Almost one week to go! Thank you to the amazing network of people who have helped out with getting my material into all the letterboxes. Major thanks to "Superman". You know who you are!
Generally all has been good so far, except for two things that happened this week. ( But not all bad, because we found the funny side of it.)
1. This week one of my corflutes was removed from Springvale Station. Having put these together myself I was kinda disappointed, but also found it funny that someone would actually want a picture of me. :P
2. Letterboxing in Springvale South. My sister and cousin were helping me out with an area and young man of Asian background driving past stuck his head out the window and yelled at them "Go back to Africa."
Now as my family are not of an African background at all, they did find it funny.
But racism is not funny. Living in a multicultural Melbourne we should accepting of everyone.
What is your response to racism?
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2 comments:
My response to racism:
politically, it's incorrect. comically, it's needed to create careers.
personally, while I attempt to not be racist I find that it is unavoidable, especially when you have friends who constantly make jokes of a racist manner which are absolutely horrible (that isn't to say I make jokes which are similar, but they can affect your views on others).
I feel that racism to a point should be accepted, unless there is a complaint from that community (in the comedic sense).
However, in the way that racism can be thrown around as a derogative term which is highly insulting, and intended to insult, then that is often due to a lack of education from the insulter's side of life. It's not fair, it's not called for, and it's not just, whatsoever.
I think it all depends on the nature of what is being said and done however. Have a look at some of the old videos from Fast Forward, and you'll see that people who've made their careers in Australian history have done so from displaying what would now be called politically incorrect racism, compared to back then, when it was called classic gold comedy.
Hi Kris,
Thanks for your comment.
I think it's up to the individual to call it when it is. The tone and body language both contribute.
From that we can tell if it is intended to be a joke or whether it was a serious comment.
Fortunately as the person targeted two young people who were actually Australian born and of mixed heritage, (which didn't include Africa), they were able to laugh it off.
But the person could have gotten out of their car and started something if they really wanted to make a point.
The unfortunate part in all of this is that some established migrant groups seem to forget how hard it was for them to settle in a new country and tend to pick on recent arrivals as if they have suddenly got it "easier than they did."
This is where the racism comes in.
Community education programs need to be two fold, to help out the new arrivals and to educate the rest of the community about them.
Understanding and acceptance is what needs to happen. It takes time though.
I hope that is a one off and that the person checks his attitude the next time he sees a person of a different race.
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