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Particularly in regard to attacks against Indians in Melbourne, I'd say that some people are racist, most are not and the media will beat up (excuse the pun) any story that will sell papers or attract viewers.

If you read the Herald Sun or watch tv news, you would think that any Indian in Melbourne will be the target of race based violence.
I'll bet that if twenty people are bashed or stabbed in Melbourne this weekend, we will only hear about an incident if the victim happens to be Indian.

The incident that inspired me to post this question was a promo yesterday for WIN-TV news.
"An Indian man was beaten yesterday by two men during a robbery at the service station where he was working."
The man was not beaten because he was Indian. He was beaten because he happened to be the employee at the servo when it was robbed.
Why was it necessary to mention the victim's nationality?

If an Indian taxi driver is bashed and robbed, is it because he is Indian or because he's a taxi driver? Many of Melbourne's taxi drivers are Indian immigrants or students. Go back a couple of decades and more taxi drivers were European immigrants. A Greek cabbie being robbed still made the paper but it was a small article a dozen pages in.

I asked a workmate, born in Australia of Indian parents, if he felt unsafe when he visits Melbourne. He said "I'm not worried in the city but I wouldn't catch the last train to Sunshine - would you?" He's right. I'm an Anglo-Australian and I'd be wary of getting off a train at Sunshine, St Albans, Werribee and just about any suburban station late at night.

I'm sure that a few dopey bogans with Southern Cross tattoos and wearing our national flag as a cape (inspired by the Hando wannabes at Cronulla a while ago) would see these reports and say yeah, lets go bash some Indians. I'm equally sure that this is the cause of a small minority of these "racist" attacks.

The real issue is that street crime is rising to levels I'd never have imagined while walking those same streets 20 years ago.
As the number of bashings and stabbings increase, along with the increase in immigration from India and the number of Indian students in Melbourne, the number of victims of crime who happen to be from India will also increase but I don't believe that the proportions have changed much. Basic statistics - a greater sample size will produce a greater raw figure but the percentages remain the same.

Of course, detailed analysis does not sell newspapers or attract tv ratings.


I've focused on violence against Indians because that's my rant of the week but I'd like to know your opinions on racism in general in Australia.

Good article that I mostly agree with: “I’m not Racist, but… I’m Complacent”

The responses are worth a read as well.

In "the luckiest country in the world", not many of us want to think this is going all around us. And yet it is. Most people tend to bury their head in the sand when it comes to racism. I've had people tell me openly "if only we had more of your kind and not those Indonesians and Africans they are letting into the country" (my background is southern European). Yet I am fairly certain that at some point those same people wouldn't want my kind in this country either.

So yes, it is going on. But at the same time, there is no place in the world that is completely free of racism and nationalism. I know that because I've also lived in Germany and England and they have an even bigger problem over there. Immigrants move into big cities and "indigenous" population is slowly moving to rural areas. There is not much in terms of integration going on.

wolverine-"I'm southern european" and in their own way much much more prone to racism than your average aussie how many young australians have been out and out killed while on holiday throughout europe mainly for being an aussie [probably get deleted for suggesting that].

Unfortunately racism is a worldwide phenomenon and something that australians were once very very prone too 50's-60's-70's-80's, but now often as not are prone to recieving even in their own country.

Just go to asia and see how far you go carrying on about the institutionalised racism expressed toward non asian [caucasian] there. You won't. The English can be as racially condescending toward ausssies as they are toward indians or africans whatever.

Think Australia's main problem is lack of 'cultural intelligence' personally.

I knew I shouldn't have responded in one of those political threads I should have known better.

I never suggested that southern Europe wasn't prone to the problem but there it tends to be more nationalism than racism. I mentioned Australia, Germany and England mainly because these are developed western societies and like to think of themselves as above all that ugly and nasty attitude towards immigrants you see elsewhere. Precisely your kind, gregorius.

I will not be posting in this thread anymore, it will simply break out into an argument. Adios.

Beleive me wolfverine I have been on the recieving end of more ugly white australian nationalistic 'racism' than anyone. Of course aussies are prone to the mentality. Anglo cultures are so inclined because of their puritanical christianity [fascist theology] where as southern meditearanean peoples religion is far less puritanical and probably race based but I wouldnt be so sure!
But believe me when I say I hate ignorance and especially when it comes from white australia. its scary and invariably destroys artists and creative folk [much like when all the gays and dykes take over and controls the arts too actually which has been happening for last 30-40 years].

But if your gunna get huffy do so.

That's a shame wolverine...I love a good argument; and besides, we are just getting started.


I believe racism is universal to all races and cultures, and Australia is about average in terms of dealing with it. I was born and bred in Melbourne, the third largest Greek city in the world.
My Landlord is Greek, most of my next door neighbours are Greek. Many of my closest friends are Greek. For years, I worked in low paid jobs beside Indians, Vietnamese, Somalians, blah, blah, blah; you get the idea. On the whole, I think that our society is multi-cultural, accepting, and tolerant.

I am not saying that Australia is not racist; that would be a ridiculous thing to say, but to suggest that we are a global pariah of racism is equally ridiculous.

To sum up my position: Yes, Melbourne has a BIG problem with increasing violence. No, I don't agree that Australians in general are the racist pariahs that some are accusing us of being.
To focus on the racist aspect of recent attacks is to ignore the big picture of the general raising of the level of violence: eg: the increase in knife attacks.




I read that Blog Post, on your recommendation, Modecko.
Then I read Tim Watts, previous Blog Post, the forerunner to the one to which you linked.
Then I read 40 or so of the replies.
I just didn't get it; and some of those replies were absolutely vacuous!




Well, fuck me, and the little white Anglo culture horse I rode in on!

Good to see you are not leaping to a racist generalisation there, Gregorious! Please tell me more (as I am an ignorant-anglo-celt) about how I am genetically, and culturally, predisposed to "puritanical christianity". This "Southern Mediterranean Peoples Religion" you speak of sounds wonderful. But it couldn't include the "puritanical christianity" that's currently centred in the Vatican could it? You know; the Vatican...in Rome...in the Southern Mediterranean?

So, you pigeon-hole me as a racist, by using a form of racism to do so. Nice!

Then, you frame yourself as being "on the recieving end of more ugly white australian nationalistic 'racism' than anyone". That's a little ambitious isn't?
I can think of dozens of people have suffered horribly at the hands of White Australia. Some of them lost their lives as a result. Your statement shows patronising disrespect to them.

Good reply Humphrey B.

That's the point. Racism isn't this nice little black and white, us and them clear cut meme as the articles attempt to convey and the replies, especially the vacuous ones, confirm.

Conservatives especially, but probably most people to some extent, are also guilty of trying to put everything into neat pigeon holes and state things as black and white whilst ignoring the huge areas of grey in-between. So you get these blanket statements that we are all racist or we aren't really racist... but, when in reality there are so many shades.

Am I racist because I once felt uneasy when a very dark person sat next to me on public transport? Or is someone, who on seeing a busy suburban shopping strip overwhelmingly crowded with Asians and hardly a Caucasian to be seen, states there are too many Asians in this country?

The latter was once what Howard in opposition stated when he visited Springvale in Victoria.

Believe me I hate these bunch of Catholics [the pope afterall is formerly of the hitler youth brigade] and think all religion as deadwood that humanity needs to burn off and relegate into ash so as to move on. But still the protestant form of christianity with its pure and driven as the white snow mentality is even more off putting and yes highly racist and inclined only to those that are regarded as of anglo in orientation. sorry.[am also of anglo-celt heritage]

And yes australia esp rural australia is still very prone to a 'white is right mentality' undeniably so.There's still a grerat deal of rural australia as rigid in its racial makeup as ever. [go just north of perth and you'll find out how reactionary it can be and white].
-Whereas towns not so mono-cultural or staid in their makeup can tend to be far less uptight about new ideas or people. and when I say rural you could easily include many of australias outer suburbs in that mix actually, take the relatively well-heeled outer/inner suburb of floreat park in perth hang round there and get a feel of its local cultural values. Rigidly comitted to very uptight upright and white attitudes and never suggest higher density development to these people and never be too working class or non-white by attitude [not necessarily race].

And look at australian farmers- still the biggest land clearers in the world and worst payers of farm labor too I might add.

And whats with the devotion to a bunch of english aristocrats 13000kms away that speak for largely those mainly of a pure white and anglo protestant heritage.

as for patronising disrespect I wont go into that its gettin too complicated.

My favourite was that time he was out getting himself some media publicity, he sat next-to a girl in a hijab & attempted to make small talk:

"So how long have you been out here for?"

"I was born here!"

Gold!

Yeah, there's racism in Australia. There's racism on the whole planet. But at least racism here is something of a personal choice & not result of government policy our education system (like like the degree it is in some countries).

Racists do seem to be the darling of the media nowadays. I guess they finally ran out of teen alcoholism stories. They're loving the attention & the media love giving it to them. Sadly disturbing how the two parts of the problem are so intertwined & co-dependent, isn't it?

We were all getting on our high horses about some black face sketch on a comedy show by a bunch of blokes (who are actually Indian) but hardly anyone cared about the poor elderly Japanese sod who was beaten almost to death by some 21-year-old while calling him a "fucking nip" in Queensland that happened about two days later. If the 21-year-old was a Channel Nine employee then maybe the other networks would've found it more newsworthy...?

Racism & sexism are all subject to the same uneducated loutish part of our culture. They're a small minority, but they just have the biggest mouths. The people who know the least about a topic always seem to have the most to say about it. Ignorance breeds big mouths. The more attention they keep getting, the bigger their mouths seem to get...