Posts Tagged ‘Racism’
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Jamie Walker;15/5/10; (3 Items)
The investigation into the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee was stripped of credibility because of a “perception of collusion” between local detectives and the policeman who caused the Aborigine’s fatal injuries. But Queensland Deputy Chief Magistrate Brian Hine, delivering the findings of the third coronial inquest into the affair, found yesterday there was no evidence that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley had meant to inflict the injuries that killed Doomadgee. The open finding on whether his death was accidental or deliberately caused by Sergeant Hurley dashed the family’s professed hopes to finally secure “closure”. Doomadgee, 36, died after he was arrested while drunk on Palm Island, off Townsville, on November 19, 2004, creating such outrage in the community that people rioted a week later.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Death in Custody, Human Rights, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Matthew Franklin & Patricia Karvelas; 5/5/10
Tony Abbott has sparked a fresh battle in the so-called history wars by arguing that Australian history has rarely seen discrimination based on race or culture. Echoing former prime minister John Howard, the Opposition Leader also rejected the “black armband view” of history, praising Howard-era border security policies as “tough but effective” and vowing to reinstate them if he wins this year’s election. But his comments on racism were rejected as unrealistic by Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, while the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia accused him of promoting public fears about immigration for political reasons. The Howard era featured lively debate about the past, with the history wars dividing the nation between those who endorsed Mr Howard’s belief that people were being taught a “black armband view” of the past and those who favoured a critical view of the nation’s heritage.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
28/4/10
Former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s Queensland home remains on the market, but not for everyone. Muslim buyers, for example, aren’t welcome. Ms Hanson, who has put up for sale her million-dollar property in Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, announced she was moving to Britain earlier this year. Her hardline views on race sparked a national debate over immigration policy and Aboriginal disadvantage from the time she entered Parliament in 1996, the same election that made John Howard prime minister.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Racism, Religion
Posted in Australia, Racism, Religion | No Comments »
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Lex Hall; 24/4/10; (2 Items)
It was just past sunrise on a cold Alice Springs Saturday when white man Glen Swain started kicking Aborigine Donny Ryder in the head. Consumed by hate, his mind twisted by the full bottle of Bundaberg rum he had drunk through the night, Swain could think only of revenge against the black man who had thrown a bottle at his mate’s car. The trainee pest exterminator lined up Ryder, lying defenceless in the red dirt, and delivered two vicious kicks to his head, stopping only when he noticed his victim was motionless, “sort of like a rag doll”, as he told police. Swain would later explain the cowardly attack as a case of “tunnel vision”. “I was doing what I was doing, not worrying what everybody else was doing,” he said during a police re-enactment at the scene.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism, Reconciliaion
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
John B. Judis; 17/4/10
John B. Judis is a senior editor of The New Republic and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
When asked about his race on the US census form, Barack Obama, the child of a white Kansan and black Kenyan, did not take the option of checking both “white” and “black” or “some other race”. Instead, he checked “black, African American or Negro”. By doing that, Obama probably did what was expected of him, but he also confirmed an enduring legacy of US racism.
(more…)
Tags: Racism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Racism, USA | No Comments »
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Ross Fitzgerald; 17/4/10;
History; Palm Island; Joanne Watson; Aboriginal Studies Press, 212pp, $34.95
Professor Ross Fitzgerald has written 32 books, most recently the co-authored Under the Influence: a History of Alcohol in Australia and his memoir, My Name is Ross: An Alcoholic’s Journey.
How rare is it that two equally fine books appear at roughly the same time about the same, or similar, topics? Chloe Hooper’s remarkable non-iction novel, The Tall Man, was published in 2008. This award-winning work deals with the death on November 19, 2004 of 36-year-old Palm Island man Cameron Doomadgee, who swore at a policeman, Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley – then 33 years old, weighing 115 kilograms and 200 centimetres tall. Forty-five minutes later, Doomadgee was found dead in a watch-house cell.Now we have Joanne Watson’s passionate and magisterial history, Palm Island: Through a Long Lens, whose opening and final chapters also deal in detail with the death in custody of Doomadgee, as well as the riot and widespread civil unrest that followed this tragic event.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Tanveer Ahmed; 9/4/10
Given my Indian-looking appearance, when I travel overseas I am often asked whether I experience racism in Australia. My answer is: very occasionally and at a low level. Australians become upset when we are called racists in other countries, such as when Robin Williams recently called us “English rednecks” on a US talk show. Our anger is understandable, given most of us experience the diversity, opportunity and tolerance of our society all the time, both at work and socially. We have the highest rate of mixed marriages in the world and among the highest rates of social mobility, as measured by income and education levels. But our diversity is not represented in our broadcast media and storytelling industries, which significantly contribute to our international perception. Stories are at the heart of our personal and collective identities. There are few faces from non-English-speaking backgrounds, nor are there many characters based on an ethnic heritage.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Racism
Posted in Australia, Racism | No Comments »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Aushi Das; 25/3/10
How many times have you heard people say: Australia is not a racist country. Presumably they mean racism is not enshrined in Australian law (as it once was) and that racism is not widely practised. This convenient standard line is frequently used to shut down discussion about race relations in Australia. It’s futile to keep banging on that Australia is not a racist country – not because it is a racist country, but because nobody is arguing that Australia is a racist country. The real, more nuanced, and more mature discussion is about whether there is a significant strain of racial discomfort with “the other” in the Australian national character. Many Australians simply don’t want to even countenance such an idea.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Racism
Posted in Australia, Racism | No Comments »
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Noel Pearson; 20/3/10
Irrational, anti-Aboriginal thinking is the most troubling current in the Australian psyche, from colonisation to the present day. Aborigines are under no obligation to explain why it exists. One school of thought has been that anti-Aboriginal ideology emerged to justify dispossession, and people have made connections with the history of racialist thinking in other countries. But analysis of racism is ultimately futile.Anti-Aboriginal thinking is like anti-Semitism: a complex of irrational ideas that cannot be understood as a reaction informed by personal experience, facts or spurious information that is believed to be true.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Racism
Posted in Australia, Racism | No Comments »
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
20/3/10
Australians must move forward from reconciliation to directly help improve the lives of the nation’s indigenous people, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Mr Rudd says a cultural shift was under way, but there are too many indigenous Australians who don’t get a fair go. Achieving real change will require the effort from the entire community, he says, encouraging everyone to play a role in closing the gap. “We know the apology was not the end of the healing process. It was only the beginning,” he said at the GenerationOne campaign launch in Sydney tonight. “It started the building of momentum in our society – momentum which we must now maintain and even accelerate. “We must build on the growing recognition that indigenous business is everyone’s business.”
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Migrants & Refugees, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism, Refugee & Migrant | No Comments »
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Stuart Rintoul; 18/3/10
More than 20 complaints of racism by Victorian police, including allegations of criminal behaviour, were made to the Office of Police Integrity by lawyers acting for young African Australians between 2006 and 2009. Only one has been investigated by the OPI and several resulted in charges being laid by police against those who made the complaints in what lawyers describe as “cover charges”. No police officers have been sacked for race-related incidents, despite Chief Commissioner Simon Overland admitting he was aware of several “substantiated cases”. Asked yesterday whether police had investigated and found substantiated cases of racist behaviour, Mr Overland, who has been embroiled in race rows, replied: “Yes.” Asked whether these cases were recent, he replied: “Yes.”
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Racism
Posted in Australia, Racism | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Jared Owens; 17/ 3/10
Up to 15 indigenous boarders at Brisbane’s exclusive Clayfield Girls College fought each other in a “riot-like” brawl, forcing a lockdown of sleeping quarters and police to be called. The disturbance on Monday night has further stirred racial tensions between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups of students at the school. The brawl erupted as the school’s boarders sat for dinner, with the two groups hurling abuse at each other including threats to kill and maim.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights | No Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Selma Milovanovc; 22/2/10
Indigenous groups say proposed changes to the native title law are racist and a throwback to the Howard era, and will reduce Aboriginal land rights to little more than a symbol after 10 years of struggle. In submissions to a Senate inquiry into Native Title Amendment Bill 2, the nation’s key indigenous bodies say the bill relies on a view that the constitution allows the making of laws that are detrimental to Aborigines, something a Labor opposition once said was ”morally repugnant, socially divisive and would endanger reconciliation”. The federal government claims the proposed bill will help accelerate construction of urgently needed housing on land subject to native title, overcoming delay and uncertainty stemming from current rules.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Racism | No Comments »
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Chris Sarra; 6/2/10
Australian multiculturalism exists alongside hypocrisy about our diversity. We do not have the luxury of pretending that everything is OK with our society, when a comedy sketch on Australian TV can ignite overseas branding of Australians as racist and when Indian students are being attacked. It gives us cause to ask ourselves honestly what it means to be Australian. The perception that racism is a problem in Australia exists, whether we accept it or not. If the perception matches the reality, then there is a problem we must deal with. If it does not match the reality, then we still have a problem to deal with. The issue needs to be explored in open and honest dialogue. We are a great society, yet we are not a perfect society. If we are honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge we are affected by racism. Let’s not over-read this problem but racism is a cancer with the very real potential to erode the soul of our nation.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism, Refugee & Migrant | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Nick O’Malley; 5/2/10; http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/score-20-in-trad-v-jones-20100204-ngb9.html
Radio 2GB and its star broadcaster, Alan Jones, have been forced to hand over the $10,000 in damages they were ordered to pay the Lebanese Muslim community leader Keysar Trad last year by the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, after failing to have the order stayed while they are appealing against the decision. Just before Christmas the tribunal ordered Jones and the station to pay the damages and to meet Trad to discuss the timing, nature and form of an apology and to review its policies and training procedures, after it upheld a complaint of racial vilification against Jones and 2GB’s owner, Harbour Radio. The complaint related to on-air comments Jones made before the Cronulla riots in 2005. While it failed to have the damages order stayed, the station, which lodged an appeal against the orders last month, was successful in securing a stay on orders related to the apology and the review. Attention is now turning to who will pay the legal costs for the dispute, which threaten to dwarf the damages ordered by the tribunal. It is understood that both parties have lodged written submissions arguing that the other should pay all of the costs, which are estimated to have run to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Trad has previously said the damages money would be donated to a Muslim women’s charity: a respite centre run by the Australian Council for Women’s Affairs.
Tags: Australia, Racism, Religion
Posted in Australia, Human Rights, Racism, Religion | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch; 26/1/10; (3 Items)
Djambawa Marawili says many awards have been passed to him through ancestral beings and his grandfathers. ”I have now passed them on through the tools of my art to the young people I mentor,” he says. But Marawili, one of Australia’s most important indigenous artists, says being awarded a Member of the Order of Australia is important for his Yolngu people of Arnhem Land because it will help bridge the divide between their culture and that of the balanda (white person). Marawili, 56, received the award for service to the arts as a sculptor and painter, to the preservation of indigenous culture, to arts administration and as a mentor of emerging artists. He is worried the stories he tells through his art are fading as Western influences encroach on Yolngu culture. ”That’s why I see it as important for me to mentor the young generation who are living on their ancestral lands, away from the grog, drugs and violence in the bigger communities,” he said. ”It’s important to stand firm in passing on the stories and also to stand up for Yolngu.”
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Australia Day, Racism
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
