...men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past... (Marx, 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte)
Kinda similar to the whole 'people make choices, but not in circumstances of their own choosing' idea. We all tend to experience whatever happens in our own lives as unique and private, as we also tend to interpret what happens to other people as unique and private to them. *Private* troubles – in western societies we tend towards an individualised orientation in our understanding of what happens to us and those around us. All fair and well. What this does however is to downplay or miss the systemic, structural forces that go on all around us (political, economic, social and cultural arrangements and so forth, ie. the labour market). Take an example: when one person is unemployed, it's a private trouble; when 3 million people are unemployed, it's a public issue.
How does this relate to homelessness and ethnicity? Both of these have and are talked about as 'problems'. When you use language to set up a 'problem', you portray the subject (homeless people, 'dole bludgers', Aborigines, whatever) as 'sick' or maybe 'troublesome'. The language of 'problems’ individualises the person or group, and precludes an understanding of the 'problem' as systemic or structural.
Example: people who rely on welfare – we think of 'welfare dependency' as a 'problem' – a 'problem' needs a solution - these people (who are most often the most vulnerable elements of the community) are portrayed as a fiscal threat to government. Instead of 'the unemployment problem', you've now got 'the problem of the unemployed'. Somehow it doesn’t seem to matter that there's more unemployed people than there are jobs – blaming the victim is easier than stimulating labour-market demand.
I'm not trying to deny or downplay individual decisions/actions etc, however it's important to think carefully and critically about 'the big picture'.
As for 'equality' and excuses based on ethnicity or race. People are always whinging that 'the Aborigines are getting too good a deal' or 'they have access to services I don't' or whatnot. Let there be no false ideas here about spending on Aboriginals – for most of the 1990s the amount of welfare, heath care and education support provided especially for Aborigines amounted to about 1.5% of total budget outlays, which is in proportion to the 1.5% of the population that Aborigines represent (ABS 1999). By any measure or indicator you should care to use, Aborigines are doing far worse off than 'white' people.
Education: Significantly lower levels of formal schooling than average (ABS 1996).
Unemployment: Far higher (over 35%), and most Aborigines who are unemployed have been so for over a year (ABS 1997).
Income: Aborigines are usually poorer than most non-indigenous Australians.
Health: Aboriginal life expectancies are the same as those for white people circa 1901.
That's just the start of it. I seriously challenge any non-indigenous person on this board to say they’d swap their circumstances for those of an Aboriginal child. Further, of course these systemic, structural conditions will shape life chances. To suggest otherwise is simply ludicrous.
To wind this over-long post up (sorry!), YES! Let’s move on. Let’s close the gap. But lets also remember that both these groups (people who are homeless and Aborigines and Torress Strait Islanders) face distinct, serious disadvantages that we all need to think about and takle.
[ 11 December 2002: Message edited by: yossarian.lives ]