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What genocide in Somalia??? Sure you don't mean Rwanda maybe?? doesn't matter all those black Africans are the same right??

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Right... and since we don't have a history in our country of lynching and oppressing blacks like America does, therefore it's not racist here. The real stupid thing about it was "hey hey" having a Yank on their show to make a racist out of a face-painter.

I couldn't give a damn what America feels guilty about... that's their business, let them atone for their own racist past, not export it to the rest of the world as an enforced global feeling of guilt. I reocgnise fully that such a skit wouldn't be appropriate where Harry comes from, but that's nothing to do with Australia. Sorry.

But for the record fakir I do sympathise with you as having been an Aussie from Asian background, since I recognise how racist Australians can be, especially against Asian-background people.

Don't overdo it though on this one. Stick with the issues that really are racist, not just in one country's historical context.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Oct 15^th, 2009 at 10:25am:


Damn it Sprint. You seriously need to start eating Vegemite every morning on your toast. Kiwis have an inherent Selenium deficiency that affects the brain and they say dumb things in an almost incomprehensible accent.

Was that racist? Oh sorry, but you did say it was ok?  

Anyway, Vegemite will fix your Selenium deficiency.

fakir wrote on Oct 14^th, 2009 at 11:33am:

You've got to wonder why Canada waited to follow Australia's lead in apologising for those crimes committed against indigenous peoples... (Is it true colonial Canadians used to douse clothes and blankets with the measles virus before distributing them to natives to hasten the extinction of the indigenous races?).

I read those people south of the border are just beginning to gear up to apologise for slavery.

When do you think the Spanish and Portuguese will apologise to South American peoples for atrocities committed by those nations. Or the English for what was done to the Irish... Or the British for Imperial atrocities... They're probably waiting to see how it all pans out in Australia first.

Guess they're all a bit behind the times, eh cryboy.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Oct 15^th, 2009 at 10:22pm:


Okay, get your facts right before you toot your own horn.

The Canadian government has made peace with the First Nations people decades ago.  What the Canadian government did a few years ago is apologize to who were unfairly taxed in the early 20th century, and the gov't apologized and compensated every affected family.  The UN lauds Canada for what they do for the First Nations people - they even have their own province/territory which they completely govern themselves.  No other nation on earth has done the same for displaced indigenous people.

So it's actually a joke that you think Australia is ahead of Canada.  It's WAAAAAAAYYYY behind.  And that's the UN opinion, not mine.

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Well according to your own pronouncements it's only natural, so you rightfully deserve it. And on that I agree with you.

Dirty Paki Khunt wrote on Oct 16^th, 2009 at 10:40am:


You're wrong.  If you have a bunch of yahoos chanting a racist name at you, they may mean it as a joke.  They may very well know in their hearts that you're smarter than them.  But you as the victim want to go about your life without feeling different, without being harassed.

And you don't get it, because you've never experienced it.  The black face skit was racist, because it again dredges up that black people are different.  Black people don't want to be constantly reminded that they're black, they just want to live and fit in like the rest of us.

Just because those doctors didn't intend it to be racist, doesn't mean it isn't racist.  What has frustrated me always on these boards is white people who self-righteously want to dictate to marginalized minorities what is "racist" or not.  I have never met a marginalized white person to the extent that other races like Africans or Asians have suffered under white people.  There's just no history to it.

And you will never understand, because I've read countless times how people say "I'm not offended if someone paints their face white".  Yeah - but you haven't experienced the same things as other races.

It's like me calling someone a retard, who has a brother who has Downs Syndrome.  Am I offended if someone calls me retard?  No, but doesn't mean that someone else isn't because of their circumstances.  

And another thing is where you're living.  You're not going to be offended about Americans thinking you're a bunch of backward troglodytes if you're in Australia on home territory.  But if you're in America, and they're all making fun of you, you will feel alone and rejected.  That's how minorities feel in Australia when you make fun of them, because they're surrounded by white people and it only takes a few white people to make "jokes" for a minority to feel alone and rejected.

What disturbs me the most about this whole thing is not the stupid skit.  It's the universal lack of empathy on the part of Australians to understand that some people are hurt by what Australians do.  That's why "I still don't call Austray-lia Hooommmee..": because I know that when I protest about how I'm treated, white Australians will just belittle my feelings.

Racism is hurtful to minorities, and we have the right to live lives without being joked about.  You want to take the pisstake out of yourselves - be my guest, but stop expecting others to accept it.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Oct 17^th, 2009 at 11:31am:


Sprint, you need to drag yourself into the 21st century. Racism is not ok, and such a view is shared by all political affiliations. Even hardliner rightwingers like Jeff Kennet took part in the Australian Rally against Racism back in 1998. Numerous right wing politicians have stood up against racism through the years.

Anti-discrimination is enshrined in law as evidenced by numerous examples of state and commonwealth legislation, starting with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act which was enacted in 1977. This legislation remained in force all the time that Liberals and the ALP governed the country.

Why? - because it's basic human decency and it's civilised behaviour to denounce racism. Anybody who thinks that it's ok to discriminate on the basis of the colour of a person's skin is living in the dark distant past.

Australia is one of many signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was first adopted in Decmeber 1948.

The Charter "reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights, and dignity and worth of the human person" and committed all member states to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion"

Well I have a dinner party to attend, so I'll go back to my sheltered life now, and you can go back to your cave.

"Minorities" need to go into analysis and deal with their inferiority complexes. They obviously feel completely justified in this feeling of guilt and inferiority and at the same time they are completely unable to ovecome that crushing feeling. Because they cannot face it, they wish to hush it up, hoping it will go away.

First and foremost they hate each other, evidenced by the long history of natives mistreating, degrading, abusing natives. Everywhere. Wife burning, a caste system , foot binding, domestic slavery, cannibalism, bones through noses, woodoo, sloth, stagnation, squalor, cruelty  and all the rest of it cannot be hushed up. And if they had not been colonised they would still be at  it. "Post-colonoal liberation" to many of them has meant nothing more than a return to all that despicable crap.

In their embarrassment all they can do is shout "Shut up!"