The Race Debate
This morning I read an article in ‘The weekly Review’ a magazine which is distributed to Banyule residents within Victoria: it was called ‘No place for racism’, it talks about small pockets of westerners ‘being unaccustomed to different cultural expression, having taken advantage of our liberties and using them to belittle and stigmatise other cultures and traditions, as in the recent burqa debate’. And it is these groups that put a bad name to Australian ‘multiculturalism’. The author talks about Australian citizens, and that no matter their background or religion, having the right to dress, practice their faith and behave as they please, free from religious persecution.
‘During the Cronulla riots of 2005, a drunken group of ‘hooligans’ claimed they were “saving” a 14-year old girl by tearing off her hijab’ – did it not occur to these men or others like them, that forcibly removing this young girls hijab is the equivalent of forcibly lifting up and/or removing a ‘white’ girls dress and therefore assault. Did they not consider the implications of that girl’s punishment for removing her hijab involuntary/voluntary in direct conflict to her faith? And that this new ‘law’ of preventing these women of wearing their hijabs or burqas is the equivalent of saying the new-age religion cannot wear crystals and hippie cloths, and Christians cannot wear their ‘cross’ as a tattoo or jewellery.
It’s common stereotype that westerners think that these cultural women are ‘forced’ to wear a hijab and they have an intense desire to “save” these women. However, some westerner, myself in particular think that some ‘burqa/hijabs’ are really pretty. We only object to the extreme religious faiths where the women dress in black from head to toe from the age of 12, sometimes younger and lack proper education, voice and are ‘house slaves’. But these actions and faith is all that these women know and that their style of dress and religion is designed to keep their ‘sinning’ non-existent, according to Christian faith. The non-revealing clothing compared to western women reduces the statistic of one in three Australian women having experienced physical and/or sexual assault.
My mum recently talked to a cab driver about westerners thinking that other races/cultures are coming to Australia and taking ‘white’ employment opportunities. However; she said that this wasn’t true, that westerners think that they are ‘above’ and are too ‘stuck up’ in their ways to consider driving a cab either as a job or for extra cash, that it was “beneath them”, and yet it’s westerners who prostitute themselves and seek money from ‘drug-lords’, let me ask you a question: For extra cash, would you rather drive a cab, become a prostitute or gamble with your life to seek cash from the ‘mafia’?
On the chance of sounding like an non-multiculturalist person if the Chinese are allowed ‘china towns’ at the centre of ‘white’ communities and middle-eastern are allowed middle eastern clustered suburbs like northland and Preston where these places scam, take advantage of and treat westerners as the minority through showing preference to their own ‘race’; then why is it considered unethical/moral for westerners to have ‘white’ only communities, housing and community sites just like they do? And, when we go to their countries and are expected to follow their ‘rules’ and dress codes’ (women having to ‘cover-up’ and be escorted by a male’) do they then come to Australia and not follow our customs? But then Australia doesn’t have dress customs…
Australia is not a racist county because that implies that a culture and/or race has permanently lived and originated from this continent. The westerners migrated from Europe as convicts or free citizens, just as other cultures migrated to Australia, the only difference being the time at which they migrated. It’s considered that the ‘Aboriginals’ would be the Australian permanent race; however they migrated from Papua New Guinea. Australian culture is multiculturalism. Have a look at this link (https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/why-both-sides-are-wrong-in-the-race-debate/) about ‘Why both sides are wrong in the race debate’ – on whether race has no biological validity and that human races are in-fact sociocultural constructs.
Sources:
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/has-django-unchained-sparked-any-racial-debates-for-you-guys.452812082/
http://italianoht.global2.vic.edu.au/celebrating-harmony-day-and-multiculturalism-at-holy-trinity/
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/our-values-or-go-home-costello/2006/02/23/1140670207642.html
http://monash.edu/news/show/australias-multicultural-success
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/1143769/poster-multiculturalism-our-nation-was-built-on-it-circa-1987-1995













