Society & Culture Casual Racial Profiling

[kickazz]

anyone here the comments by Jim Maxwell

some how justified his position on 20/20 by talking to a "Indian taxi driver. with a turban".

not sure what an Indian taxi driver has to do with Cricket or 20/30 in Australia - but clearly Jim needs to brush up on a few things.

Yeah for all his experience Jim does come across as being somewhat sheltered.

 

[Goat 53]

I'd be worried to let my girlfriend take a taxi home if she's been out drinking with her mates because I start to worry that all Indians are ready to rape drunk girls. Would rather get out of bed and drive in to get her myself.

 

[kickazz]

Interesting read, I could literally talk for hours about this topic.

On pre-judgement: Yes, it is necessary to sometimes make decisions or conclusions based on limited information. In such instances we need to generalise. I think this is fine enough, it's the effort you go to to find out more about the individual is what matters more.

Is Australia racist? Well, it all depends on the definition of the word. The answer is yes, in it's own way. Here I think it's born more out of ignorance than anything. In other parts of the world (I'll use southern asia and eastern europe as examples because I probably know them best) it comes about due to centuries of hatred/bitterness caused by war, and the closer geographic proximity. Thing is, all countries are racist in their own way to some degree. Turning it into some sort of finger-pointing quest for the moral high ground is what I dislike - we are better served to acknowledge it where it occurs and do what we can to improve that get defensive / aggressive about it.

Whilst some 'nationalistic bogans' may have sullied the image of the flag, etc - Australian flag = racism is a pretty shallow association to make if may say so. I'm proud of this country. Not out of any sort of over zealous nationalism or anything, but I do believe most of our core values (democracy, free speech, the 'fair-go', relatively low tolerance for corruption, etc) are indeed something to be proud of.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Funny I've come across this. Back in high school, everyone would casually call me a Wog due to my surname (which is my username). My grandad was born in Italy and moved to Australia. That's about as Italian as I get. I can barely speak Italian, my skin is quite white (though I tan quite well in Summer), at family gatherings there is never 200+ people and there's is usually just enough food for everyone (not enough to feed an African country as most Wog gatherings are pictured).

Is this your house?

 

[ioppolo]

Is this your house?

Nah my house doesn't look anything like that.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Nah my house doesn't look anything like that.

But surely you at least live in Stirling or Balcatta? Otherwise you're clearly a fake.

 

[Scotland]

Not nearly enough concrete pillars and lions.

 

[ioppolo]

But surely you at least live in Stirling or Balcatta? Otherwise you're clearly a fake.

Nope, I'm south of the river. Funnily enough 90% of my relatives live in those general areas though.

The point I was getting at in my original post is that I don't really consider myself a Wog, just other people do.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Nope, I'm south of the river. Funnily enough 90% of my relatives live in those general areas though.

The point I was getting at in my original post is that I don't really consider myself a Wog, just other people do.

I know mate, was just poking at the Perth wog stereotypes. I'm pretty much out of material now though, so I'll leave it at that.