It's been just over half a year, and the first (well, that I've seen) academic journal paper on the Cronulla riots has been published in British journal Race & Class a few days ago
( Read more... )
there is a need for detailed, objective, straighforward analysis of the background to the incident, the demographic nature of Southern and South West Sydney, and constructive comparisons/contrasts to previous events both in Sydney and worldwide (and, of course, the role of the state/politics).
no! it's embarassing to admit, but i haven't been to Cronulla. Well, I don't think I have, at least since I was really little. And pffft as if I'd get round to it anyway. Still have Oxford St / Brigadoon to do first ergh. (you can do brigadoon :P)
Poynting did a great essay called "Bin Laden in the Suburbs" I believe. A great media analysis. He's forte is very much the racial aspect of any story, so don't think that necessarily should perturb you from looking at other explanations also, without acknowledging that race was an important factor.
I haven't the read the article so can't comment. Although generally about Cronulla, I feel that we're looking so much to other explanations too that sometimes we want to understate the race aspect. Those kids weren't holding "We Grew Here, You Flew Here" signs for nothing!
Oh, definately. Sorry, I didn't wish to deny that -- of course it's the main element (I meant the above in the context of how racism is formed/fanned/etc). The problem I had with his article (it's only 8 pages, very short) was that it was an analysis of what happened and the immediate media response -- not even anything on how the Daily Murdoch has been biased against immigrants in the past.
It also was quite, well, leftie. As in, unmistakably Marxist. He uses so many innuendos and a lot of them don't seem balanced. Even when he makes a good point, I had the feeling "well that's valid, but why did you need to say 'Howard slogan' and 'complicit reticence of Kim Beazley' and 'cynical, clever populism' (itself a cynicism)?"
Or maybe that's just be reading too far into it and/or not liking his style of writing. But I had a strong sense of disappointment -- so many aspects he could have covered, yet chose to (implicitly) judge current governments. Too political. Even the 'race' aspect wasn't really address properly -- all effect and not
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Sweetie Beazley was reticent. I mean, if your wife's surname was Annus, wouldn't you be?
The article wasn't balanced (I'm not saying I don't in part agree), and the title is somewhat misleading. I don't think you can deny his investigation into contemporary practices and governments, however he does fail to acknowledge the histories that exist apropos racial problems in Sydney, and Australia more generally.
Essentially, we need to make the entire Sutherland shire into either a big huge airport with lots and lots of duty free, or extend Royal National Park. At least with the latter the denizens could continue to behave like animals.
Yes, exactly. You know, I can never work out why Hillsong is out this way when Sutherland would have been much closer to the target market.
He did have some good points, but I got the feeling he was trying to be lefty/Marxist/whatever (which is fair enough), but couldn't see why he needed to to get his points across.
he's to racially constrained and doesn't actually go into the history of the kinds of thoughts and ways of discrimination that existed in australia to that point. i think its a good article, i saw those riots and it was quite different to the way that the media portrayed it. there were a lot of smart people at those riots not involved in the violence that are sick and tired of ethnic infringement on the way of life that many people over the age of fifty were used to. that disgruntlement was passed on to the younger generations. thats not to say that anything that happened there was right. but democracy dictates popular sentiment and i think that was a perfect example of democracy in action
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ah, yes, i agree completely! there should have been more background, and as you say, it seemed totally out of the blue at the time with hundreds of otherwise 'ordinary' people taking such blatant/dramatic action (or so I've heard, i didn't actually see it myself).
although I suppose it's good that people are starting to think more deeply about it... it is something that needs to be analysed.. well, addressed (and especially if Peter Debnam ever becomes Premier).
and quite true what you said about the media -- perhaps one of the problems with our current media ownership laws. Alan Jones and the Terrorgraph aren't the best of combinations when it comes to these kind of issues.
i think it goes right to the point that the most powerful groups in this country are the media. they get pretty much whatever they want. its the media who garners popular support. not the governments.
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are you offering to provide such an analysis? :)
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I haven't the read the article so can't comment. Although generally about Cronulla, I feel that we're looking so much to other explanations too that sometimes we want to understate the race aspect. Those kids weren't holding "We Grew Here, You Flew Here" signs for nothing!
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It also was quite, well, leftie. As in, unmistakably Marxist. He uses so many innuendos and a lot of them don't seem balanced. Even when he makes a good point, I had the feeling "well that's valid, but why did you need to say 'Howard slogan' and 'complicit reticence of Kim Beazley' and 'cynical, clever populism' (itself a cynicism)?"
Or maybe that's just be reading too far into it and/or not liking his style of writing. But I had a strong sense of disappointment -- so many aspects he could have covered, yet chose to (implicitly) judge current governments. Too political. Even the 'race' aspect wasn't really address properly -- all effect and not ( ... )
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The article wasn't balanced (I'm not saying I don't in part agree), and the title is somewhat misleading. I don't think you can deny his investigation into contemporary practices and governments, however he does fail to acknowledge the histories that exist apropos racial problems in Sydney, and Australia more generally.
Essentially, we need to make the entire Sutherland shire into either a big huge airport with lots and lots of duty free, or extend Royal National Park. At least with the latter the denizens could continue to behave like animals.
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He did have some good points, but I got the feeling he was trying to be lefty/Marxist/whatever (which is fair enough), but couldn't see why he needed to to get his points across.
Ah well. They need an airport out this way.
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although I suppose it's good that people are starting to think more deeply about it... it is something that needs to be analysed.. well, addressed (and especially if Peter Debnam ever becomes Premier).
and quite true what you said about the media -- perhaps one of the problems with our current media ownership laws. Alan Jones and the Terrorgraph aren't the best of combinations when it comes to these kind of issues.
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