Australian aboriginals were never used as slaves as such. They were under paid but those workers families have since been compensated by the government. As a rule the aboriginal people did not assimilate and in many places they still live a simple life that they have live for 40 000 years. The racism that existed for 200 years can never be erased, but the fact remains that most white Australians have nothing to do with that. It was another time and another generation and at some stage you leave it behind.
Race relations in Australia is not as black and white as America. Genetic isolation for thousands of years means diseases such as diabetes, glaucoma and infant mortality are greater and will continue to be so no matter how much money is invested. It is easy for a Canadian to see aborigines living in primitive communities and think the government doesn't care but cultural considerations must be taken into account. The aboriginal people were a nomadic race for thousands of years, material wealth were not a priority. It sounds harsh but they simply don't have the desire often to change their living arrangement and are often happier for it.
I have worked in some of the worst aboriginal communities and seen first hand the waste and damage that the aboriginal people inflict on themselves. I have seen brand new houses that were built and handed to families for free, only for them to be destroyed within a year and the family move out to live with relatives. I have seen classrooms ransacked the last weekend of school holidays, leaving only the television and video player because that's what the kids want to do. Healthcare and education are heavy investments by the government but they mean nothing when the parents don't care enough about their children to take them to school or practice basic hygiene habits.
It's easy to blame the white man, and as a foreigner I'm first to agree that a small minority are xenophobic racist cunts, but equal amount of responsibility can be directed to aboriginal people themselves. 80% of the problem is leadership. There are no role models for kids growing up. Their parents have to take a lot more of the blame than generations of government who have poured money and resources at fixing the problem. There are no Martin Luther King's, no rosa parks, there isn't even an Aboriginal Jay Z who has said, enough, I will work my way to success. Of the few sporting heros who galvanised the whole nation, the vast majority went on to become wife beating alcoholics and end back in the communities the came from, washed up and defeated. It is ignorant to blame white Australians for this. Many other celebrities from every other race and creed have been welcomed into society, and imbraced for their cultural differences. Sri Lankans, vietmanese, Polynesian and Africans who have worked hard and assimilated are proof that Australia are not the bigots that you want you paint them to be.
If the aboriginals are to have a better life they now have to want the better life. Injustices of the past have been compensated as best they can and it is naive to believe that racist attitudes are what is holding them back. The notion that there is a huge colour divide the same that exists in the US is wrong. Rednecks exist sure, but they are not the reason for the inequality.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
. Canada should start doing the same.
