Interesting result of a survey done in Australia regarding job applications. About 4,000 identical job descriptions were sent out to employers, the only difference was the name of the applicant. Not too surprisingly, those "applicants" that had obviously woggy names were less likely to be contacted than those with nice safe Anglo names. I heard a representative from an employer group saying that this was nonsense etc.
And then there is the ongoing situation which has developed recently in Sydney, with young Indian students feeling that they are being targetted by thugs when they try to get home after leaving their late-night jobs. Seems that quite a few of the Indian students who are studying here - and hoping to get permanent residency - work in late-night convenience stores and some are being attacked in the early hours of the morning.
How are these things related? I think they both have something to do with racism.
It was interesting to see the knee-jerk reaction from the police and politicians when the first of these Indian incidents happened. A molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a house where some of these Indian kids lived, some of the kids got burnt, quite a bit of damage done. Then more news about Indian students being attacked after their shifts at these convenience stores. Then some protests by Indian students about how they want protection. All great fodder for the media.
The police and pollies state that these incidents are not race-related, just some bad luck, but it's hard to believe it. When you do some reading, you find out that these incidents at Harris Park involve the Indians and the Lebanese. HP was a predominantly Lebo suburb, but now it is changing into an Indian area, with the Lebos moving out into other suburbs. The Lebanese youngsters have never seemed to have a problem with responding physically to perceived injustices, and the Indians have a history of responding publically and loudly when they feel threatened and abused. Both sides seem to quite enjoy a bit of biffo, and none of the skirmishes seem to involve youths loaded with drugs or alcohol. Seems to me to be a rather straightforward case of testosterone and fear.
The idea that Australia is not a racist country is absurd. All countries are racist because all countries are full of people and people are racist by nature - full stop. If there is a country on this small blue-green planet which has managed to "deal" with racism, I'd very much like to know where it is located. To deny the existence of racism does nothing to help reduce it, or to control it, or to help make people aware of these feelings which lurk in each one of us.
I am reminded of something said by Larry King, the US talkshow host. It was a story which he told about himself, which I thought was insightful and brave. He thought of himself as a modern, educated, "tolerant" (hate that word) man. His daughter had gone out with black men, he had black friends, Larry was not a racist. There he was, sitting in the waiting room at an airport, waiting for his flight, when he saw the flight crew walk through the checkout. He noticed that the captain was a black man, and this thought immediately went through his head, "I wonder if he is qualified?"
This has always stuck in my head as a brave and insightful comment for anyone to make. Larry acknowledged the racist thought, which had been made before he could consciously control it, but the important thing is what happened next. Then his rational brain kicked in: of course the captain was qualified; he knew many black people who were highly trained; his original mad thought was nonsense, and he saw it for what it was - some weird part of his primal brain which had vomited up this racist bullshit. Larry probably laughed at himself in a self-conscious way, but then had the grace and bravery to offer up this story about himself to a public audience. This is a classy thing to do, and I've never forgotten it (a story which I might well have heard some decades ago now).
To have a racist thought isn't a crime, either to yourself or to the rest of the world. But, acting on that madness and then seeking to justify it, is. It's a crime to your brain, your education, and your species. This whole area deals with a very murky and primal part of who each one of us is, and I'm not surprised in the least that politicians try to avoid it like the plague. I think you would be on a hiding to nothing, with any attempted discussion quickly degenerating into insults and lots of emotional posturing. Who would want that?
No doubt things in Harris Park will quieten down over time. The media's attention will turn to other events and some of the youths will get bored and resume their normal lives. But the cause will remain, barely covered by a thin veneer of civilized behaviour.
For those of you with woggy names, lots of drive and ambition, perhaps some history of exploitation which you have inherited from your parents or their homeland, the thought that "someone" hates you because you look different is going to be hard to lose. Hang in there. If you can manage to focus all that energy into a career or your personal development, you might well astonish us all yet! Hate is a nil sum game.
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