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Question for Australians here: is racism against aboriginals widespread in Australia? How does the govt work to prevent it?

ostenning 4y ago
Yeah I would say its quite a big problem, lots of people have derogatory views about first nations peoples. Government basically uses marketing tactics to portray us all as a big inclusive happy family, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
- spritefs 4y ago
  > Government basically uses marketing tactics to portray us all as a big inclusive happy family, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's the same way in the US with native Americans. They teach you about the genocide committed. What they don't teach you is that the government aggression towards natives didn't actually "stop" until Kennedy (and even then I'm still in doubt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_termination_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_termination_policy
  - dendrite9 4y ago
    I have a note to look for a good book about the American Indian Movement, it isn't something we were taught in school. Earlier today I was looking for some information about geology in British Columbia and clicked a link about an abandoned town. The last line of the wikipedia entry was enough to give me a pause and look up more. The entire entry is: > Kimsquit is a former village of the Nuxalk[1] at the mouth of the Dean River on the northeast side of Dean Channel in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada.[2] Kemsquit Indian Reserve No. 1 is nearby at 52°49′00″N 126°58′00″W,[3] which is on Kimsquit Bay; Kimsquit Mountain is nearby. > The village was shelled by the Royal Navy in 1877.[4] The BC Geographical Names site includes a little more information: > Kimsquit was the site of one of the last gunboat actions on the BC coast when, in 1877, HMS Rocket, under Lt Cdr Charles Harris, shelled and burned the Nut’l village. Several of its residents had allegedly murdered the survivors of the wreck of the George S Wright in Queen Charlotte Sound in 1873 – though his charge was never proven.
  - belfalas 4y ago
    > What they don't teach you is that the government aggression towards natives didn't actually "stop" until Kennedy (and even then I'm still in doubt) It is still very much in progress. Native American activists are not exaggerating when they describe reservations as third-world countries located in America. The sovereign status of first nations is in many ways used against them and prevents real help from arriving (e.g. the horrendous alcoholism and abuse that exists in some areas). It was a big deal that US President Joe Biden named a person with indigenous background (Deb Haaland) to be Secretary of the Interior, as the Bureau of Indian Affairs exists under that function. As they say, politics is war by other means.
belfalas 4y ago
I am not an Australian but I've been to Australia and have Australian friends and colleagues. "Racism" is not quite the right word for what's been done to the aboriginals, it's more like the genocide committed against indigenous people in the Americas. Aboriginals are "Black" but that's beside the point - the British did a very thorough job trying to wipe them off the face of the planet. Think Trail of Tears level horror if you're familiar with US history. If you want to read about things that are even more truly horrific, read up on the history of Tasmania. It was even worse there.
- quadhome 4y ago
  I was shocked to find out that Aboriginals in Australia were enslaved as recently as the 1970s: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bushtelegraph/did-legalised-slavery-exist-in-australia/5580456 https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/busht...
  - belfalas 4y ago
    Yeah, in the United States as well pretty horrific things were happening right up to the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study (I'm of course not saying that bad things stopped happening after the 1970s)
yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
It depends where you are. Cairns is very different from Sydney, for example, with indigenous Australians being relatively better integrated (at least as far as I observed growing up there), although there are other race relations issues in Sydney also.
defrost 4y ago
Sporadic, but deep and intense where it occurs .. and often to levels not appreciated by most Australians. On the plus side many Australians have a deep respect for Aboriginals that's a mixture of genuine, idealised, etc. You can see working evidence of Government working to correct aspects of racism in things such as the Coronial inquest into death of an indigenous 19-year-old K.Walker at the hands of police. The uncovering of attitudes with the Territorial police toward aboriginal people has been slow but steady with more to come next month. Mind you, not the first inquest or royal commision into aboriginal deaths in custody and I doubt it will be the last. R.I.P JP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Pat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Pat
eastAligned 4y ago
The most common thing we hear about aborigines is either "project delayed because ancient dump discovered" followed closely by "Aboriginal focused government program is expensive and ineffective". The most common attitude would be indifference, followed by a general irritation if something Aboriginal related "gets in the way". Racism is hard to measure, it's fairly common, but most often taking the form of condescending paternalism, rather than actual negativity (not that this does not exist, but it's a tiny proportion).
rgmerk 4y ago
Short answer: yes to the first question. As to the second question, for most of Australia's history much of the most consequential pieces of racism were government policy. To get a sense of injustices inflicted on indigenous Australians, do some reading on the Stolen Generations (for a start).
bufferout 4y ago
It's a complex topic. Cosmopolitan white Australians generally tend to overcompensate on the virtue posturing front in regards to being pro black rights. Many not actually having ever met an indigenous member of our population. Rural whites tend to be more cynical as they have direct exposure to the effects of rampant alcoholism and crime in many indigenous communities. I grew up around indigenous kids in Townsville several decades ago (shoes at our school were optional which I thought was a win for everyone). Honestly didn't consider the black kids any different, despite my actively racist parents. The general consensus now is that the indigenous population is no doubt disadvantaged, but there's still an undercurrent of it being perceived as a self inflicted situation due to poor choices / victim mentality / whatever. A common story that does the rounds is of government provided housing having campfires lit in the living room. I'd say it's a pretty universal opinion that all gov policy on the matter has been, and still is, ineffective or wasteful. I have no idea how you'd actually legislate effective change here though as it's most certainly not a matter of just throwing more money at the problem.

ostenning 4y ago

Yeah I would say its quite a big problem, lots of people have derogatory views about first nations peoples. Government basically uses marketing tactics to portray us all as a big inclusive happy family, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

spritefs 4y ago
> Government basically uses marketing tactics to portray us all as a big inclusive happy family, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's the same way in the US with native Americans. They teach you about the genocide committed. What they don't teach you is that the government aggression towards natives didn't actually "stop" until Kennedy (and even then I'm still in doubt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_termination_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_termination_policy
- dendrite9 4y ago
  I have a note to look for a good book about the American Indian Movement, it isn't something we were taught in school. Earlier today I was looking for some information about geology in British Columbia and clicked a link about an abandoned town. The last line of the wikipedia entry was enough to give me a pause and look up more. The entire entry is: > Kimsquit is a former village of the Nuxalk[1] at the mouth of the Dean River on the northeast side of Dean Channel in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada.[2] Kemsquit Indian Reserve No. 1 is nearby at 52°49′00″N 126°58′00″W,[3] which is on Kimsquit Bay; Kimsquit Mountain is nearby. > The village was shelled by the Royal Navy in 1877.[4] The BC Geographical Names site includes a little more information: > Kimsquit was the site of one of the last gunboat actions on the BC coast when, in 1877, HMS Rocket, under Lt Cdr Charles Harris, shelled and burned the Nut’l village. Several of its residents had allegedly murdered the survivors of the wreck of the George S Wright in Queen Charlotte Sound in 1873 – though his charge was never proven.
- belfalas 4y ago
  > What they don't teach you is that the government aggression towards natives didn't actually "stop" until Kennedy (and even then I'm still in doubt) It is still very much in progress. Native American activists are not exaggerating when they describe reservations as third-world countries located in America. The sovereign status of first nations is in many ways used against them and prevents real help from arriving (e.g. the horrendous alcoholism and abuse that exists in some areas). It was a big deal that US President Joe Biden named a person with indigenous background (Deb Haaland) to be Secretary of the Interior, as the Bureau of Indian Affairs exists under that function. As they say, politics is war by other means.

belfalas 4y ago

I am not an Australian but I've been to Australia and have Australian friends and colleagues. "Racism" is not quite the right word for what's been done to the aboriginals, it's more like the genocide committed against indigenous people in the Americas. Aboriginals are "Black" but that's beside the point - the British did a very thorough job trying to wipe them off the face of the planet. Think Trail of Tears level horror if you're familiar with US history. If you want to read about things that are even more truly horrific, read up on the history of Tasmania. It was even worse there.

quadhome 4y ago
I was shocked to find out that Aboriginals in Australia were enslaved as recently as the 1970s: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bushtelegraph/did-legalised-slavery-exist-in-australia/5580456 https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/busht...
- belfalas 4y ago
  Yeah, in the United States as well pretty horrific things were happening right up to the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study (I'm of course not saying that bad things stopped happening after the 1970s)

yakshaving_jgt 4y ago

It depends where you are. Cairns is very different from Sydney, for example, with indigenous Australians being relatively better integrated (at least as far as I observed growing up there), although there are other race relations issues in Sydney also.

defrost 4y ago

Sporadic, but deep and intense where it occurs .. and often to levels not appreciated by most Australians. On the plus side many Australians have a deep respect for Aboriginals that's a mixture of genuine, idealised, etc. You can see working evidence of Government working to correct aspects of racism in things such as the Coronial inquest into death of an indigenous 19-year-old K.Walker at the hands of police. The uncovering of attitudes with the Territorial police toward aboriginal people has been slow but steady with more to come next month. Mind you, not the first inquest or royal commision into aboriginal deaths in custody and I doubt it will be the last. R.I.P JP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Pat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Pat

eastAligned 4y ago

The most common thing we hear about aborigines is either "project delayed because ancient dump discovered" followed closely by "Aboriginal focused government program is expensive and ineffective". The most common attitude would be indifference, followed by a general irritation if something Aboriginal related "gets in the way". Racism is hard to measure, it's fairly common, but most often taking the form of condescending paternalism, rather than actual negativity (not that this does not exist, but it's a tiny proportion).

rgmerk 4y ago

Short answer: yes to the first question. As to the second question, for most of Australia's history much of the most consequential pieces of racism were government policy. To get a sense of injustices inflicted on indigenous Australians, do some reading on the Stolen Generations (for a start).

bufferout 4y ago

It's a complex topic. Cosmopolitan white Australians generally tend to overcompensate on the virtue posturing front in regards to being pro black rights. Many not actually having ever met an indigenous member of our population. Rural whites tend to be more cynical as they have direct exposure to the effects of rampant alcoholism and crime in many indigenous communities. I grew up around indigenous kids in Townsville several decades ago (shoes at our school were optional which I thought was a win for everyone). Honestly didn't consider the black kids any different, despite my actively racist parents. The general consensus now is that the indigenous population is no doubt disadvantaged, but there's still an undercurrent of it being perceived as a self inflicted situation due to poor choices / victim mentality / whatever. A common story that does the rounds is of government provided housing having campfires lit in the living room. I'd say it's a pretty universal opinion that all gov policy on the matter has been, and still is, ineffective or wasteful. I have no idea how you'd actually legislate effective change here though as it's most certainly not a matter of just throwing more money at the problem.