Some Perspective
I've been fielding alot of questions from concerned friends lately regarding the race situation in Australia.
So I thought I'd just post this up to say- it's not quite so bad as everyone thinks.
Yes I know about Cronulla and the problems between the Lebanese Australians and white Australians there.
But I also know of complete strangers who went to Nguyen Van Tuong's memorial and cried for him, more specifically, white strangers who had never known him and yet mourned for him.
I've been in Melbourne for close on two years now and I have never really encountered outright racism in any form. I did have some drunken strangers drive past yelling incoherent and possibly racist taunts but I get the feeling they were doing that to everyone on the street and that it wasn't a particularly unusual thing for drunk boys to do.
Generally, the local Australians do tend to keep to themselves and to some extent exclude the international students. But I find that once you take the trouble to chat with them and make some friendly overtures, they're actually pretty friendly and perfectly willing to help you out in class. Trouble is that most international students tend to stick to their own little cliques and avoid the local Australians (including the Australian born Asians) almost completely.
Even among the international students, people stick to the crowd they're most comfortable, which will usually consist of people from the same region/country. It's for that reason that I've never gotten anywhere with the mainland chinese because they stick so tightly to their own and because I really cannot keep up with their fast paced mandarin.
On the whole, Australia is a pretty insular and xenophobic country. But the situation is generally getting better, particularly in the larger cities. This is especially so for the Asians rather than the Lebanese, I suspect, because the Lebanese Muslims have that other religious hurdle to cross.
Or perhaps I just struck it lucky in that maybe Melbourne is just simply a kinder, gentler and more understanding city than Sydney.
Who knows? Or maybe the fates could conspire to prove me wrong and Melbourne could riot next week.
So I thought I'd just post this up to say- it's not quite so bad as everyone thinks.
Yes I know about Cronulla and the problems between the Lebanese Australians and white Australians there.
But I also know of complete strangers who went to Nguyen Van Tuong's memorial and cried for him, more specifically, white strangers who had never known him and yet mourned for him.
I've been in Melbourne for close on two years now and I have never really encountered outright racism in any form. I did have some drunken strangers drive past yelling incoherent and possibly racist taunts but I get the feeling they were doing that to everyone on the street and that it wasn't a particularly unusual thing for drunk boys to do.
Generally, the local Australians do tend to keep to themselves and to some extent exclude the international students. But I find that once you take the trouble to chat with them and make some friendly overtures, they're actually pretty friendly and perfectly willing to help you out in class. Trouble is that most international students tend to stick to their own little cliques and avoid the local Australians (including the Australian born Asians) almost completely.
Even among the international students, people stick to the crowd they're most comfortable, which will usually consist of people from the same region/country. It's for that reason that I've never gotten anywhere with the mainland chinese because they stick so tightly to their own and because I really cannot keep up with their fast paced mandarin.
On the whole, Australia is a pretty insular and xenophobic country. But the situation is generally getting better, particularly in the larger cities. This is especially so for the Asians rather than the Lebanese, I suspect, because the Lebanese Muslims have that other religious hurdle to cross.
Or perhaps I just struck it lucky in that maybe Melbourne is just simply a kinder, gentler and more understanding city than Sydney.
Who knows? Or maybe the fates could conspire to prove me wrong and Melbourne could riot next week.
posted by adinahaes at 4:06 PM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Remember 'G-O-O-K-S'? And besides i've had eggs thrown at me and my friends from fast moving cars. Most Australians seem friendly enough but its really hard to know think of what they feel beneath. Anyway, all it takes are a few black (pardon the traditional-colourist view) sheep to ruin the good name.
It didn't happen in Melbourne
the eggs incident happened just outside city baths. another friend got egged at flinders street
i've had those comments hurled at me and the flatmate from a moving car too. not so nice.
but the aussies we meet at uni are part of academia (read: more educated), so they're the ones lobbying for a mulitcultural society. sadly, i don't think i can say the same for the average guy on the street...
ah well. have a good post-christmas-pre-newyear! hope the flies aren't buzzing!
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