Last week we spent time with some amazing indigenous activists visiting from up north. They were in Sydney for the big footy final and told us an amazing story about getting in to all the VIP parties. These woman are in their 50s/60s and had a blast partying it up. But they also kept saying how surprised they were at how many white Australians were nice to them because up north were they live and work and they encounter racist remarks, institutional racism, and downright nastiness on a DAILY basis. They kept telling us, “it’s like Alabama in the 60s”. The next day they were planning on meeting some African-American tourists to take to an aboriginal neighborhood in Sydney so they could meet indigenous Australians. The tourists had asked at their hotel where the black people were at and the hotel receptionist said “there aren’t any”. Huh? Whaat?
And so this leads me into the big news of the week here and abroad about the minstrel show of the Jackson Jive on “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” that American singer Harry Connick Jr. happened to be judging on.
Most people commenting about this performance in the media talk about Australians apologizing to America for being so insensitive. But hello! Look around at your own history and present day treatment of people of color in Australia! Not only are black indigenous folk are completely fucked with on a daily basis by police, the government and neighbors but they are also being beaten and killed for being who they are. Check out the stories about Palm Island and more recently the Ward case as well as the government illegal intervention in the Northern Territories Also a couple of years back the race riots on the beach in Sydney targeted Middle Eastern youth and recently there have been racists attacks on Indian students.
When I first got here I kept taking photos of the racist images I saw in the candy aisle in the local supermarket.
The first step to doing something is to admit there is a problem. Australians need to freakin’ own up to their racist culture and then maybe some re-education can begin.
Dan, my partner, wrote about this as well on his blog Rearleft:
http://rearleft.wordpress.com
As well as our new friend Chris:
http://expatsinoz.blogspot.com
SocAllDay said,
October 22, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
Wow – I hadn’t seen the candy store photos before! My boss told me about “Coon” cheese which I’m still floored by that. Just no idea sometimes…really.
thedrg said,
October 22, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
yeah the first time I visited we saw Coon cheese in the market and took a picture-I could not believe it!
Sonia said,
October 24, 2009 @ 5:01 am
sorry to say – but I was in Alabama in the ’90s and it wasn’t all that different. total bummer.