Jubas I don't think you're racist. I do think you are a white middle-class man with white middle-class ideas and opinions, and you cannot understand how someone without all the advantages and perks in life you have received cannot arrive at the same conclusions.
This whole riot had little to do with the death of an aboriginal boy and even less to do with the perceived goading of police (true or not). It has had everything to do with a community of disenfranchised people who live like second class citizens standing up and shouting out in a society that has made them voiceless. The death of this boy was simply a trigger that has unleashed simmering tensions and resentment that have stretched back decades.
If you were aboriginal and brought up in the kind of environment where your life expectancy was 18 years less than the community norm Jubas, you'd probably have been out rioting too, as would I.
If you can accept that premise then you can accept that your ideas of what seem 'logical', 'rational' and 'productive' are only formulated on the basis that you (and the rest of us) have had a pampered, middle-class upbringing, with parents who weren't junkies or prostitutes because their parents weren't junkies or prostitutes. How can you possibly expect people to rationalise their actions, and pick themselves up off the ground when the reason YOU can do so is because of your stable rearing and formal education.. and yet these people probably barely know how to read?
We tend to be products of our upbringing, not masters of it. And this is why cycles of poverty and despair are so difficult to to break.
And can I say that 200 years is most certainly not a long time, esp. when you consider how socially stygmatised aboriginal people remain to this day. Get turned away from jobs and housing because of the colour of your skin, have people cross the road as they're walking towards you out of fear, and watch people clutch their handbags just that little tighter as you pass by enough times.... and well... you'd begin to feel a little angry and resentful too.
You know, some aboriginies probably do use their race as a manipulative tool to some extent, but then the amount of racism and marginalisation that they are subject to is of a far greater factor.
The whole 'just get over it' tone of the middle of your post displays a spectacular lack of regard as to the trials and difficulties indigenous Australians face simply trying to function in contemporary society, and the almost intractable problems of familial and cultural cycles of poverty and social decay. The same reason these aboriginal youths seemingly get born into lives of crime are the same reasons that you and your siblings end up with good educations and affluent careers. Because of the way you were brought up.
I too echo your comments that the police do an excellent job under trying circumstances, but I think it needs to be realised that the problems faced by Redfern and Eveleigh Street are not criminal ones, they are by far and away social and cultural. And unfortunately the police are unequipped to cure these.
I also think this whole "demolish the block' argument is a cogent example of the kind of naivety and ignorance that pervades this debate. The block is a rundown slum because of the social and cultural dysfunction that its inhabitants find themselves caught up in. Any new building or development will quickly suffer the same fate as those existing ones unless services that aim to reduce the social decay are also brought in. A couple of wrecking balls and a lick of paint is not going to cure the problem, only temporarily relieve its symptoms.
I'm not here to provide answers and Im acutely aware that all I have done is define a problem, I'm also not here to play the blame game. I merely want to point out that the causes of this violence go beyond the headlines of a little boy on his bike, and that the wider community needs to attempt to understand as best it can why this type of civil unrest occurs, rather than simply vilifying as a community those involved.
M.
This whole riot had little to do with the death of an aboriginal boy and even less to do with the perceived goading of police (true or not). It has had everything to do with a community of disenfranchised people who live like second class citizens standing up and shouting out in a society that has made them voiceless. The death of this boy was simply a trigger that has unleashed simmering tensions and resentment that have stretched back decades.
If you were aboriginal and brought up in the kind of environment where your life expectancy was 18 years less than the community norm Jubas, you'd probably have been out rioting too, as would I.
If you can accept that premise then you can accept that your ideas of what seem 'logical', 'rational' and 'productive' are only formulated on the basis that you (and the rest of us) have had a pampered, middle-class upbringing, with parents who weren't junkies or prostitutes because their parents weren't junkies or prostitutes. How can you possibly expect people to rationalise their actions, and pick themselves up off the ground when the reason YOU can do so is because of your stable rearing and formal education.. and yet these people probably barely know how to read?
We tend to be products of our upbringing, not masters of it. And this is why cycles of poverty and despair are so difficult to to break.
And can I say that 200 years is most certainly not a long time, esp. when you consider how socially stygmatised aboriginal people remain to this day. Get turned away from jobs and housing because of the colour of your skin, have people cross the road as they're walking towards you out of fear, and watch people clutch their handbags just that little tighter as you pass by enough times.... and well... you'd begin to feel a little angry and resentful too.
You know, some aboriginies probably do use their race as a manipulative tool to some extent, but then the amount of racism and marginalisation that they are subject to is of a far greater factor.
The whole 'just get over it' tone of the middle of your post displays a spectacular lack of regard as to the trials and difficulties indigenous Australians face simply trying to function in contemporary society, and the almost intractable problems of familial and cultural cycles of poverty and social decay. The same reason these aboriginal youths seemingly get born into lives of crime are the same reasons that you and your siblings end up with good educations and affluent careers. Because of the way you were brought up.
I too echo your comments that the police do an excellent job under trying circumstances, but I think it needs to be realised that the problems faced by Redfern and Eveleigh Street are not criminal ones, they are by far and away social and cultural. And unfortunately the police are unequipped to cure these.
I also think this whole "demolish the block' argument is a cogent example of the kind of naivety and ignorance that pervades this debate. The block is a rundown slum because of the social and cultural dysfunction that its inhabitants find themselves caught up in. Any new building or development will quickly suffer the same fate as those existing ones unless services that aim to reduce the social decay are also brought in. A couple of wrecking balls and a lick of paint is not going to cure the problem, only temporarily relieve its symptoms.
I'm not here to provide answers and Im acutely aware that all I have done is define a problem, I'm also not here to play the blame game. I merely want to point out that the causes of this violence go beyond the headlines of a little boy on his bike, and that the wider community needs to attempt to understand as best it can why this type of civil unrest occurs, rather than simply vilifying as a community those involved.
M.
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). i'm sure there are concentrations down in melbourne and most definitely in some of the other cities. i can't remember the last time that any of them riotted, or became as famous as redfern. Yet, they live in what i assume (and quite potentially incorrectly) to be, the same conditions. same race, same income, same apparent racism disability. But none have the reputation of redfern..
