chk-chk-bullshit

I may as well add my two cents to the Clare Werberloff story.

So, this fat nigger shot this skinny nigger, chk-chk-BOOM!

I'm not sure I'd get away with saying that. I'd definitely not get away with it in London. But it looks like our Clare's fat and skinny wog reference has not only reignited the debate racism debate in Australia, it seems she may get a media career from her party-piece. Lucky her. If you're one of the four internet users not yet to view her performance you can visit Youtube and search for Chk-Chk-Boom. You'll find the eye witness report she gave to a shooting she did not witness. And the "Club Mix" of said report. I mean like man, it is just so funny right!

I think a great many Australians have a relaxed attitude to things many people regard racist. There is a casual attitude to language that stereotypes people. But worse, pointing this out is regarded as somewhat un-Australian. Starting the debate is taken as an attack on Australia and Australians. It is all rather quaint really.

At work i was discussing this with two colleagues, both level headed, articulate white Australian men. They could not be convinced Australia has this casual attitude. I asked one what he'd call a large house with stone pillars and maybe marble lions at its ornate gates. The answer - a "wog mansion." And that isn't just a little bit racist? Maybe the smallest bit culturally insensitive, if not racist? No. What, he asked, did we call such houses in England? Well, I explained, we may refer to a house as Georgian or Edwardian, maybe Tuscan or like a Swiss Chalet. We may single out a house and it's owner for shocking bad taste - mock Tudor is architecturally shocking - but we'll not label an architectural style by reference to the accent and skin colour of the people who typically build such houses. He was a bit shocked. but not as shocked as I was when I saw his shock.

The other guy handed me a win on plate. Soccer, or Association Rules Football or just plain Football (as it is called in most countries in which it is played) was often, and sometimes still is referred to as "wog ball". Why? Well, Rugby League and Australian Rules Football were already called football and Soccer was played by the wogs. Easy. Wog, in the Australian vernacular, is a catch-all for people whose ancestry might be traced back to somewhere near the Mediterranean; typically Italians and Greeks. Or if they look like they might.

The same tired old defense to the charge of racism is trotted out each time the conversation is started. Wogs call each other wogs and it is a term of endearment, a jokey, matey term. So if Chris Rock calls his black friends niggers then nigger is acceptable? If you're black? Not convinced, and anyway Clare isn't a wog; she is a white Australian from Sydney's Northern Beaches. What about the term of endearment argument? How was an eyewitness report of a shooting where the gunman and his victim were unknown to Clare in any way endearing?

Clare may get a media career from her "possibly" racist remarks. Some are saying she is a smart girl and was employing irony. I'm not so sure. She drapes herself in the Australian flag and has a southern cross tattoo on her foot. I know I should not read anything into that, but I suspect she has an extremely relaxed attitude to what some people may regard as racism. She is simply lucky that she lives in the lucky country. Racist? No, just relaxed and laid back.

But hey, it's an isolated incident, so lets move on.

Well let's not move on because it is not an isolated incident. Last week in a rugby league match the captain of the Cronulla Sharks Paul Gallen was alleged to have made a racial slur aimed at the St George Illawara player Mickey Paea. The national Rugby League have issued him with a $10,000 breach notice. Some reactions in the media dismiss the incident as something that happens on the field and while it is bad you'd hear the same on a building site. First, two wrongs do not make a right; racial abuse in the workplace is not something that should be so swiftly dismissed. Sports stars are role models. They set an example, good or bad. They should be expected to set a good example. In a neat epilogue to this story, Gallen was selected to represent New South Wales in the State of Origin rugby league competition, the highest level of non-international representative football in Australia. So there you have it kids, please don't racially abuse people, but if you do, it is unlikely to hamper your career. (Oddly enough, playing for the Sharks, who are shit, also doesn't hamper a career in representative football. Go figure.) As it happens a shoulder injury has achieved that which (alleged) racial abuse did not. Gallen will not be playing in Origin 1.

Two incidents then. But wait, there's more!

In the same week Sol Trajilo, the recently departed Telstra CEO had the audacity to express his views on racism in Australia. His views seem to be in step with mine. The media response? He was massively well paid and Telstra's share price fell while he was at the helm! Sol is of Mexican descent and had a job in Australia! He knows fuck all! I added the last bit; the media did not go that far, but that was the gist. Racism was not the story, his former salary was. The catalyst for Sol's "rambling" "tirade" was the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's "adios." Racist? Well, possibly according to Sol, and let's face it, he was on the receiving end. He had been portrayed as a bumbling, sombrero wearing Latino throughout his time in Australia. Adios? Not racist according to the media. Sol simply does not understand the relaxed, laid back Aussie lifestyle that K Rudd was typifying. Hmmm.

I think Peter Holmes A Court had it about right on the ABC's Q & A. Racist? Maybe a bit. Hugely insensitive? Definitely. Australia needs to grow up and the first step is to engage in the debate. Don't brush it aside as a lack of understanding on the part of everyone else and a decent proportion of the Australian public. Trotting out the same old lines about how multicultural Australia is, how immigration policy is becoming more relaxed and how migrants add so much to modern Australia simply sidesteps the debate.

So the week in summary.

Launch your media career by calling a recently shot stranger a skinny wog. Play representative football despite (allegedly) racially abusing a fellow player. Brush aside the views of a recently departed high-profile wetback (that IS irony Clare) because he was very well paid.

Relaxed attitude to racism in Australia? Nah mate, you just need to chill out.

addendum...

It is strange, but I find the casual acceptance of cultural stereotyping somewhat more insidious and sinister than outright racist fuckwit behaviour. It seems that is on the rise here as in many other countries. Overseas students - particularly Indians - are being targeted for attack.

UNSW international students officer Sakshi Sehgal said there were increased concerns about the safety of international students from all countries, not just India.

Fuckwits will always be fuckwits. But they are typically honest about it.