From: ggm@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (George Michaelson)
Subject: Re: life in aus
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 01:01:48 GMT

robrod@buengf.bu.edu writes:

>I am interested in finding out what is the inter-racial social standings in
>Australia: particularly Sydney/Camberra/Melbourne.  What is the Australians
>feelings towards Asians, Blacks, Americans, etc.  

"Australians" seem to be a mixed bunch. A tiny few are increadibly violently
nastily racist: I'd say less than 50 nationwide are motivated to
firebomb themselves to make it look like they are under attack from the
non-white cultures (yes, a tried tactic)

The vast majority don't care if you're martian or an octopus as long as
you don't dump rubbish on their lawn and will smile and nod over the
fence. When tension erupts, its usually for selfish reasons.

For example if you want to build a mosque next door you might start to
see a fight.  the fact that many get put up in semi-industral estates
points to a bit of a problem with going the whole hog accepting other
peoples culture.  (I don't notice the 103 distinct middle-europe,
coptic or maronite chapels being shunted out of the city centre...)

The English/Irish/Scots are no more or less racist than back in
Britain. However their 50s childhood memories of the UK seem to be
dominated by the west indian and asian immigration to the UK which they
often recall (wrongly) as 'stealing their fathers jobs' back home in
blighty. This seems to be a common feature of balding fat 50 year old
taxi drivers, that they are obsessed with the 1950s immigration to the
UK and assume you too are a refugee from it. I get tired of having to
put up with their racist blather.

Pre-70's immigrants from Europe, the DPs from WWII, and ageing greek widows
seem to be amongst the more racist of the immigrant population here,
especially towards anybody asian or black. Cypriot Greeks hate the
Turks for obvious reasons. 

I think this is a reflection of their culture and education back home. 
Sort of like your tolerance of other races is an inverse function of
how heavily your culture emphasies its own standing, how strong your
nationalist fervour is.

Post-80's immigrants that I know are typically from Asia. The
exceptions that stand out are the Russians and Poles, I've not noticed
any overt racism from the ones I know but rumours of antisemitism might
not be too surprising. Certainly the last time I was in Immigration
doing my paperwork the slavs were pretty rude and aggressive, pushing
blacks and asians out of the queue for the counter ticket and acting
like sitting next to these people was degrading. Very nasty to watch.

Lots of confusion about the chinese. Resentment about the large numbers
of students given extensions to their visas from people expecting to
get cousins in on family reunion program. Mutterings from the right-wing
about it all. I don't see what the problem is, this place can stand a lot
more growth yet. (green movement blather about sustainable population is
way way off the limits yet.)

Black Americans are totally cool with young teens and <30s being heavily
featured on TV/Ads/Sport. Several standing jokes about how Ads on TV for
big companys like KFC are willing to feature a blatantly US image with
male black funk chorus but don't Promote positive images of the
Aborigine community at all. I don't know when this is going to change.

>Also, I would like to know if Australia has good relations with its
>neighboring countries:  China, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, etc.

Yes. Lots of trade links. Lots of aid links. Its not possible to do
more fence sitting and balancing acts than Australia does in this regard
and if you think about the PRC and Taiwan for a minute, you'll see that
its got to be hard to keep in each contries good(ish) books.

You left off Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, The Pacific Island States and
New Zealand, not to mention Antartica. I'd say there's no sign of
war with any of them soon.

I'd say the local record on both counts is pretty good. There isn't
any point in emphasising the down side without recognizing nobody
is doing any better. 

-George
--
                         George Michaelson
G.Michaelson@cc.uq.oz.au The Prentice Centre      | There's no  market for
                         University of Queensland | hippos in Philadelphia
Phone: +61 7 365 4079    QLD Australia 4072       |          -Bertold Brecht