Australia and Racisim
In 2001, I was told by a fellow engineer, who was working in Saudi, on his way to emigrate to Canada sometime in his future (he was from the Philippines), that Australia was a racist country, that came up one day when we were talking about future plans and where do you see yourself in five-ten years career and life wise and he told me he wanted to go to Canada, and when I asked him why not go to Australia, since it is closer to the Philippines, he told me because “they are racist”.
A couple of years later, I was studying for an MBA and one of the instructors was an Australian. I asked him if Australia was a racist country? he went on to tell me that it would be very hard to say that, having in mind that 30% of Australians now, were born somewhere other than Australia and that Australia is a multicultural society.
I personally do not believe in race, and science is with me on that. However, I use the term to define what most humans discriminate based on. Humans will discriminate based on other things like social status, religion, and geographical location even when there are no physical differences, examples can be seen in Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, and in the Americas, that just leaves no where without some form of discrimination or the other… some places lees, and some more… but never without.
Recently there have been attacks on Indians and Indian students in particular here in Australia, and the students and Indian community are angry, since most of the attackers are Anglo kids that seem to be targeting Indians.
Now, that I have been in Australia for a while, I can say that Australians are generally and according to my own experience not racist, in fact I am having a very goodtime here… but I have not been to many places. I get some looks from people which I could not decipher yet, because I know what racist or discriminatory looks look like… I experienced that in Arizona in the early nineties where a “peaceful” march by the KKK took place, and in my own country in (Riyadh mostly and small villages I have visited due to work, especially if I was not wearing the Saudi attire).
Lately, the CEO of Telstra, the largest Australian telecommunications company, Sol Trujillo, an American, said after he retired that Australia is a racist and backwards country. I have to give it some thought, he sees the world from a whole different level than I do, and rubs shoulders with the elite of Australia and the world… being a CEO of a company that size, he is on contact with policy makers, and hears what is not always in the news.
Comments
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Jun 10, 2009 @ 02:23:03
The attacks on Indian students in Melbourne really surprised me..I didn’t think racial attacks, especially in those numbers, could happen in Australia. But then again, I didn’t think Cronulla could happen either. Obviously Australia has had racial problems in the past (the white australia policy being a perfect example), but I thought we were over that-clearly we aren’t. However no one seems to want to admit it that we might have a problem.
Its a tough issue to discuss, but its time to acknowledge that oracism is a much bigger issue than previously might have been thought. And we need to find ways to solve it through channels such as education, better representation in the media, and tougher punishment on racially motivated crime.
Jun 10, 2009 @ 12:56:13
Ariana
Thanks for your comment. Racism is ignorance, and I agree with you on solving the problem through channels such as education, and better representation in the media. but who will educate? and who will represent? thats a case of who came first the chicken or the egg?
Cheers