RACE TO THE BOTTOM

 

Outgoing Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane pop rivets the current state of play to the outhouse wall in his article Race politics is back…… from Monday’s ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’.

Racism is alive and well in the lucky country and its tenacity can be measured in the new and exciting ways that it manifests itself. Soutphommasane reflects: Five years ago, when I began my term as Race Discrimination Commissioner, I wouldn’t have said it was likely that we would see the resurgence of far-right politics. I wouldn’t have expected that the biggest threats to racial harmony would come from within our parliaments and media.

I reckon that the legislators and the Murdochs are only part of the problem. By articulating ‘fear’ and ‘division’, they seek to engage punters in the twin processes of marginalisation and, with increasing frequency, vilification. Hordes of African gangs roaming around built landscapes, welfare-sucking Aborigines who refuse to ‘get over it’ and half of the Chinese mainland holding shares in Cubbie Station have become part of our headlines and conversations  on a daily basis. The media pushes this but, just as importantly, we listen to, and buy into, these fairy tales. I’m hearing more talk from some taxpayers of isolation, alienation and disengagement as responses to these half-witted scenarios. However, such outrage is buffered somewhat by our position on the racial food chain. The safety net of being white assures us of being in a pretty comfortable position when we express our fears of being ‘uncomfortable’.

You can even tag this stuff by the language we use. ‘Patriots’, ‘identity’, ‘values’, ‘respect’ and ‘tradition’ have been appropriated as symbols of a Utopia destroyed by emigration and multiculturalism. The swinging of the neoliberal machete at the politically correct undergrowth amounts to the same thing. Freedom of expression morphs into freedom to insult and expose and barely anyone notices the difference. We’re too busy feeling under threat.

Of course, the great irony in all of the horror and teeth grinding lies in just who the unclean masses are. The vast majority of these people are Australian citizens who should enjoy the same aspirations, rights and status as their neighbours and compadres. Identity politicians, One Nation, Reclaim Australia, 2GB and Andrew Bolt will never highlight this. The US and THEM mentality exists because we don’t use our brains. It’s as if we’re a flock of sheep waiting to be fed but not too sure where the foxes are. We need someone to tell us. This normalisation of racism is astounding.

The commissioner explains…… This is how racism works. It creates doubts and divisions – and it forces its targets into retreat. And where the seeds of racism are planted in political speech, they bear bitter fruit in society. This is being driven not only by the politicisation of fear, but also the monetisation of racism. Sections of a fracturing media industry, under the strain of technological disruption, seem to be using racism as part of their business model.

Racism as a commodity to be spruiked is a big call but nothing would surprise me in 21st century Oz. We’re currently entering a landscape that would have been considered ‘foreign’ (forgive the pun) even a decade ago. Reason and intelligence are being replaced by fables and stupidity. Far from confronting an exotic force of values-busting heathens hell-bent on securing the second great invasion in our history, the real challenge to us all rests in recognising the enemy within. Unfortunately, it won’t be a pleasant exercise.

Reference article