Some harsh truths about Australians
April 23rd, 2007On the old blog, a long, long time ago, I worked on a piece about racism in other countries. I’m pretty tired of other people pointing the finger at America when their country is much worse. Plus, a lot of Americans are mistaken that racism only occurs here.
I’m thinking of doing this as a recurring piece, and why not start with Australia because their Prime Minister recently mocked our Constitution? Why not shed a little background on their recent racist history?
Australia’s a perfect example of hypocrisy. Let me give you a quick background.
I was born in the 70s, so I’m using my lifetime only, not a long, long time ago. I’m not at all discounting American racism, because I myself have experienced it on many occasions, from blatant police harassment to little things like white women hurriedly locking doors when I walk to my car (while they don’t do the same when white men walk by). But Australia is worse, way worse.
1970s. As you know, I hang out with a lot of ex-military folk. I love their stories. Some stories I don’t love though come from colored sailors going to Australia. In the 70s, I’ve heard this from many different Navy folk, the colored folk stayed on the ship while the white folk got to see the sights in Australia. It’s not because of racist American policy, but because of Australians in the 70s were a bunch of racist assholes, and it was for obvious safety reasons.
1980s. Pop Zombieslayer’s getting sick of overpopulation in America and considers immigrating to New Zealand or Australia. Pop has a BA. Mom has an MS. Both have squeaky clean criminal records and long employment histories. Both countries say no, for at the time, they didn’t like non-whites.
1990s. Australia still has eugenic laws on the books, when it comes to mating. A big no-no to mate a white with an Aborigine. Remember that INXS song in the 80s? That wasn’t about America. It was about Australia.
My older brother, being part white, gets mistaken for being full-white. It’s just one of those genetic things where the genes completely split. I have white in me, but look like I don’t at all. Anyways, he used to teach in Canberra in the 90s, and told me that Australia is the most racist place he’s been to. This is coming from a guy who has lectured in every continent except Antarctica and Africa, although he’s been to Africa several times.
2000s. Australians are still in denial about the Tasmanian Genocide. Not only do they deny it, they blame the victims. Yes, it was the fault of the Tasmanians for walking in the way of white Australian bullets. White Australians used to keep body parts as souvenirs, including skulls, hair and even scrotums. Granted, disease was the largest factor in the dwindling numbers, but the forced movements and random killings for fun didn’t help. Wikipedia has some fair assessments of the Tasmanian genocide, and other articles on Tasmanian Aborigines if you’re interested.
Thankfully, from 300 survivors, the numbers are recovering. To this day, you won’t hear much sympathy from a lot of Australians. They’d be much more quickly to blame the victims. The other thing is you’ll hear to no end the tragedy of that stupid gunman who went nuts and killed people as if it were the worst thing to ever happen in Tasmania. Of course, killing off thousands of non-whites doesn’t count.
Gee, whatever prompted you to start with Australia? *giggle*
If I’m not mistaken, they had a bounty on both kangaroos and aborigines in the 1800s.
ok, zombie, you know i respect you and have enjoyed reading you ever since i discovered you. these facts which you present may be true but it comes across sort of as, ’see? look, we’re not as bad as THEY are.’ which is more or less like a political campaign where they say, ‘vote for me because that guy lies, cheats, steals, sleeps with armadillos…whatever.’
i think we can all safely agree there is no nation, no group of people that is immune from racism and that racism is odious and abhorrent wherever it is found.
Tshsmom - That comment by Howard pissed me off. Starting with Germany would just be too easy, and their Prime Minister said the same thing.
Lime - It’s all good, and I see where you’re coming from. The reason for this post is everyone seems to point the finger at us, when it’s a worldwide problem.
I didn’t realize that this issue was so fresh in Oz. That is wild. Maybe that is why their gun death statistics went down when they outlawed firearms. It is just too much work to murder aborigines by hand that it is hardly worth the effort.
Although, to be fair they probably didn’t count the aboriginal deaths in the statistics any more than they would have rabbits or dingos.
Wow. Nice post. I didnt know half of what your wrote before you did it. I like history here some what.
Zombieslayer unleashed!
Thanks for bringing some balance to the discussion… it’s human nature… everyone has blood on their hands.
Thanks also for the bannage tip… I’ll be trying that one out.
By the way, my dad rarely commented on natural beauty, but he told me that Tasmania was the most beautiful place he’d ever seen in his world travels.
I do agree that there is rampant racism in many countries (especially those with colonial histories). In the UK, fans throw bananas on the field to taunt black soccer players. That would NEVER fly here. Irshad Manji told me also that when it comes to immigrants, even 2nd and 3rd generation children are referred to as “immigrants” - that’s why Muslims have such a hard time assimilating in Europe. They’re never fully accepted as citizens, no matter if they were born there or not.
That said, I don’t think anyone would argue that the US has its share of racial problems. I mean, a town in Georgia just held it’s first ever integrated prom. In 2007. I think racism is much more subtle here now, and therefore easier to ignore.