fuck. I tried not to get involved with this but I just can't help myself. where to start , where to start....
As a person of 'ethnic' extraction, I felt an enormous pang of sadness when I watched the events which have unfolded over the last couple of days. A big part of me raged at the mob who rampaged through Cronulla whilst an even bigger part dismayed at the loss of what I thought was 'my Australia'. No longer did I have the privledge of watching the racially fueled riots in America, Britian, France whilst sitting back in my lounge rooms being thankful that it wasn't in our country. No longer could I smugly say "only in America" when I read about young women being attacked by groups of men. Looking back, I realised that I was naive to think that we, as a country, were immune to such acts of madness. I've come to conclusion, that at the core of every man, women and child, we are (for want of a better word), racist. Everyone, irrespective of colour, creed, nationality or religion.
I believe it's human nature to associate best with those that we relate to - and as visual creatures, we relate best those people who look like us, have the same features, the same coloured skin. At the most basic level, we're just 5 - 6 massive tribes mashed together. Tribes, which after hundreds of years of social engineering, have learnt to live together. However, once you strip away all that social conditioning, all you're left with is one tribe vs another. Tribal warfare. That's what we saw on Sunday. One tribe defending it's territory from another. And dare I say it - with justifcation.
I'm not going to sit up here on my high horse and tell KS, OC et al that they're racists. I wasn't there. I haven't been abused just because I'm 'aussi'. I haven't been bashed by gangs of 'lebs' or rolled for my wallet and phone by a gang of 'lebs'. I haven't had to worry about my kid's safety when they're going to the beach. We need to stop sticking your head in the sand and stop pretending that the events on sunday were not without provocation. It's easy to judge when you haven't walked a mile in their shoes. So I won't call them racists. I just don't understand where they are coming from. Having said that, I deplore the acts of violence again innocents based on their skin colour.
The word 'assimilate' however, does upset me. What exactly do we mean by this in the context of multiculturalism? Are ethnic cultures in australia assimilated when they all drink VB, watch footy or cricket, speak english and like to have a surf? Fuck, how boring would that be. I suspect that our pollies and the media throw this word around when they really mean that we should all be 'white'. "The Lebanise community should assimilate into the australian culture" Don't you really mean to say "the lebanise community should look white, talk white and act white"? Cause thats the tone I'm getting. Ethnic cultures shouldn't have to 'assimilate' at all. We should all celebrate our differences. Every culture has a richness and colour which shouldn't be sacrficed. As I see it, multiculturalism the exact opposite of assimilation. Am I so naive however, to think that different cultures are completlely compatible with each other? I don't think that's that case at all. So really, instead of demanding other cultures and ethnicities to assimilate, we just ask other cultures to respect our culture, and we will respect theirs.
Finally - multiculturalism. I've seen a lot of comment here, there, everywhere about the multiculturalism experiment and how it has failed. How it's all to blame for our racial problems. I've thought about this a lot and I've come to the conclusion that yes, multiculturalism has been less than successful. But how do we measure the success of multiculturalism? When do we get to the point where we say "yep. We're finished. Multiculturalism is a success". Do we compare ourselves against racially divided countries like the USA or do we hold up country like Japan (which has little to no immigration) as the yardstick? I don't think you can compare or measure. There is no end game, no destination. Just something which needs a lot of hard work and effort and along the way, you're going to have some wins and loses. Multiculturalsim is something which doens't come easy but I don't think we should give up on it.
So that's it. I'm out. No more food for thought. This could be most I have rambled on about in BL. Thanks for listening. Apologies if I've offended anyone cause I've meant none.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
