Bein’ Serious: And The Inner Racists Run To Judge Me
I am a successful woman, from a very multicultural family. I have seen and heard racism aimed at myself, my family and others around me.
Because of this whole “Hey Hey, It’s Saturday” incident, I feel angry. I’m not angry at the people who performed the skit.
If I was, wouldn’t I have to be angry at the Wayans brothers for “White Chicks” or Robert Downey Jr for “Tropic Thunder”?
People think it’s silly to bring things like those up because they, apparently, don’t make fun of white people. How do they not? I fail to see how that kind of media does not promote making fun of white people.
But all of that is not the reason I am angry. The reaction, worldwide, is amazingly small-minded.
People are out here trying to justify their own racism by pointing out that a whole country is racist just because of a highly publicised show.
I will never say that I have not been racist. I will never say that my country is not racist. I know the truth of it and of my opinions held in the past.
But I believe everyone has their own opinions when it comes to racism. Some of those opinions come off as being racist, whether the person who holds knows it or not. Cutting off the nose to spite the face, if you will..
I posted the below comment on a website called Bossip, which specialises in African American celebrity gossip and do very well at inciting an enormous amount of racist slurs and misinformation. Coconut was a popular term some of Bossip’s more uneducated commenters called Australians commenting on the site and many non-Australians (not from Australia) constantly brought up a history they know little or nothing about.
Consider the fact that Australia was a country just like America that was settled by men who were trying to rid England of the convicts they could not handle in their prison system. And then think about why so many Americans are quick to judge Australia?
The question posed on the site:
Are Australians racist?
Look, I’m a Tongan Jamaican, born and raised in Australia, with a large multicultural family of Fijian, English, Aboriginal and Afghani blood.
I had my share of racist slurs when I was younger.
It has changed a whole lot. I haven’t been dissed racially probably since I was in high school. And that was from my own step father, who was an Irish Australian who married not only my Jamaican mother but had been married to a Maori woman when he lived in NZ.
Don’t call me a coconut or whatever silly racial term you may have up your sleeve.
I merely defend my country of birth and the one I still live in because I have seen it from both sides, and I have played it from both sides. I have seen the racism and have been railed against for my colour but I am strong and smart enough a person to walk away from it and make the best of the situation. I took great pride in being the only dark skinned child in school- I excelled in academia and worked my ass off to make people see me as a PERSON, not as a “darkie”.
Yes, Australia has a racist past but our country is constantly changing but as with any other country that has a racist past, there will still remain those traditional minds who think it is still okay to be racist.
WHEN YOU HAVE NO REAL IDEA ABOUT OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY AND ARE JUDGING A COUNTRY BY A SKIT, ARE YOU NOT JUST AS DISRESPECTFUL AS THE RACISTS YOU ARE TRYING TO CONDEMN?
Most of you are right (including those who have been to and/or lived in Australia), you don’t know much about Australia to judge whether we are racist as a country but I do know this, we are so free a country, political correctness is not something we are overly anal about.
We do make mistakes but we are not so sensitive to the nth degree like a lot of nations have proven to be. We are a multicultural country and still coming to grips with that and the traditional thinking that collide.
My point is, those who throw stones shouldn’t live in glass houses.
The commenters before and after me seem to be more “anti-white” than “pro-black” saying something to the effect of “black Australians” have been brainwashed. How have I been brainwashed? I was born here, educated here and am completely aware of the racist issues our country has.
I am, it seems, not black enough anymore. I have read and felt more racism in the comments from the website than I have in my entire life. Does that tell you enough that racism is still alive and well among those claiming others are racists?
I am not my country, therefore, don’t judge me by it or by its past.
But don’t judge a country by its people who have not lived the same lives as those in our country’s past.
