ogQ!(U~$(KGrHgoOKjYEjlLmS1ctBJ1K-4Uyh!~~_7.JPG?set_id=81 "i-need-a-martini"){kind=avatar}
qYv,BNe0NK(+Vg~~_7.JPG "soul_art"){kind=avatar}
Its actually kind of insulting when people say Australia has no culture and even those of us that go back up to 7 generations here, for some reason, need to look back to the distant past to find another race/nationality that we should identify with.
A few generations back, most people wouldnt have even known where anyone other than living relatives came from. In many cases, the first generations of Australian born English/Irish/Scottish didnt even know their grandparents names let alone where they were born or what their "culture" was.
We DO expect people to change and we simply tolerate their cultural differences - dress, speaking in another language in public, etc.
Clearly some people have an issue with the Burka (sp?) but you dont often hear people complaining about sari's or other forms of traditional dress, it really just the facial covering that creates a distrust issue for some people.
I also dont agree that Australians expect everyone to speak English "in public" but its pretty bad manners to speak another language in a small group where some dont understand. Same goes for English people in other countries. I think if you want to live in Australia you should have a reasonable enough grasp of English to carry on a conversation and do your shopping, banking etc.
We have some Italians where I live (lots of them actually) and some of the older women never really learnt English and I think its a shame. Most of the younger generations dont speak Italian now, and if the older women lose their husbands, it makes things hard for them. Having a good grasp of the main language can only benefit people.
Actually, speaking of my local Italians, there are some my kids ages that would only be about 1/4 Italian that still consider themselves "wogs" (their words) I think perhaps their kids may think differently, when there are no family members left that were born in Italy, it will probably make it harder to hang onto the culture.
Stereotypes about Aboriginal Australians
Research has found “entrenched negative stereotypes” of Aboriginal people in Australia [19].
Stereotypes can take many forms and shapes. Some of the more common ones say that Aboriginal people… [4,6]
Stereotypical description of Aboriginal activities.This extract from a discussion of the Wild Rivers legislation [21] assumes Aboriginal people do not engage in activities such as economic development in the areas discussed.
- are primitive and nomadic,
- lack complex laws and social organisation,
- are drunks,
- are violent,
- live in the outback,
- are un-educated no hopers,
- are involved in too much crime,
- receive too much from welfare,
- get more than the whites,
- eat the wrong foods (white sugar, flour, McDonalds, etc.),
- don’t have a religion, have sinned and need to pray for forgiveness,
- don’t use the land they get for free,
- get treated too leniently by police and courts,
- do not want to work and are lazy,
- must fit the image of a dark-skinned, wide-nosed person (i.e. a ‘full-blood’),
- live a traditional tribal/ancient lifestyle,
- are not really attached to their land because they live on the fringe of towns and cities,
- are like leeches and drain away each others’ resources,
- are problems (‘the Aboriginal problem’) and Aboriginal people have problems.
Further, many Australians believe that ‘we are not responsible for the past’ and don’t owe Aboriginal people anything, a view advocated for many years by former Prime Minister John Howard.
The racist stereotyping is alive and well in Australian culture. Never mind that these stereotypes can be shown for the lies that they are, racists never let truth or facts hold them back. I'm Aboriginal and I am aware of the **bleep** every freakin' day!
