What is racism?

[rederob]

You say:
Put it this way, as an older Australian I have never been able to not enter or do something due to what and who I am, a white Caucasian.
Are we living in the same country:
Can i as a white male eat a dugong?
My son get the same amount of study help as an aboriginal boy?
There is a legal or supposed to be legal discrimination based on race heresupposely for the good, the positive discrimination so liked by us liberals..

At school my son got more help than aboriginal students because he needed it.
Is it "discrimination" you are talking about? Like why there are so many women who are federal Ministers of the Crown....

 

[qldfrog]

At school my son got more help than aboriginal students because he needed it.
Is it "discrimination" you are talking about? Like why there are so many women who are federal Ministers of the Crown....

It would be if this was only based on his skin colour and not his personal level of problems
Abstudy is a separate scheme with different criteria based on a skin colour, it is discrimination.
In the usa, an asian kid needs to reach a higher score to enter a university course than an "african american", do you find that fair?
This is racism in my view as much as the old SA segregation..or even USA in the 50s
ps what about the dugongs or other endangered sea turtles, slaughtered in qld, all good to kill based on your origins?
The trouble with this bipolar world is that there is no point arguing proving anything.a population brainwashed into a binary view of the world...

 

[rederob]

It would be if this was only based on his skin colour and not his personal level of problems.

That is still not "racism". Please check a decent dictionary.
I agree with you about speed boats killing dugong, and sea turtles dying due to polluted oceans - we should be collectively ashamed.

 

[Ann]

This thread is not something which holds a massive interest for me. For myself I take each person as I find them and chose to educate my children in a very multicultural school in order for them to be able to relate to the person not the colour, religion or ethnicity. Both my adult children are kind, understanding and respectful of others. I think their schooling was a great enhancer to them both.

Now I am coming onto this thread to voice a concern which may in time have serious repercussions for a particular ethnic group. Nearly every day I am being phoned by people who either have or are adopting an Indian accent. The calls are those which are meant to dupe you into a scam. The last call I received was about the NBN, saying they had been trying to contact us and if we didn't respond immediately the internet would be cut off the following day. Fortunately my son was around and I handed it to him. It was a scam call, like all the others. I have known a few people who have been seriously duped and lost quite a bit of money and have had much distress caused by scams like this. I am wondering how long it will take for all the bad experiences people are having with scammers with Indian accents, to flow through into normal society and find profiling and a divide begins to happen?

 

[rederob]

Now I am coming onto this thread to voice a concern which may in time have serious repercussions for a particular ethnic group. Nearly every day I am being phoned by people who either have or are adopting an Indian accent. The calls are those which are meant to dupe you into a scam.

That's so funny Ann.
Last week I got a call from a Chinese person saying I was going to jail for something or rather unless I paid a lot of money to fix the problem. I wish I had recorded it - it was clearly meant to frighten other Chinese-speakers who may have done something that fell into their catch-all net - I was laughing, but I realise this sucks-in so many gullible people..
Ten years ago a business colleague (with a Masters qual.) was scammed by Nigerians to the tune of $20000 - I was in utter disbelief .
Last year the Irish were up to their old tricks again, local to us.
Meanwhile, because I did some consumer surveys a number of years ago (never again ), I get a daily stream of emails from across the world with any number of embedded scams. I'm not to keen on "unsubscribing" as once the process sent me somewhere and locked-down my PC.

 

[Ann]

That's so funny Ann.
Last week I got a call from a Chinese person saying I was going to jail for something or rather unless I paid a lot of money to fix the problem. I wish I had recorded it - it was clearly meant to frighten other Chinese-speakers who may have done something that fell into their catch-all net - I was laughing, but I realise this sucks-in so many gullible people..
Ten years ago a business colleague (with a Masters qual.) was scammed by Nigerians to the tune of $20000 - I was in utter disbelief .
Last year the Irish were up to their old tricks again, local to us.
Meanwhile, because I did some consumer surveys a number of years ago (never again ), I get a daily stream of emails from across the world with any number of embedded scams. I'm not to keen on "unsubscribing" as once the process sent me somewhere and locked-down my PC.

The early days were more about get-rich-quick schemes a la the Nigerian scams. (I also knew someone who I used to buy electrical goods from, he got caught and lost all his money and his business to that scam. He seemed such a nice man too.) With those money scams my immediate thought was "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is" so they were easy to avoid. Now they are doing the tech stuff that most of us have no idea about and it is always with an Indian accent for us. I have no idea about the NBN, I bang my ears to tech stuff like that and could easily be dragged into a scam. Although, these days anything tech, I just say they will need to talk to my son. I do like a good flick past!

 

[qldfrog]

That is still not "racism". Please check a decent dictionary.
I agree with you about speed boats killing dugong, and sea turtles dying due to polluted oceans - we should be collectively ashamed.

What a condescending dumb reply.
So having privileges based only on your ethnicity is not racism?
Thanks Joe for the ignore function

 

[noirua]

Remembering something that happened way back it does sometimes make me wonder if those who say they are absolutely not racist are really fooling themselves.

A person was head of a government department and prided herself in the number of ethnic minorities who worked there. Also the number promoted to more senior roles. After many years went by one of them rose to a higher position of authority than her. She immediately went on sick leave and never returned, taking early retirement.

There are some who see themselves as equals and not at all racist but see themselves as just a little more equal in espousing their views of pretence.

 

[rederob]

What a condescending dumb reply.
So having privileges based only on your ethnicity is not racism?
Thanks Joe for the ignore function

You should educate yourself better so you do not make basic mistakes in an argument.
For example, dugongs are prospering in the Torres Strait where most are being taken on cultural grounds, while the same cannot be said for the remainder of the eastern coast of Queensland.

 

[SirRumpole]

You should educate yourself better so you do not make basic mistakes in an argument.
For example, dugongs are prospering in the Torres Strait where most are being taken on cultural grounds, while the same cannot be said for the remainder of the eastern coast of Queensland.

So we can end up with one law for some and another law for others ? Indigenous people can kill and eat wildlife for "cultural reasons" while others cannot ? So maybe the Japanese can kill whales because it's part of their culture ?

Once you get into cultural laws our society start to break apart, and peculiarities of particular cultures are condoned, like child/arranged marriages which reasonable people should be vocally opposed to but we just let it slip by.

 

[rederob]

So we can end up with one law for some and another law for others ? Indigenous people can kill and eat wildlife for "cultural reasons" while others cannot ? So maybe the Japanese can kill whales because it's part of their culture ?

Once you get into cultural laws our society start to break apart, and peculiarities of particular cultures are condoned, like child/arranged marriages which reasonable people should be vocally opposed to but we just let it slip by.

The big difference is that Australia's indigenous peoples were brilliant custodians of the land and seas, never taking more than they needed and their practices went back tens of thousands of years.
Conflating cultural practices beyond survival/ecological sustainability is a distraction.

 

[SirRumpole]

Conflating cultural practices beyond survival/ecological sustainability is a distraction.

But they no longer need to kill endangered species to survive, so maybe it's the indigenous people who need the education.

 

[rederob]

But they no longer need to kill endangered species to survive, so maybe it's the indigenous people who need the education.

But they no longer need to kill endangered species to survive, so maybe it's the indigenous people who need the education.

Then get the States/Territories to change their legislation.
(I tried to dig deeper to what science/data was available specifically relating to the Torres Strait as there does not seem to be much hunting elsewhere. Drew a blank - but lots of emotional arguments. My bigger concern in the TS relates to a chance that whatever might now be happening is literally feeding a small black market.)

 

[wayneL]

The big difference is that Australia's indigenous peoples were brilliant custodians of the land and seas, never taking more than they needed and their practices went back tens of thousands of years.
Conflating cultural practices beyond survival/ecological sustainability is a distraction.

Oh really? Megafauna anyone?

 

[sptrawler]

Well there are obviously some deep seated emotions involved, when someone on a morning tv show, puts it out there.

https://thewest.com.au/news/austral...tralia-day-rant-splits-viewers-ng-b881076974z

From the article:
Boney used this morning’s show to rant about how she didn’t want to celebrate Australia Day because she saw it as the “turning point” for the treatment of indigenous Australians.

“I can’t separate the 26th of January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than they are to go to school,” she said on this morning’s show.

“Or that my little sisters and my mum are more likely to be beaten and raped than anyone else’s sisters or mum.

 

[SirRumpole]

“I can’t separate the 26th of January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than they are to go to school,” she said on this morning’s show.

There is no discrimination in Australian schools as far I know.

If Aboriginal kids don't go to school its much more likely that their parents don't send them than any other reason.

“Or that my little sisters and my mum are more likely to be beaten and raped than anyone else’s sisters or mum.

By their aboriginal fathers/husbands ?

 

[sptrawler]

There is no discrimination in Australian schools as far I know.
If Aboriginal kids don't go to school its much more likely that their parents don't send them than any other reason.
By their aboriginal fathers/husbands ?

I think that is the real problem, they perpetrate the actions, but blame their oppression for it.

That is why it is so difficult to address, no matter what we do, unless they want to change their behaviour nothing will change.
We could change the date of Australia Day, we can change the name of everything in Australia, we can give them more money, but at the end of the day they have to take responsibility to change their behaviour toward each other.
It is a difficult cycle to break, just a truly sad situation, people have got to want change before you can bring it about. IMO

 

[SirRumpole]

 

[wayneL]

Interesting discussion, especially the last few minutes

 

[sptrawler]

I don't know if this is the thread to post this item, but it does show how difficult it is to deal with certain groups of people.
The shop owner last week, grabbed a kid who he says steals on a regular basis, the aftermath is quite exciting.
By the way this is an old established suburb of Perth, it isn't in the outback somewhere.


https://www.9news.com.au/national/2...ner-attacker-after-detaining-young-shoplifter

I hope this sort of behaviour doesn't become the norm, it will certainly discourage people from operating shops.