I don't think I've ever seen any overt racism. Just... people tend to forget that Aborigines exist. They are expected to be in low paying jobs (if in jobs at all), and to live in fairly rubbish parts of town. I know I can go through my daily life expecting to never lay eyes on an Aborigine (office job, middle class suburb) - and no-one expects that to be weird.
In a lot of ways, it's a lot harder to deal with than the overt racism would be. After all, if someone is proclaiming that all Aborigines are arseholes, it's pretty hard not to notice that they're being racist, and to see that it needs fixing. Whereas, if someone thinks that Aborigines are probably perfectly nice people - but they don't really know, because, after all, why would they? they don't ever need to come into contact with them - that's a lot harder to change.
I think you said everything I wanted to say. I hardly ever see any about the place in Victoria, and when I do they're unfortunately the rough groups that hang around the CBD, occupying a bunch of benches and drinking and yelling in public. I avoid them but I would avoid ANYBODY race regardless who were acting the same. Never seen any in school, at work, living in the same areas...
I studied abroad in Cairns for about 6 months in 2003. I remember the first piece of "advice" I was given was to stay away from the Aborigionals because they are all drunk and will ask you for money.
2nd-hand story about spectators at the Australia Day fireworks. The radio played some song connected to Aboriginal rights (either Treaty or Beds Are Burning, I'm not sure which). The woman sitting in front of my mates was heard to loudly exclaim that she hoped that after the official apology by the prime minister, that we'd no longer have to put up with that kind of 'crap'. In other words, she hoped that now that the horrid treatment of Aboriginal people during colonisation had been acknowledged publically, that we would no longer spend any time honouring or acknowledging Aboriginal culture.
If Australian Aboriginal people can't have their culture acknowledged in Australia, where else are they going to do it? This is their home country!
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In Darwin and the NT, everyday.
I agree with reasonjo, the list is endless.
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I don't think I've ever seen any overt racism. Just... people tend to forget that Aborigines exist.
They are expected to be in low paying jobs (if in jobs at all), and to live in fairly rubbish parts of town. I know I can go through my daily life expecting to never lay eyes on an Aborigine (office job, middle class suburb) - and no-one expects that to be weird.
In a lot of ways, it's a lot harder to deal with than the overt racism would be. After all, if someone is proclaiming that all Aborigines are arseholes, it's pretty hard not to notice that they're being racist, and to see that it needs fixing.
Whereas, if someone thinks that Aborigines are probably perfectly nice people - but they don't really know, because, after all, why would they? they don't ever need to come into contact with them - that's a lot harder to change.
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Never seen any in school, at work, living in the same areas...
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If Australian Aboriginal people can't have their culture acknowledged in Australia, where else are they going to do it? This is their home country!
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