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Wednesday May 23, 2012

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Wake up Australia! We are racist

Posted by: By Peter Maher | 4 January, 2010 - 4:11 PM
The death of Nitin Garg - what does it say about Australia?

Another young Indian man Nitin Garg lost his life on the weekend as he made his way to work at Hungry Jack's in West Footscray.

Police, along with Acting Premier Rob Hulls, have been telling us that this latest murder is not race related.

How the Police and the Acting Premier can come to this conclusion is beyond comprehension really.

No-one has been arrested for the murder and the reasoning behind this senseless waste of a life rests with the murderer who at this stage is unknown.

How anyone can say it is not race related when they do not know the circumstances of the murder as I said earlier is difficult to comprehend.

What I do know though is that this abusive, violent, murderous behaviour towards Indians in this country is far too prevalent to suggest that we do not have a problem with racism in this country.

Has everyone forgotten what happened in Cronulla in December, 2005?

Around 5,000 young white Australians gathered at Cronulla Beach to protest against a series of assaults on volunteer lifesavers that had occurred the week previous.

The mob - fuelled by alcohol - turned violent when they spotted a young man of Middle Eastern appearance who was immediately surrounded and attacked. Over the next two nights racial hatred violence reigned supreme in Cronulla and surrounding suburbs.

This is not the first time we have treated visitors to our country and new Australians in this manner. Cast your mind back to the post-war immigration and we had our new immigrants labelled wogs and the obligatory “get back to where you belong” jibe was forever present.

Then after Vietnam we had the boat people and they were going to eat all our dogs. Next, came those from the Middle East who were going to blow us all up and now we have the poor Indians whose only complaints it seems from our racist brothers is the colour of their skin.

We are so quick to brush these racist tendencies under the carpet and provide the world with this image of us as being non-discriminatory and all-inviting.

I think it is time we took a real good look at ourselves and do something about the racism that exists in this country.

It was always believed that the racists in this country were the older Australians due to the experiences of the last two world wars. Have a look at those involved in Cronulla five years ago and those who have been found guilty of racist attacks in Victoria.

They are not our older Australians they are the fathers of our new Australia.

Death sparks fear and fury

21-year-old Nitin Garg's stabbing death sparks fury Melbourne's Indian community has been gripped by fear and grief after a man was fatally stabbed on his way to work at a fast-food outlet. Victoria Police tell 3AW how they will repond to the latest spate of Melbourne violence. Read more.

Blog comments Your Say

  • Get the Violins out for christ sake what a pack of bloody whinging moaning morons on this blog.The one good thing about Australia is its a free country that means you bloody racist ranting idiots are free to
    LEAVE !!!And dont come back

    Darrell Wednesday 9 May, 2012 - 9:35 AM

  • Setting aside an inevitable minority of unpleasant racist yahoos (2 of my Australian-born family members have been told to "go back to where you come from"), most Australians would genuinely and vehemently deny that they are racist while voting for neocon Liberals or neocon Laborals (the Libs or Labs) committed to invading , devastating and mass murdering in distant Asian countries. This is correctly termed politically correct racism (PC racism) and clearly applies to all Australians except those voting for the anti-racism , anti-war, pro-Planet and pro-Humanity Greens.

    Dr Gideon Polya Wednesday 9 May, 2012 - 8:03 AM

  • I am shocked by what I have been reading, I believe Australia as a country is not racist but its people is a whole different story, this goes for both sides, I was planning to move for work, after the research Ive been doing, last thing I would consider, I prefer to stay happy in Canada. I always imagined Australia as a neutral developed country with good weather, nice people..., this was eye opening, i mean racism exist in every country and every corner of the world, but I never expected in this magnitude

    CanadaMan Wednesday 2 May, 2012 - 11:17 AM

  • "Australia is the most racist country in the world. Period."

    Really, what a load of ill informed claptrap!

    I have lived in this country for the last 15 years and I have always been struck by the open minded and compassionate attitude of mainstream Australia. Where else in the world would a gay parade be televised?! How many Asian countries have state-funded open faith schools? Name a Muslim country with a lesbian, parliamentary Minister? It's minorities carrying cultural baggage who are guilty of perpetuating old-world, tribal attitudes.

    I was brought up against a backdrop of sectrarian and racial violence in the UK and believe me, Australia is mild in comparison. What I have found are robust personal critiques that warrant similar responses - that's not racism or homophobia or religious vilification, purely a throwback to a tough pioneering past which is endemic to Australian modern culture.

    If you live here, you need to recognise and embrace that. Period.

    Ken G Tuesday 1 May, 2012 - 12:15 PM

  • Hi Folks, I am British Asian of Pakistani descend. I am due in Oz in Jue to work for six months. I am most concerned about the level racist stories here my question is are you really that racist? or is the media giving a false impression.

    British Pakistani Sunday 29 April, 2012 - 3:44 AM

  • Australia is full of racism. I've been living here for 4 months and daily either see racism or experience it myself. everyone who looks different to the usual white, tall aussie male is a target for bullying or harassment verbally or physically. I cant believe that the rest of the world thinks that Australia is liberal and open-minded. i suggest that these people come here to Aussie and see for themselves! Australia is full of racists! and this is not somewhere in the outback but in major cities like Sydney! Melbourne! Brisbane!

    Jason Thursday 26 April, 2012 - 6:30 PM

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