I've been subjected to racist abuse

OK, let me set the scene and admit I did set myself up for a bit of a row.

Each Saturday during the netball season the road I live on has a one way restriction. There is often a lot of traffic going to and from the netball courts at the bottom of the road. The local council are attempting to reduce the traffic chaos by making my road and a parallel street one way. There are no entry signs at the no entry ends of each road. They are clearly visible with the times at which you cannot enter displayed. Today there was no netball. However, today was (in fact still is) Saturday, it is the netball season and therefore the street is one way between 07:30 and 17:00. So at a little after 11:00 I headed the correct way up the street. At the top I met, head on, a car turning into the no entry end. Yes, I could have let it go, but it was one of those four wheel drive Porsches that scream wanker (there you go, I've introduced my own prejudice) and I couldn't resist mentioning the sign...

I stuck to the middle of the one way street I was exiting. Not strictly on purpose, but more because of a traffic calming restriction that is at the top of the street. The Porsche had to swing wide, which it did with a bit more speed than is necessary in a residential area. I pointed at the 'No Entry' sign. Down came my window, down came hers. I cannot remember the exact words, but the driver asked me - no, told me - in somewhat blunt terms to get out of her way. I pointed out the road is no entry. That's for netball she said. No I countered, the sign says it is for Saturday. Today is Saturday, today it is no entry. Then she told me she had to get her child to the doctor! Well, OK, but there are no doctors on the street and the street provides no shortcut to a doctor. Maybe she was not a local..."I'm a local resident!" she informed me (I knew the doctor thing was a lie) and the sign was not for locals. No, I stated, the sign is a road rule, it is for everyone. Then she accused me of harassing her (the nearest she got to having a valid point) and grabbed her phone to call the police. Odd, I thought. She had a sick kid she was rushing to the doctor? I did not point that out, but I did say I was prepared to stay so she could explain to the police why she was entering a no entry street.

At this point I decided enough was enough - she was all shouty and unpleasant while I was calm and on my way for a dive. I started to move on. At which she shouted "fucking Aussie Bastard!"

I do not know what her background is; she was olive skinned and accented. I do know she is an ignorant, angry racist. Had the situation not been behind me I would have asked her, politely, to abuse me racially using my actual nationality. Maybe she just hates white folks?

Several years ago there were some very nasty fights in Cronulla, a beach suburb south of Sydney. There was a lot of unpleasant shouting and racist abuse hurled about and the events were widely reported as "race riots", with opposing gangs of white Australian and Middle Eastern men beating the crap out of each other for the TV cameras. Nasty though these and similar events are they have little impact on me. Young blokes (and older blokes, but mainly young) fighting for some reason or other. You expect testosterone and stupidy to go hand in hand. I've been to enough football matches to work that out.

But here I am, middle aged, living in a nice suburban Sydney suburb and getting subjected to anti-Australian racist abuse by a mum in a Porsche who has a young kid in the passenger seat. That is just...wrong.

Later I was retelling the story to a neighbour. Before going in too hard on the Porsche driving racist, I asked if he knew a local who drove a four wheel drive Porsche. No, he replied, but he had seen a black one being driven at speed down the street just before noon. Woman driving? I asked. Yeah, he said, not Aussie, gook, maybe Philipino...Oh dear.

Politicians and the mass media will have you believe Australia is a promised land where everyone gets a fair go, where mateship counts above all and where muliculturalism triumphs. It simply ain't true. And you don't have to scratch too deep to find a rich seam of racism in the land downunder. Even here in the pleasant 'burbs.

It is a sad truth, and I shall exclude my friends, but I live in Sydney for it's natural beauty, not for it's people. Very sad. For something altogether more uplifting, have a read about my watery wanderings at Fairlight today.