Anger, Insult and Cognitive Failure

[erudito]

Let us suppose you are a newcomer group a minority of whose members are associated with spectacularly hostile actions, both locally (rapes, thefts and bashings) and overseas (Bali, 9/11, London, Madrid …). What is the thing you could do to most piss off ocker sentiment? The biggest iconic insult you could manage?
Hmmm, let me think.
I know,

Comments

[tcpip]

When Lebo's bash Skip surf-life savers, that is racism.

When Skips pelt women with beer bottles because the "look mid-eastern", that is racism.

And I don't give a damn whether that supposedly makes me PC virtuous or not.

What Middle Australia is All About
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/what-middle-australia-is-all-about/2005/12/12/1134236003144.html
Sutherland Shire has an unusually homogenous cultural mix. With its 215,000 people - the second-biggest local council in NSW and the fourth-biggest in Australia - it has one of the lowest proportions of residents with a non-English-speaking background in the country: 9 per cent. White faces dominate, as do conservative values. Prime Minister John Howard has called it "a part of Sydney which has always represented to me what middle Australia is all about".

A First Hand Account
http://www.livejournal.com/community/sydneysiders/477305.html?#cutid1

"Ethnic" Rapes
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/08/1078594295482.html

Sydney

[erudito]

If we can generalise from one Shire to all of Sydney then all of Australia, then why doesn't this happen all over Australia?

I make a prediction -- nothing like this is likely to happen in Melbourne. Why not? Because, unlike the Carr-Iemma government, the Bracks government has not screwed up policing.

Sutherland Shire may indeed have a particular problem of intolerance. Local areas can develop nasty dynamics. (Gippsland has some "interesting" issues, for example.) But lots of factors are feeding into this, not merely white racism (which does, of course, exist).

And talking as if the problem is only, or even predominantly, white racism is to miss the actual dynamics and therefore fail to deal effectively with them.

Re: Sydney

[tcpip]

The point being is that you can't generalise from the Shire to all of Australia - the Shire is the most monocultural locality in the country.

Nothing like this will happen in Melbourne not because our police are particularly more effective (hello, gangland warfare?) than Sydney's but because we've dealt with multicultural issues much, much better.

http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2005/12/13/1134236064283.html

Re: Sydney

[erudito]

Criminal gangs in Melbourne are simply not the same level of crime problem that exists in Sydney.

And these things are interactive. The pressure level in Sydney is higher because there is a worse crime problem. It is easier to get multicultural integration "right" in Melbourne than in Sydney because the general social stress levels are lower.

Re: Sydney

[erudito]

In Melbourne the criminals shoot each other: which is much more socially helpful of them.

Re: Sydney

[tcpip]

Well we both know that Melbourne is better than Sydney ;-)

Re: Sydney

[erudito]

Speaking as a refugee from Sydney and Canberra, I, of course, agree :)

But who wouldn't?

Re: Sutherland

[erudito]

is the most monocultural locality in the country.
More so than localities in Tasmania?

Re: Sutherland

[tcpip]

My bad. One of the lowest, not the lowest.

However you illustrate in an interesting point; where there is an isolated monoculture there is no cultural friction (well, for obvious reasons), likewise when there is a intermingled multicultural region.

Where there are however neighbouring monocultures there are problems.

Re: Sutherland

[erudito]

Quite. Which is why the size and structure of migrant "lumps" is a genuine issue. Living in the Footscray region, which I enjoy, the sheer ethnic diversity of the area is both an attraction and a reason for its peacable success.