReplyDeleteyou cant judge a whole race of humans by an action of some idiots !!!!!
in each and every nation there is some idiots and thats way there is jails every where?!?!
people dont judge other people of an action of minorities
dont speak out all what you hear .... there are many people who wants to mislead us
like some stupid Muslims in Australia there some god Muslims !!!
also in other races you have the good and you have the bad
Eyad
ReplyDeleteIslam is a problem because in almost every country in the world orthodox muslims are either killing people, mis-treating them or using silent Jihad means to take over. Islam treats women poorly; it treats infidels poorly. Orthodox muslims even kill other muslims who are heterodox or who have different views. You are right, there are good muslims, (they are heterodox muslims) but they do nothing to help defeat orthodox muslims.
You need to understand also that Islam is NOT a race; muslims don't belong to any single race. They are of all races.
The problem is Islam. Islam is not just a religion, it is a totalitarian ideology (total control of its followers) and it wants to make everyone in the world follow Islam. That's why there is so much dislike of Islam and muslims at present.
Visit: http://thereligionofpeace.com and http://citizenwarrior.com to read some of the facts about Islam and the impact is is having on many countries throughout the world.
I am from Australia and I must tell you that it is a third world dump, full of all sorts of hate. I am not proud to be an Australian.
ReplyDelete