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Old attitudes die hard. Just because Civil Rights laws were passed in the US in the 1960's doesn't mean the population became tolerant overnight. Attitudes get passed down over generations. Both Australia and the US voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2 of only 4 nations to do so, and they fought the document's drafting process all the way, for about a decade and a half. In the 90's, Australia welcomed White South Africans fleeing "regime change" in their country. Why would Afrikaaners find Australia so enticing? (They also flocked to Russia. This tells you something about Russia.) The youngest generations are the hope for the future. In the US, at least, there's more interracial dating, and mingling in the workplace. The tech sector seems to be leading the way, hiring all talented persons they can find without regard to race. We can only hope the trend continues.
For the same reason they found the UK, Canada and New Zealand enticing, they are all wealthy majority English speaking commonwealth countries looking for well educated talented workers.
Why don't you go over to the UK thread and tell them how racist they are? It has a much bigger white South African population than Australia does.
The 4 nations to reject the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples were Australia, USA, Canada and New Zealand, and while the UK signed up, it came out and said the declaration would have no legal standing in the UK, do you see a pattern?
Last edited by danielsa1775; 07-11-2012 at 10:20 PM..
Old attitudes die hard. Just because Civil Rights laws were passed in the US in the 1960's doesn't mean the population became tolerant overnight. Attitudes get passed down over generations. Both Australia and the US voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2 of only 4 nations to do so, and they fought the document's drafting process all the way, for about a decade and a half. In the 90's, Australia welcomed White South Africans fleeing "regime change" in their country. Why would Afrikaaners find Australia so enticing? (They also flocked to Russia. This tells you something about Russia.) The youngest generations are the hope for the future. In the US, at least, there's more interracial dating, and mingling in the workplace. The tech sector seems to be leading the way, hiring all talented persons they can find without regard to race. We can only hope the trend continues.
hmm I think you're looking too much to the media. Reality is, Australia is quite diverse.
Sure there are some who pine for a white-australia, their attitude is actually the minority.
Why would Afrikaaners find Australia enticing? Maybe the Commonwealth has something to do with it. And thats judgemental of white south africans that they're all racists.
We also accept Sudanese, Lebanese, Afghans, Chinese...etc etc.... are we still racist?
Then you could argue that those same nations should have never colonized other parts of the world, or sent immigrants to other nations.
You can't use that argument for Australia and NZ since their indigenous populations haven't moved to the UK in any great numbers and they didn't have slaves that adopted the English language and culture, who then decide to move to the UK.
Colonising Australia and NZ hasn't caused any of the demographic changes to the UK or Europe.
The US accepts all kinds of immigrants, too. That doesn't mean Americans aren't racist.
I think that's the point everyone is trying to make to you, Australia is no more racist than any other immigrant taking nation on earth, despite our media's best efforts to portray us as such.
You can't use that argument for Australia and NZ since their indigenous populations haven't moved to the UK in any great numbers and they didn't have slaves that adopted the English language and culture, who then decide to move to the UK.
Colonising Australia and NZ hasn't caused any of the demographic changes to the UK or Europe.
She was referring to "Western nations" letting immigrants in. What I was referring to was the British going to Australia and New Zealand almost wiping out the indigenous populations, then instituting a "White Australia" policy. Basically what I call a take over. You don't go to another place, take it away from the native population, then declare a policy where only people of your race can come it. Then again, I've looked over the posts and it is clear that the person I was last responding to wants an Australia where only Whites are allowed. I take it personal because I am Black, and I have also read that it extended to the point where an African-American scholar was denied entry into Australia, even if it was only for a short while.
Colonizing Australia and NZ didn't cause demographic changes to the UK or Europe. It caused demographic changes to Australia and NZ.
I tend to look at myself in this perspective. I might be an American citizen, who happens to be Black. However, I also view myself as a Christian, and as a world citizen. I feel that I can go to places all over the world, and I won't cause crime. Australia and NZ included. If I go to any nation, I'm not going to make it a habit of living off of the government. I know what I'm capable of as a human being.
I took a trip recently to Sydney and Melbourne with a few of my employees who are not caucasian.
At night walking they did receive a couple of verbal racist insults. One of them was called Leb for some reason, yet he is from India.
However, during the day people were very personable with them and often engaging them in business discussions rather than myself.
I ask them about their experience and they seem to relate the racism in the US as more undisclosed and more sinister in nature. Overall, the positive influences during the day outweighed the racist jeers they received at night.
I think that interesting in the US that type of conduct would be simply not tolerated in most locations.
I was wondering if any of you have thoughts on this difference between these 2 countries.
Did you even do an advance search first? There are several threads on racism in Australia. I don't understand why yanks think Aussies are more racist. Yes there were negative policies in the past. But this is 2012. Walk around the CBD of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, etc. and diversity abounds and you won't see white people surrounding them calling them lebos, ch**nks, (insert racial epithath).
I lived in Oz for years and I am a visible minority.. and I did not experience one negative incident. Not in country South Australia, Melbourne, Alice, Darwin, Sydney, etc. etc. I acknowledge someone else might have a different experience, but this is mine. No problems. Zippo. And I've been all over central/eastern Oz. I once had someone roll the window down of their car, who yelled "*****" at me and threw a beer bottle at me.. in California. Do you see me starting threads on racism in California? One idiot does not represent an entire population.
There isn't more of it or less of racism in Oz than in the US.
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