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Thursday, December 02, 2004

Bless the Bolt, for he hath shown us the way

Dearly Beloved,
We are gathered here today to pay homage to Mr. Andrew Bolt. Non journalist award winning, Jelena Popovic slandering Mr B.
Our tolerance is So clear
01dec04

WE are so often told we're racist, that I hope you won't mind again hearing the latest proof that we're not.

This week's evidence is John So's runaway win in the popular vote for the lord mayor of Melbourne.
Here's a Chinese man, whose English has been chopped up for soup, winning more votes than the Anglo also-rans combined.

Strange, the harder So tries to speak clear English -- and fails -- the more voters love him.

Or not strange. So's struggles show him clearly doing all most Australians have wanted from migrants -- trying to fit in, no matter how silly he may look. Think of They're a Weird Mob, the 1957 bestseller that described the farcical battle of Italian Nino Culotta to become a "real" Australian.

What's more, So's election comes just a couple of weeks after Casey Donovan, who has Aboriginal heritage, was voted the winner of Australian Idol, and in the same year a man from a Fijian family was voted winner of Big Brother.

So where is the proof of our famous racism?

It would be wrong to say we've only recently mellowed. I remember as a boy in Darwin hearing my father speak with respect of our ethnic Chinese mayor, Harry Chan, who was elected in 1966 and had a street named after him on which stand the Darwin City Council offices today.

In a Bendigo museum is an even older tribute to our openness -- the Chinese dragon that first danced in the city's Easter fair in 1892. Naturally, there are racists here, as there are everywhere, but those who claim racism is in the soul of this country tell a smug lie.


To Whit:
Andrew,

I know you love to run the "Australia is not racist and here's why.." Then you trot out the likes of Casey Donovan, John So, Trevor from Big Brother etc.

Now, whilst I agree these are great symbols of our "non racist" modern Australia, I think prime time "reality" TV is somewhat removed from real life

For starters, the winners have assumed our ideals of success and proper behaviour. John So is a successful businessman and Casey has all but rejected her aboriginality. White Australia is very tolerant of people like this. They are "our people", not "them".

It's pretty easy to vote via SMS for someone on Australian Idol, but what if Casey's (possible) coming wealth means she can afford to buy her family a "nice" house in a "nicer" suburb. I can't imaging Mr and Mrs Rose Bay feeling as inclusive with a "mob of abos" next door.

I rememeber a sketch Ernie Dingo did many years ago on a comedy show. A house was about to be auctioned and he poked his head over the fence from next door to say hi to all who were there and, using a "heavy" aboriginal accent (if you get what I mean) proceeded to explain how nice it will be to have "new neighbours bro', and we will have them corroborees an' you can bring all your mob to meet all our mob" etc. This naturally scared off all the bidders, leaving a solitary aboriginal man to purchase the house for a bargain. Ernie walks over to congratulate the man. He calls him cousin and chats about how funny it was to do what he did. He does all this in his everyday Ernie accent.

A lot of our tolerance extends to the "Not in my back yard" mentality, and your constant use of the "big" examples leaves the at the coal face scenarios alone.

Regards
Tom Reynolds

..and to whit:

Tom, you write wisely when you call yourself a masochist. I expect that no evidence will stop you from believing we are racist (except for you, of course).

Andrew Bolt

www.heraldsun.com.au/andrewbolt


I never said Australia was racist Mr B, i just said that Australian Idol is hardly representative of Australian attitude.
posted by thr at 10:41 am

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