I remember once having a conversation with my lecturer at Uni about racism in Australia. “Aussies are racist” was the general premise of my argument. I felt that while not explicitly racist, Aussies were just as racist as any other place.
“Look at the Aborigines, look at the White Australia Policy, look at the treatment of refugees in the ALP created refugee camps in the desert” I argued. “Let’s not pretend we’re not”.
My lecturer replied that, yes all cultures have divisions, small clashes of culture and ethnicity. EVERYONE at one point or another has expressed what makes them different to others of sex, race or even the suburb they live in. But to actively discriminate by race to the extent that uprisings occur, that massive riots on the scale of the Watts riots or the Brixton riots of the US or UK occur, is not viable in Australia.
“It’s all relative!”
Seeing the question posed in the papers – “Are Australians racist?”, and having a poll resoundingly say yes, I ask myself, and the people of Australia – COMPARED TO WHOM?
So when John Howard sez: Australians are not racist… Well yeah, he’s right, but again it’s all relative. “Are Cronulla residents racist compared to Footscray residents?” might be a better question.