The reason I am writing this post is NOT because of what happened in Sydney couple of days ago but for the only reason that I have noticed couple of individuals “bad-mouthing” the entire nation, just based on this one off incident. Just to make it clear, I am not saying in any sense that what happened in Sydney can be excused and forgotten but the whole object behind this post is to ask (few) intellectual people to stop forming judgment on this “country” on the basis of what is written in the papers and spoken by other intellectual individuals like them and to stop generalising the entire “Australian community” as being racist.
Firstly, I would like to ask them a very simple and most frequently thrown question these days, “What is Racism?”.
Is it, when you dislike a man who is brown ?? or is it when you only dislike him because he is brown?? From the posts I have read, they seem to believe racism falls into the first rather than into the latter category.
Agree, racism is not something new in Australia (previously the Redfern riots) but then it’s no newer than it is in France or the US or Britain or India. In India at times it’s even worse, forget the Hindu vs. Muslim rampages…we also have Hindu vs. Hindu too (Shiv Sainiks beating up the Bhiharis for taking up jobs in Maharashtra that they think so rightfully belongs to them). The bottom line is that Racism, even in subtle forms, exists everywhere. In Australia, they are actually less than in most countries and when they occur, they are generally matters of views rather than action.
Australia is a multiracial and extremely multi-cultural country. A large proportion of Australia’s population is overseas born or second generation Australians. They are from all of Europe, Asia, some Africa, some middle East and some South America. In recent years there have been high levels of immigration from Vietnam, India, China. However there is no history of clashes with these groups. They came and basically bought into being Australians, accepting Australian laws, style of public behavior, working culture, etc. As a matter of fact, most number of Australians are completely against the new-immigration policies and have regularly protested against the Australian government’s act towards the detention of ill-legal immigrants. One of their most favorite newsreader happens to be Ms. Indira Naidoo who originally hails from India. And yes, they do too have China Town, India Town and the likes.
The big change has been with the arrival of Muslims from the Mid-East, mostly Lebanese.
Some of them have refused to blend in. They have displayed active, overt racism against the mainstream Australian community (while quite happy to take Australia’s very generous social welfare payments).
Over a number of years, gangs of young mid-eastern men have terrorized parts of Sydney, attacking young males of other ethnic groups (including Indians), abusing and threatening women young and old. And this is something I say from experience and not from what I have heard or read. There have also been a number of horrific gang rapes of young Australian girls by these youths that have gone through the courts. One clear factor to emerge was that they had targeted these girls precisely because they were European origin, i.e. these were racist gang rapes.
The result of what happened after some lifeguards were beaten was largely because the local residents of Cronulla had finally had too much of the atrocities forced upon them by these gangs of mid-Eastern youths and had to do very less with the fact that these young men belonged to mid-Eastern countries. In the demonstration a few innocent people of mid-Eastern background were assaulted. But then casualties occur everywhere and in every situation of such magnitude.
However if you look at the larger picture, Australia and it’s people definitely are saddened and deeply hurt by this incident. What has happened is completely opposite to what most Australians believe and follow. And again, this I say after spending 8 years of my life in this ever-amazing country.
But yes…there is racism here, but to me it’s seems to be more one-sided. As long as these mid-Eastern Muslims (and they do have Muslims from other countries, such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh who do not behave in the same way) choose to become part of the community, the same way as every other race that has come to Australia, there will be no problem. As long as they do not, they create a threat of ongoing violence with (some) Australians who like them fall at the extreme end of the spectrum.
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I don’t need visas whever I go in the world, as “we” are known to be a wealthy and friendly (friendly my ass!) country. I like saying “we” when it comes to that, only!
[...] The recent race-riots have seen quite a reaction from the expat community and Indians in general. Sakshi has a take. [...]
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