The replies to this article hurt my mind to read.

[cerebral_wasabi]

I think most of the comments ended up putting forth a really negative side of current Australian culture. Obviously one shouldn't take the ignorance seen as representative of Australia itself, but I do think that it demonstrates that there are many people there who honestly think in this manner. I was appalled and disappointed by most of it

Comments

[drjon]

Despite the oft-cried (self)assertion that Australians are not generally rascist, I'm afraid the evidence speaks otherwise, and speaks loudly and repeatedly.

However, we don't like to think we're rascist, just "realistic". So that's okay. /facepalm

I could rant at length.

[siouxsyn]

Australians just don't get the connotations of blackface.

How is a white man dressing as a caricature of a black man any worse than a footballer dressing as a woman? It's tasteless but not intrinsically insulting.
I can't find a reference to it: was it Graham Kennedy who called a black celebrity "Boy"? He had to have it explained why that is a bad thing.

What does the general Aboriginal population have to say about the whole matter?

[drjon]

You're touching on issues of White Privilege there.

I'd argue that it's not that Australians don't get the connotations of blackface, it's that it's so far removed from their zeitgeist that it doesn't seem like an issue to them--which is a position of Privilege.

[drjon]

I just watched the clip. I dunno--I was hoping that there'd be some glimmer of humour there, ignorant, juvenile and marred though it might be. But there isn't. That routine wasn't funny 20 years ago (which was only 1989, not 1939, not even 1969) and it sure as sh1te isn't funny now.

Those guys are 40-something medical professionals. WTF???

I hate to think what the ramifications of this type of wanksplattery are for the cause of Aboriginal people in this country.

...oh gods, I just started reading the comments to the blogpost.

[cerebral_wasabi]

Ye-e-ep. Sigh. -_-) Someone even decided at one point in the replies that Aborigines were black people.

[drjon]

out-of-palm error. please reboot.

[lyndarama]

And yeah - the comments on the blog are shameful - the whole 'it's a joke Joyce' cop-out is in full flight. I'm not sure if it's in that one or another that an American says 'how would you like it if we dressed Paul Hogan up as a convict?' to which I would reply a) Paul Hogan would have already done that at some point and b) Australians would not care.

[lyndarama]

Without appearing to be defending the show, the crowd was more likely booing the judge with the gong, because his persona is to be the mean guy - they booed when he gonged the burping guy too.

As for the rest, I live in a regional area in what is regarded within our own country as a racist / backward state, and the stuff on that clip is the *least* of this country's problems! It's a free-for-all up here.

[drjon]

Sadly, I think you're right about the crowd's reaction--it seems to me they were booing the gonging.