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racial hatred in Australia (Read 15463 times)
John Smith
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racial hatred in Australia
Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:26am
 
A good article.


A suburban hair salon, an anti-Muslim tirade and what it says about hate speech in Australia


Such hair as I have is cut from time to time by Mrs E, who runs a one-chair salon in my neighbourhood.

She has been in business there for 40 years. She knows all about the history of the street and many of her clients have been coming to her for half a lifetime.

The salon is shut on Mondays, when she cuts the hair of the elderly and disabled in various local institutions.

Mrs E is a petite woman with a cloud of brown hair, a bright smile and that empathetic personality that fits so many hairdressers for their parallel occupation of informal counsellor.

Under her hairdresser's smock she wears a dress or a blouse and trousers.

She came to Australia as a child from the Balkans, grew up, married, had two sons.

Australia is home and a place where she says she has always felt welcome, until the other day.

A client whose hair she had been cutting for 20 years came in as usual, and then, without any prompting or preamble, launched into a tirade against Muslims.

Mrs E heard her out. As a rule, like most sensible businesspeople, she resists being drawn into conversations about sex, religion or politics.

But eventually it became too much. "I'm a Muslim," she told the client, "and I very much regret that after 20 years I must tell you I will no longer cut your hair".
The salon contains no outward sign of her faith: nothing in her appearance or in the room itself gives it away. For her, it is something private; nothing to do with her professional life.

It happened that I came in about a week later. Mrs E and I often talk in general terms about what's going on in the world.

She knows I am a journalist and academic and I think she feels safe pushing her conversational boundaries slightly.

She told me this story and as she did so, the hurt was written all over her face.

And after nearly a lifetime in Australia, she said she felt just that little bit less welcome.

Hate speech seeping into Australian society

So this is how it goes.

Hate speech becomes part of the currency of national debate and is exploited for political purposes.

In 1996, Pauline Hanson delivers her notorious maiden speech in which she says Australia is being "swamped by Asians".

John Howard, as prime minister, dog-whistles that this is all about free speech.

In 2001, the so-called Tampa election occurs.

Boat people — overwhelmingly Muslim — become the butt of Howard's assertion of national sovereignty: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."

There are votes in this and both sides of politics pile on.

In the midst of the 2013 election, Labor's Kevin Rudd — the same man who claims Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an inspiration — slams the door on asylum seekers by striking deals, with Nauru and Papua New Guinea, that Australia is still living with.

In 2014, the Federal Government tries to weaken the Racial Discrimination Act in what is said to be in the interests of free speech.

Attorney-General George Brandis asserts that "people have a right to be bigots".
In 2015, research conducted for the Melbourne Social Equity Institute finds that the single most important driver of negative attitudes toward asylum seekers is religious prejudice, sometimes expressed as concern about the "Islamisation" of Australia.

In August 2017, Senator Hanson wears a burqa into Senate Question Time.

Senator Brandis discovers where bigotry can lead and assails her for an "appalling stunt" disrespectful of the Muslim faith.

Eventually, the political licensing of racism and religious intolerance seeps into the fabric of society. It might take a generation or it might take longer.

But when it does it stains and rots that fabric, eating away at people's sense of belonging, undermining the Australian multicultural project, and in a small suburban hair salon, a middle-aged woman feels emboldened to vent her prejudice, doing harm and hurt to someone who has been tending her person for 20 years.

Dennis Muller is a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-09/anti-muslim-tirade-hairdresser-and-hate-sp...






the politics of division is alive and well in this country.
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cods
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #1 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:56am
 
lucky for us... it was only  WORDS.....

you may see or hear it as racist  and may even claim  it isnt ....  but some things DO still go deep..

I am talking about the subject of the Republic...a topic  very much on the minds of the  left leaning side of Australians. and when it rears its head   .some of the things that have been said in the past  have been down right cruel and nasty....... and I am sure many more in the future.will be the same....

and yes they can go deep.. and yes they do have an affect of making some of us from the old country feel unwelcome / unwanted call it what you like...

I have been told .. dont like it here go back where you come from..... who asked you to come here.? and so it went on...yep it happens....


we get told to turn the other cheek...

is it Australian  to speak like that.... ANTI everything   


no I dont think so....

I like to think those people are few and far between   that lady and I am sorry she heard all that   but one women in 20 years   is not all that ugly....some people lash out because they see their lives changing  because of things that happen elsewhere...

this lady may have been hurt by this customers   but I am sure she still thanks the lord she lives in this country.. I know I do!
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John Smith
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #2 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:15pm
 
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:56am:
I have been told .. dont like it here go back where you come from..... who asked you to come here.? and so it went on...yep it happens....


you think it happens to you? try being from a non english background.

cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:56am:
 but one women in 20 years

you don't honestly believe that?

Just yesterday I took the kids kayaking. A random woman stopped for a chat cause my kids started patting her dog. the first thing she choose to go on about was how bad the muslims are, all the while going on about how she wasn't racist cause she used to play with her greek/ italian friends from school when she was a teenager. I'd never met her in my life, and within 60 seconds of meeting me that's what she choose to talk about?
Ohh, and I suspect the only reason she did so was cause she picked through my wifes accent that we were european. I doubt we would have had the same conversation if I was a pom
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mothra
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #3 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:38pm
 
I saw this on the Conversation.

Brilliant article.

The Hanson effect: how hate seeps in and damages us all

https://theconversation.com/the-hanson-effect-how-hate-seeps-in-and-damages-us-a...
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If you can't be a good example, you have to be a horrible warning.
 
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cods
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #4 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:45pm
 
John Smith wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:15pm:
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:56am:
I have been told .. dont like it here go back where you come from..... who asked you to come here.? and so it went on...yep it happens....


you think it happens to you? try being from a non english background.

not over the republic thats for sure..



its human nature  I think..

cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:56am:
 but one women in 20 years

you don't honestly believe that?

Just yesterday I took the kids kayaking. A random woman stopped for a chat cause my kids started patting her dog. the first thing she choose to go on about was how bad the muslims are, all the while going on about how she wasn't racist cause she used to play with her greek/ italian friends from school when she was a teenager. I'd never met her in my life, and within 60 seconds of meeting me that's what she choose to talk about?
Ohh, and I suspect the only reason she did so was cause she picked through my wifes accent that we were european. I doubt we would have had the same conversation if I was a pom



I was talking about what the lady in your post said......she said she had been cutting her hair for 20 years....then out of the blue she started...

people are in fear today...this is the whole problem...

Im not  I feel very safe and secure   but a lot dont........

do you still speak with an accent?   or did your wife come here later?....when I first came here...foreigners were called New Australians...and or Wogs...one girl I worked with had married an Italian  she was a real aussie shelia..said filims instead of films 
just like Kath and Kim really....but some of the blokes gave her a hard time she didnt care...he was a good man  and I am sure now people have changed their minds on how they thought back then...

they were afraid of the influx...a lot of 10 pound poms as they w ere called flooded here as well I wasnt one of them..my husband was here and I didnt want the wait  so had to find my own way over....


but yes   its sad people have this problem  I do hope you set her right and told her not to be afraid...the govt will look out for you.. Smiley Smiley Smiley

I forgot to mention I was called a pommie bastard I am sure you remember that sweet term.... Grin Grin
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cods
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #5 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:47pm
 
Hate is governed by Fear   fear of the unknown...and we have a need to take it out on someone..

like now its Hansons fault as if there was NO Hate in the world Before Pauline.. Angry Angry Angry
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John Smith
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #6 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:48pm
 
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:45pm:
do you still speak with an accent?   

no
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:45pm:
 or did your wife come here later?..

my wife came about 11 yrs ago, she has the accent
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Our esteemed leader:
I hope that bitch who was running their brothels for them gets raped with a cactus.
 
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cods
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #7 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:50pm
 
John Smith wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:48pm:
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:45pm:
do you still speak with an accent?   

no
cods wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:45pm:
 or did your wife come here later?..

my wife came about 11 yrs ago, she has the accent



well I still get picked as a POM  I am shocked   I think its a lucky guess its got to be....Im a Londoner not from the north
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Lisa Jones
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #8 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 12:50pm
 
John Smith wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 11:26am:
A good article.


A suburban hair salon, an anti-Muslim tirade and what it says about hate speech in Australia


Such hair as I have is cut from time to time by Mrs E, who runs a one-chair salon in my neighbourhood.

She has been in business there for 40 years. She knows all about the history of the street and many of her clients have been coming to her for half a lifetime.

The salon is shut on Mondays, when she cuts the hair of the elderly and disabled in various local institutions.

Mrs E is a petite woman with a cloud of brown hair, a bright smile and that empathetic personality that fits so many hairdressers for their parallel occupation of informal counsellor.

Under her hairdresser's smock she wears a dress or a blouse and trousers.

She came to Australia as a child from the Balkans, grew up, married, had two sons.

Australia is home and a place where she says she has always felt welcome, until the other day.

A client whose hair she had been cutting for 20 years came in as usual, and then, without any prompting or preamble, launched into a tirade against Muslims.

Mrs E heard her out. As a rule, like most sensible businesspeople, she resists being drawn into conversations about sex, religion or politics.

But eventually it became too much. "I'm a Muslim," she told the client, "and I very much regret that after 20 years I must tell you I will no longer cut your hair".
The salon contains no outward sign of her faith: nothing in her appearance or in the room itself gives it away. For her, it is something private; nothing to do with her professional life.

It happened that I came in about a week later. Mrs E and I often talk in general terms about what's going on in the world.

She knows I am a journalist and academic and I think she feels safe pushing her conversational boundaries slightly.

She told me this story and as she did so, the hurt was written all over her face.

And after nearly a lifetime in Australia, she said she felt just that little bit less welcome.

Hate speech seeping into Australian society

So this is how it goes.

Hate speech becomes part of the currency of national debate and is exploited for political purposes.

In 1996, Pauline Hanson delivers her notorious maiden speech in which she says Australia is being "swamped by Asians".

John Howard, as prime minister, dog-whistles that this is all about free speech.

In 2001, the so-called Tampa election occurs.

Boat people — overwhelmingly Muslim — become the butt of Howard's assertion of national sovereignty: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."

There are votes in this and both sides of politics pile on.

In the midst of the 2013 election, Labor's Kevin Rudd — the same man who claims Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an inspiration — slams the door on asylum seekers by striking deals, with Nauru and Papua New Guinea, that Australia is still living with.

In 2014, the Federal Government tries to weaken the Racial Discrimination Act in what is said to be in the interests of free speech.

Attorney-General George Brandis asserts that "people have a right to be bigots".
In 2015, research conducted for the Melbourne Social Equity Institute finds that the single most important driver of negative attitudes toward asylum seekers is religious prejudice, sometimes expressed as concern about the "Islamisation" of Australia.

In August 2017, Senator Hanson wears a burqa into Senate Question Time.

Senator Brandis discovers where bigotry can lead and assails her for an "appalling stunt" disrespectful of the Muslim faith.

Eventually, the political licensing of racism and religious intolerance seeps into the fabric of society. It might take a generation or it might take longer.

But when it does it stains and rots that fabric, eating away at people's sense of belonging, undermining the Australian multicultural project, and in a small suburban hair salon, a middle-aged woman feels emboldened to vent her prejudice, doing harm and hurt to someone who has been tending her person for 20 years.

Dennis Muller is a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-09/anti-muslim-tirade-hairdresser-and-hate-sp...






the politics of division is alive and well in this country.


All I can see is an article about what happened in a small hair dressing salon that had NOTHING to do with racial hatred at all.  Roll Eyes
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Lord Herbert
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #9 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:22pm
 
Nonsense.

People should continue to express their opinions regardless of what it is .. so long as it is done discreetly, politely, and on appropriate occasions.

From what I can understand from the story, the woman delivering the anti-Islam rant wasn't aware the hairdresser is a Muslim.

The term 'Hate Speech' is baby-talk terminology. The question that needs asking is How correct is what the 'offender' has said?

We've just been treated to a month of the most violent and vile 'Hate Speech' coming from the 'Yes' ~ screw his arse with a ring-on-your-finger mob with not a solitary mention by any of the media's writers and commentators about 'Hate Speech' against the 'NO' mob.

What did the ranter in the Hairdresser's shop say?

Or would that be too counter-productive to reveal because the contents pass The Pub Test?

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mothra
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #10 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:24pm
 
Well, bigotry can be discrete but tell me, Herbie? How can it be polite or appropriate?
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If you can't be a good example, you have to be a horrible warning.
 
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John Smith
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #11 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:25pm
 
Lord Herbert wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:22pm:
People should continue to express their opinions regardless of what it is .. so long as it is done discreetly, politely, and on appropriate occasions.


people should keep to opinions to themselves unless asked. I certainly  don't walk around offering opinions on issues to random strangers.

Lord Herbert wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:22pm:
We've just been treated to a month of the most violent and vile 'Hate Speech' coming from the 'Yes' ~ screw his arse with a ring-on-your-finger mob with not a solitary mention by any of the media's writers and commentators about 'Hate Speech' against the 'NO' mob.


really? pointing out the arguments are flawed isn't hate speech you more on
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Our esteemed leader:
I hope that bitch who was running their brothels for them gets raped with a cactus.
 
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Lord Herbert
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #12 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:31pm
 
John Smith wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:25pm:
Lord Herbert wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:22pm:
People should continue to express their opinions regardless of what it is .. so long as it is done discreetly, politely, and on appropriate occasions.


People should keep their opinions to themselves unless asked. I certainly don't walk around offering opinions on issues to random strangers.


I agree with you 100%. (But as a 20-year long client she was hardly talking to a 'random stranger'. Do try to read your own cut-n-pastes a little more carefully).

You might notice there I popped in "on appropriate occasions".

During a Road rage
At Barbecues
On the Groom's Night Out
In the soccer stands
etc




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Dr Mengele
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #13 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:42pm
 
Nothing wrong with some good solid hate....gotta keep subhumans in their place.
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greggerypeccary
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Re: racial hatred in Australia
Reply #14 - Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:44pm
 
Dr Mengele wrote on Oct 9th, 2017 at 2:42pm:
Nothing wrong with some good solid hate....gotta keep subhumans in their place.


Do you hate it when the tabs come unstuck?


...
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