Quote:
Originally Posted by FireGilbert
Racist signs ranting against Asians were discovered in Sydney the other day:
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/rea...6e3008a72b5eb1
Tips for racists: If you are making a sign with the big bold letters "We Speak English" maybe spend a few minutes checking your spelling. |
This has gotten lost in the 'blackface' discussion but I think it's worth addressing.
I was on a 457 Visa in Australia from 2011-2014. My first week there I went to a flea market and found a little trinket to send home. I started chatting with the vendor and he asked me where I was from, why I was in Australia, etc. Despite me being a customer he quickly pivoted to accusing me of taking away a job from an Australian. I am an English speaking Caucasian.
This "We Speak English" I think has more to do with Xenophobia than racism, although obviously they are closely intertwined. Australia has a long history of populist Xenophobia, particularly against Asians, going back to the 70's. They also have an even longer history of racism against Aboriginals.
I think a lot of what we refer to as racism is actually more xenophobia. In my experience, most people that talk negatively about race in Canada (with the obvious exception of Canadian Aboriginals) talk about it in terms of xenophobia rather than racism. I think the "lady" in Lethbridge falls in this category. I suspect she doesn't believe that white people are naturally superior to Arabs but rather that Canadian culture is superior to Arab culture. I could be wrong of course, but her drunken rant wasn't racist in nature but it was xenophobic. Racism and xenophobia usually have different underlying motivators. The ways of dealing with them are also different. I don't know the statistics for sure but I would bet that about 100% of racists are also xenophobes, while the number of xenophobes that are racists is much less. This makes it difficult to address xenophobia on it's own merits when it's often so closely tied to racism.
Maybe just something to keep in mind when throwing around the term 'racism'.