Strewth! "White Australia" rears its head

[HarpoJoyce]

This outbreak of trouble is a win win for the Australian "Anglo-Celt" ( never heard that term before, but maybe its a term that describes myself).

If it can be shown that ethnic Greek/Italian/Croatian attacked ethnic Lebanese, than Mediterrean-types can be blamed for "provoking" and causing the disturbances. It doesn't have to be true, just that it can be shown that these people can't be trausted.


Diversity in Australia (2001 Census). A few mentions of Sydney itself.
[url]www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/links/diversity.pdf [url]
(there's a league table of Nationalities at the end.)

[Snoop Drog]

Or did you conveniently skip over the bit in the 2nd paragraph of that article that states that the majority of Australia's Lebanese are Christians...?

Maybe you don't see yourself as rascist. But then, maybe Hitler didn't either....

I think Aussies use the term "Lebs" to describe people of middle eastern decent in general hence the asscociation between lebanese and islam is formed.

Australians, in general, are not racist. Like all cultures (including Ireland) there is a minority idiot society.

Harpojoyce- Yeah, I always found the term Anglo celt" strange too! But here is Oz it is widely used to describe persons of British and Irish extraction. It's also the name of a newspaper in Cavan I didn't really understand the second part of your post about- Who is linking "Mediterrean types" with any of this??

[HarpoJoyce]

I didn't really understand the second part of your post about- Who is linking "Mediterrean types" with any of this??

Only that a large proprotion of the population (Anglo-Celts) can feel superior if it can be shown that other parts of the population were the cause of the trouble.

[Snoop Drog]

Don't know if anyone would be "feeling superior" but from the TV footage of the gathering at Cronulla last Sunday it seemed to be all white males who where involved. In fact the two "lebs" who were on the train on Cronulla platform and who were attacked (that footage when the police waded in) were actually Italians.

[Closed Account 2]

I've never been to Aus, but the Aussies are well known for being as rascist as they come. However - I'd always been led to believe that the population of the big cities were generally more liberal, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Now thats a bit beyond the pale - I've met loads of Auzzies who are not racist, and are decent people. It looks like your casting a whole country as racists, its shades of the "convict nation" stuff. Its like the cráp we had to put up with in the 80s about all Irish being thick.

[Dotsy]

Two of my brothers and my sister have all been living in Oz for over 15 years so I have spent alot of time out there. Not all white Australians are racist but I am sure there is a very small minority who are. Not all Australians of middle east extraction are racist but there is a small minority who are. Knobs on both sides but they don't represent the vast majority of Australians.

[dcfcsteve]

Now thats a bit beyond the pale - I've met loads of Auzzies who are not racist, and are decent people. It looks like your casting a whole country as racists, its shades of the "convict nation" stuff. Its like the cráp we had to put up with in the 80s about all Irish being thick.

Fair point - that comment was a bit too broad sweep.

To qualify it - what I meant is that the Australians in general do have a reputation for being less 'liberal-minded' towards immigrants than would be the norm in the Western Hemisphere, for example. There are plenty of liberal-minded Aussies around, but there are also plenty of right-wing minded Aussies. Perhaps the countriy's problem is more one of not clamping down on the right-wing ones - the fact that DJ's can use words like 'wog' and 'spick' on air, and effectively whip-up mob feeling against certain ethnic groups exemplifies this. In Britain, Ireland, or the US this would never have happened and would've been illegal, but not in Australia. This generates a view that the country is less tolerant of outsiders than would be the Wesatern norm.