THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US

Tim Soutphommasane’s attached article ‘The year’s creeping tide of racism’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 30 December 2017) chronicles many of the events and movements from 2017 that have racism (or ‘alleged’ racism) as their defining component. The Race Discrimination Commissioner’s analysis of both the domestic and international scenes makes for sombre reading.

However, I guess a commissioner’s brief must include a positive take somewhere and Soutphommasane does produce the counterweight that Aussies, in general, accept multiculturalism as a feature of our broad continent and that this should be recognised and celebrated. Whether he’s wearing rose-coloured glasses or not remains to be seen.

But there are deeper considerations here which a six hundred word newspaper piece can’t effectively enunciate. They call into question some fairly basic assumptions and beliefs that underpin life in Oz. They challenge the notion that racism is disappearing and, in fact, assert that the disadvantage and inequality of an all animals are equal society have morphed into camouflaged and more virulent forms.

I always wonder why we so quickly proclaim our egalitarianism. The lucky country is routinely stencilled with the words ‘fair go’ and ‘mateship’. While we have severe trouble in articulating our values, we easily regurgitate the ‘everyone’s the same’ byline and act as if it’s a national ‘given’. The media reinforce this holy generalisation, the chapel of complacency continues to be erected and everyone goes home happy. But the surrounding parishes certainly don’t reflect what an egalitarian society should look like in a number of key markers.

‘We need to stop reducing racism to whether or not Joe Bloggs down the street uses racial slurs to determine whether or not this country is racist. Racism is not as simple as some ignorant fool shouting expletives to strangers on a bus. It’s deeper and malevolent. It is woven into the fabric of this nation and every institution that has been formed to govern the country. It has infiltrated homes through mainstream media propagating the racist assumptions about racial groups- particularly of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Racism is alive and well in Australia. It has been since 1788. It runs in cycles of being covert and then becomes increasingly overt like a heart murmur on the monitor machine- but it is always there and it remains systemic and institutional.’ (Natalie Cromb, 2017)

First Nations’ punters possess stats that would make any reader grimace. Aborigines live shorter lives, experience more chronic health problems, have lower incomes, enjoy higher levels of unemployment, are over-represented in prison populations and under-represented regarding successful outcomes in the ‘welcome back’ lounges of educational journeys. Incredibly, such profiles are attributed to these citizens alone. The media chimes in with concept words/ images of indolence, uselessness and dependence on weekdays and alcoholism, child abuse and violence on the weekend. The racial stereotyping that the media peddles is potent and leads us to a predictable conclusion in the weary narrative. The story, of course, is retold again and again…………… and we buy into it.

Aborigines are O.K. if they’re tearing around a football, athletic or hockey field and, perhaps, producing some clearly identifiable art but if these guys call out racism or challenge a spectator’s tirade, then they’re considered divisive and ungrateful. Adam Goodes and Nova Peris both faced this curious duality of response during their careers. The fact that the barrel rollers are white, privileged and positioned to comment does not take away from the hypocritical end-point.

We publicly express horror at a celebrity cultural ventriloquist like Milo Yiannopoulos and convince ourselves that such outrage serves as a sandwich board for our own non-racist genomes. But the opposite is true. By willingly and actively participating in a political, economic and social process that features racial differentiation (in both overt and covert modes) as one of its central load-bearing beams, the presumption of innocence or, at least, understanding wears pretty thin.

The great irony, concerning all of this scribbling, becomes apparent when Macy Sto. Domingo (2014) is referenced-

‘White privilege is being able to fight racism one day, then ignore it the next.’

FYI….. My choice is ‘Wednesday’. What’s yours?

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-years-creeping-tide-of-racism-20171228-h0b5yt.html