Faith and secularism

[bipedalhumanoid]

I'm often accused of being racist by Irish people purely for being Australian. It's quite ironic to be honest.

[micfur]

I'm often accused of being racist by Irish people purely for being Australian. It's quite ironic to be honest.

A good example. Just like rural (red state) Americans, one frequently hears how racist Australians are. Not some mind you, but all. An accusation that normally comes from people who are tripping over themselves to be more sanctimonious than the next person. Indeed, it is ironic.

[FXR]

I'm often accused of being racist by Irish people purely for being Australian. It's quite ironic to be honest.

I can assure you from experience that Irish people can be as racist as anybody else. I can't count how many times a week I hear "them bleedin' foreigners" blamed for everything from the housing crash to how bad the taxi business is now.

If you are not from the Island you are seen as foreign.......which is why if we make people concious of the fact that the Vatican is a foreign state and Catholicism is not a native religion then a disadvantge in one way will become an advantage in another.

[lostexpectation]

I'm often accused of being racist by Irish people purely for being Australian. It's quite ironic to be honest.

well australian society is racist so can you avoid it?

i think we're all a little bit racist, were just brought up that way.

[Alexis]

i think we're all a little bit racist, were just brought up that way.

I'm white and Irish and I don't particularly like most Irish people, who happen to be white.

Am I racist

[robdonn]

A comedian once said (can't remember who it was) that Irish people don't really know if we're racist or we're just taking the piss.

[bipedalhumanoid]

I'm often accused of being racist by Irish people purely for being Australian. It's quite ironic to be honest.

well australian society is racist so can you avoid it?

i think we're all a little bit racist, were just brought up that way.

I don't believe Australian society is any more racist than any other society I have ever experienced for long enough to be able to make even an anecdotal judgment.

When I say I have been accused of racism in Ireland, I mean without having to actually say or do anything. I didn't make any kind of comment that someone interpreted as racist. I also don't mean people flatly accuse me of being racist, just that it is implied.

For instance, it's a common thing for an Irish person who has spent some time in Australia to ask me what I think of the Aboriginal people and follow that up by pointing out that when they were in Australia they spoke to Aboriginal people... as if I never have.

The same people will then usually ask me to justify the stolen generation as if I were either personally responsible for it or supported it.

I don't know anyone in Australia today who isn't appalled by the white Australia policy that lead to the Stolen Generation. I think it was appalling and I was taught in school that it was appalling. Mostly I have a hard time with this line of questioning for two reasons. 1) because I don't think it's fair to ask a person to justify something that he had nothing to do with, doesn't agree with and occured before he was even born and 2) the problems experienced in Australia today, with regards to the relationship between general society and the ethnically native Australians, are so very similar to the same issues we often hear about here in Ireland between general society and the Travelling community. Ireland sits in no ivory tower when it comes to these issues.

The issue of Australian indigenous relations is presented by the Irish media in a very one dimensional, over simplistic manner. What you never hear about is just how far the Australian government go in attempt to resolve the problem (by problem I mean the fact that statiscially Aboriginal Australians are less likely to be educated, more likely to end up in the prison system and more likely to live in poverty than members of the general population).

For instance, Aboriginal children are entitled to one on one after school tuition. They are entitled to 'ab-study' which is money paid to either the parents or the student for studying at secondary or tertiary level. The rest of us are entitled to something similar to ab-study but for us it is means tested. If you go to the local job centre you will find certain jobs marked for Aboriginal people only. Some Aboriginal people are also entitled to free housing but I don't believe that is the case across the board.

Those are some examples of initiatives that have been in operation for many years. There are others but to date they haven't yeilded great results. Where the ignorant amoung us might get their backs up, they will often site inequality due to the initiatives listed above. That of course is a very small minded view of the situation as nobody could honestly suggest that being born as an ethnically native Australian is a ticket to an easier life.

Yes racism exists in Australia, just like it exists pretty much everywhere, and it is not acceptible. But that doesn't make it a fair assumption to presume that a person has racist views just because that person is Australian.

[Scorpio]

Too right!

But did he acutually write that?

[ThinkForYourself]

A comedian once said (can't remember who it was) that Irish people don't really know if we're racist or we're just taking the piss.

haha! i think it's a little of both!!

[lostexpectation]

i think irish and australian a societies are racist, being brought up in either you can't but have racist views on things, i think the impression I got in school was that colonialism was a unfortunate mistake of the past...which it wasn't and isn't.