Okay, we all know about the Hey Hey It's Saturday Reunion Red Faces debacle where a bunch of highly educated Australian doctors who should know better did a racist performance that Harry Connick Jr (rightfully) found offensive:

link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmaF7Pys7OI

Here are the problems with this skit:
1) Not one cast member felt it was offensive
2) All the performers were highly educated
3) The audience booed when the gong went off because they didn't find anything offensive either

Now no doubt I am going to post this, and some of you are going to stand up and say that I am too PC and so was Harry Connick Jr, and that's precisely the problem.  Australians are so out of touch with what is widely considered as racist to the rest of the world.  Some of you won't get it, you won't understand why the world thinks Australian's are racist because you're so out of touch, both with global standards of behaviour and with what the world thinks of Australian racism.

I post this not to shame white Australians, because I am Australian of Asian descent and there are many very good white Australians, but to highlight the fact that Australia has a lot to catch up to when it comes to acceptance (not *tolerance*) and racial sensitivity.

Here is my opinion on what Australians (of all races) need to do:
1) Recognize there is an endemic problem, and discussion and debate must occur
2) Believe that Australia is not a European or white country, it is a country of migrants where all migrants and Aboriginals are "Australians", not just white people (I have NEVER been called "Australian" by a white Australian.  I've always been either called "Asian" or "Asian Australian")
3) Believe that Australian culture is not, as widely believed, a mono-culture that other migrants must assimilate to.  It has, like other migrant countries, no historical culture (unlike say Britain which is thousands of years old), and whose culture was developed by migrants of all different backgrounds.  It is a heterogeneous society, not a homogeneous society.
4) Have zero tolerance for anything that discriminates or focuses on race or colour.  That includes jokes, deroragatory names like "wog" or "chink" or "pom", or the "Jackson Jive".  Racist politicians should be forced to quit like they are in other countries.
5) Have a deep and profound respect for indigeneous Aboriginals who are the only "true" Australians.  The rest of us are migrants, pure and simple.
6) Have deliberate attempts to make non-white Australians front and centre in popular media

I have now become a proud Canadian because Canada accepted me, and I had a very horrible childhood growing up in racist Australia.  I have seen and felt the difference in attitudes between Australians and Canadians and that's why I know there is a problem in Australia.  Had I not come to Canada, I too would have been oblivious to the endemic problem in Australia like some of you no doubt are.

Unfortunately (and I have written on these boards before about these, to negative reception), I feel Australian racism has either not changed or has gotten worse.  Since leaving Australia some 12 years ago, there have been racial riots, fire bombing of Chinese restaurants, Pauline Hanson got voted in and still no real representation of non-white Australians in popular media.

On my last point (representation of non-white Australians in popular media), a great deal of people on this board disagreed with me.  I said at the time I see virtually zero representation on the occasions that I go back to Australia, on billboards or TV.  Some replied and said I must have been blind.  I think not.  I was purposely and specifically looking for representation so I was analyzing the situation very thoroughly.

What I know as fact however, is that even though there may be *some* representation of non-white Australians, the representation is merely relegated to background roles or extras, not primary roles.  Here in N.America, Asians are often the main character of an advertisement or one of the main characters of a TV show, or the sole face you see on a billboard or train poster.

Deliberate attempts to make non-White Australians front and centre in popular media is important for eliminating racism because:
1) It recognizes the fact that the non-White segment of the population are valued
2) It states explicitly that the colour of your skin does not determine whether you are Australian or not
3) It brings broad acceptance of other races to the majority because it says "white Australians can be attracted to this product even if it is being pushed by a non-white Australian because the colour doesn't matter"

The more this is discussed in the open the better.  It took America 200 years of discussion and debate before a black man became President.

Now I realize there are more racist countries in the world than Australia, but to use that argument is pathetic.  To be a great country, you compare yourself with the best countries in the world.

Is there room in the world to make fun of yourself?  Sure there is.  But the key is "making fun of YOURSELF".  One of the world's top comedians on racial matters is a chap called "Russel Peters" and he is Canadian.  I won't state his racial background because it is irrelevant and you can look it up yourself anyway.  Making fun of someone else's race however is wrong - there's nothing funny about a joke made out of ignorance or xenophobia.

fakir wrote on Oct 8^th, 2009 at 6:28am:

Russel Peters, I believe, is an Anglo-Indian, which to Anglo-Indians, by the way, is not a derrogatory term. He is very funny, and he's funny because he takes the piss out of race... his and everyone else's including Asians. I do see your point, fakir, but I feel you're over-emotional on ethnicity. You sound damaged by it... There's an undercurrent to your post that sounds to me like you're thankful to Canada for having taken in a leper. Are you sure you're not ashamed of being Asian?

Em.. you just validated my point.  My point was Australians don't think that was racist and that's why Australians are out of touch with the rest of the world.  Australia will continue to be racist until this point is understood.  The skit and your indifference to it proves my point.

Quote:


I didn't validate anything because you haven't demonstrated why the skit was racist. Can you elaborate on what is racist about the skit?

I wouldn't consider myself that out of touch with the world, unless you consider U.S/Canada to be the rest of the world. In fact many here consider me a "traitor" because of my "cross cultural" sympathies.

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I think 'leper' was meant to be an analogy for a societal outcast, who finally found acceptance, rather that relating disease to race. Your hyper-sensitivity towards the issue of race seems a little overdone. Admittedly I don't know what your experiences have been, but try not to let tham make you lose sight of the reality here.

racism is reality.
grow up and call a spade a spade.

the abbos would still be nomadic cave dwelling wanderers.

be proud of our advancements.

i'm going with what country is better.
Aussie by a LONG way.

fakir - you are using a fallacy.


if people can't hack being informed they are "non-whites", that's their issue.

Quote:


It's a reality for you sprint cos you're a racist. For the rest of the decent humans on the earth, we'd like to take your spade and bury your racism with it.

Racism is a blight on humanity, and I truly wish that one day people like yourself get a good taste of it, so you can learn your lesson.

Quote:


And they're just so much better off for the invasion of the whites. Now most are park dwelling chronic alcoholics... yes such advancement, you must be very proud of that one.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Oct 8^th, 2009 at 10:51am:

Are you damaged in your own turn by once being the victim of Maori racism against white Kiwis?

Were you "Once despised, now a despiser"?

The recognition of racial differences is universal, no doubt and is pre-rational... Contempt for the other because of race is not.