Addicted to racism

Egalitarianism

Australians pride themselves on being egalitarian and reward their fearless leaders for ordering their men and women into the field of battle to fight to maintain their values; democracy, classless society, unrestricted movement, uncensored speech and equality.

What many Australians fail to comprehend is the roller coaster ride and anxiety experienced by many Indigenous soldiers when they join the military services: The adrenalin charged highs of training and fighting for their country and the depths of despair from the humiliation of racism that comes from the broader community post military service.

My father’s brother Alf enlisted from Bourke in northwest New South Wales to fight for his country between September 1942 and January 1946 and did so with distinction as a Private. This act of gallantry was made even more remarkable considering the total desecration, a generation earlier, of his father’s Kullilli tribe in far southwest Queensland by invading pastoralist sanctioned by the government of the day.

Racism

My mothers first cousin Dave Wharton join the AIF in 1941 and on his return from active service felt the full venom of racism from white leaders in his home town of Cunnamulla. When Dave’s best mate Billy Rickets, a non-Indigenous Digger, died in an horrific fire at a local hotel he immediately sought endorsement from the RSL to be a pallbearer at his funeral. Given their close friendship and the fact that they fought side by side in the trenches against the enemy Dave was confident he would be given the nod of approval. Dave was distraught when the RSL stubbornly declined his plea for compassion.

On November 11, 2004 (Remembrance Day) I read with utter disdain in The Courier-Mail a front page headline, “Army racism shame”, about the story of a young Aboriginal soldier Damien Palmer, 19, who could no longer endure persistent racist abuse from fellow soldiers at the Townsville Lavarack Barracks. He made the ultimate statement of despair and chose the inglorious path of suicide. What went through the mind of that handsome young man in his last moments at that infamous military base?
 
Damien’s mother, Madonna Palmer, in The Australian on November 19, 2004, said her son “went from living with us and four months in the army he was dead”. Mrs Palmer added that her son would be alive today if “he didn’t go in there”. She concluded her comments by saying, “As a recruit you’re told never to do anything to disgrace your uniform but their behaviour is just appalling”.

I also read with dismay that another “dark-skinned” soldier had his armour removed from his flak jacket leaving his torso vulnerable to gunfire while out on dangerous patrols. Other Indigenous soldiers had their bush hats and camping gear emblazoned with offensive slogans.

Many social commentators remarked that the front page photograph, which accompanied the story, of 22 white soldiers sporting pathetic KKK white bed sheet hoods over their heads while four black soldiers sat on the ground in the front row, wasn’t racist because most of the black soldiers were smiling.

I’d argue that they’d smile too if they were one of four Caucasians ordered to sit in front of twenty two angry Black Panther militants in a remote setting.

Neil James, Executive Director, Australian Defence Association, Canberra, made the following observations in the Daily Telegraph,  November 13, 2004, in response to the question, “Should the soldiers at the centre of the Ku Klux Klan scandal be court-martialled?”

People getting worked up about the spoof KKK photo taken by a soldier need to take a deep breath. For over a century Australian “Diggers” have been justifiably famous for their sense of humour in adversity. Humour is a major constituent of military morale, often spontaneously employed, from the bottom up, in inverse proportion to the dangers and hardship involved.

The Daily Telegraph also canvassed my views on the matter and printed the following comments;

Shame on Prime Minister John Howard for condemning the white soldiers for their actions while watering down federal racial vilification laws that should address that despicable racist act. Shame on Defence Chief Peter Cosgrove on his rhetoric of abhorrence at that photograph while condoning the promotions of officers involved in the discharge of wanton racism on his watch.

Colonialism

To understand the nature of racism we need to take a short journey.

By the end of the Ice Age, 12,000 years ago, humans had migrated further than any other animal ever known. Many historians have hypothesised about the land bridge from South East Asia to Australia, from Korea to Japan and Alaska. The evolutionary process of man and his mastery of various forms of transportation and weaponry allowed for a greater penetration of these new frontiers.

Greed and desire spurred leaders and merchants to travel far from their homelands in search of untouched bounty. Merchants used the power of the empire to take from, or trade with, all parts of the world, spreading Christianity and Islam along the way.

During the 1440s Portuguese sailors began to bring African slaves back to Europe. Many millions of these enslaved warriors and their family members were shipped to Europe, Brazil, the Caribbean and North America. These stolen people were viewed as cheap labour to meet the requirements of rapidly expanding economies. Most were gathered from the 20 principal slave markets dotted along the western coastline from Senegal in the north to Angola in the south. Today it is estimated that around 40 million people in North and South America and the Caribbean are descended from those slaves.

Centuries later over a quarter of a million Melanesians and Micronesians were "black birded" to Australia and became known as “Kanakas” working in the oppressively hot and inhospitable sugar industry.

Before the First World War migrants seldom had to jump hurdles to get over national borders - people were free to travel throughout Europe and sometimes overseas without a passport. But as xenophobia and then war broke out, control of migrants was seen as essential to preserve the “true character” - or rather the Anglo Saxon Nordic features - of Western nations.

It is argued that many countries became opposed to an increase in the number and diversity of immigrants: some on openly racist grounds, such as Hitler’s Germany. In Britain, where 120,000 Jews settled between 1875 and 1914, Jewish migrants became the focus of racism marches which led to the restrictive Aliens Act of 1914.

Countries considered immigrant-friendly also succumbed to this pressure - the US banned Chinese and Japanese workers, and the racist Ku Klux Klan became popular promising to stamp out Catholics, Jews, Blacks and immigrants.

Migration slowed substantially during the years between the World Wars. After the war, rich countries fearing a stampede remained closed to migrants, despite human rights becoming an international issue.

At around this time Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the White Australia policy stating:

… This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race.

However after the mid-1950s governments realised that to spur economic growth they would need cheap workers. Many countries sought permanent immigrants to kick-start the economy. Australia in particular actively recruited European settlers and received over 2 million immigrants between 1945 and 1964. As governments became obsessed with economics, migrants became increasingly valued in terms of their monetary worth. Competition for jobs in the most developed countries increased after the 1970s and consequently immigration then declined.

Ethnocentrism

In the 1990s Europe tightened its borders. Ethnocentric and racist right-wing politics rose to the fore once more in this region and also in other parts of the world. Ethnic minorities became scapegoats for national social and economic problems and potential migrants were stopped in their tracks.

In the now infamous letter, typifying ethnocentric attitudes, to the editor of the Queensland Times, January 6, 1996, Pauline Hanson said: 
 
I don’t feel responsible for the treatment of Aboriginal people in the past because I had no say, but my concern is for now and the future. How can we expect this race to help themselves when government shower them with money, facilities and opportunities that only these people can obtain no matter how minute the indigenous blood is that flow through their veins, and this is what is causing racism.

The right wing views expressed by Pauline Hanson, fish and chips café proprietor - as wretched and unsubstantiated as they were - were comments enthusiastically embraced by the populace. Consequently she was voted into federal politics. Her rise to fame coincided with the rise in racial vilification. Name-calling and blame proportioning for the high unemployment rate and poor economic climate was part of the high-energy right wing policy rhetoric coming from Hanson and her supporters.

Race politics had publicly surfaced - after a stunted slumber - in the 21 century, although John Howard had been playing that unsavoury card in more subtle forms for decades in his push to rid Australia of any threat to the “Australian way of life”. Hanson’s popular views were the catalyst for Canberra’s big boys in justifying their legislative reforms.

But what ideas permeate the white man’s psyche in such a dogmatic racist fashion?

Darwinism

Back in 1788 at the time when the Eora traditional owners were witnessing strange ghost-like people trespassing their shores at Botany Bay, England’s first professional economist, Thomas Malthus, wrote in his essay on the Principles of Population a dramatic warning that the human species would breed itself into starvation. Malthus said the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man.

Charles Darwin expanded on Malthus’ theory with his two key phrases: struggle for existence and survival of the fittest. According to Darwin’s hypothesis, the organism best endowed in its variations to get food and shelter will live to procreate young that will inherit these favourable variations.

The doctrine of the survival of fittest is evident in all facets of life today:

• Because they can, and against the wishes of the UN, the US invades a sovereign state, Iraq. 
• Because they can, and against the recommendation of the ATSIC parliamentary review team, the Howard Government abolishes the elected Indigenous political voice, ATSIC, and appoints an unelected body to determine our future.

The latter action of the government is an affront to the Indigenous community, premised with unambiguous parameters, and initiated with colonial zeal. I hope this enterprising new Indigenous assembly gains swift results for our people through their collective business and academic skills, which I respectfully acknowledge. They can then purge themselves of the “King Billy tin plate gang” label many in our community have silently proffered.

1000ism

As the most marginalised group of people in Australian society, with appalling statistics to irrefutably confirm that unenviable status, we appear to be making no noticeable advances in our overall well-being. I accept that a small minority of our people have no complaints to make and are progressing well in mainstream society. This growing band of successful (measured according to a western barometer) brothers and sisters will continue to scale dizzier heights previously unimagined by their forebears.

But until we set ourselves practical goals to achieve both locally and nationally we will continue to be leaderless and directionless and remain at the bottom rung of the social ladder. We need to set bench marks. For example, 1000 PhD graduates, 1000 medical doctors, 1000 lawyers, 1000 carpenters, 1000 plumbers, 1000 nurses, 1000 teachers, 1000 mechanics, 1000 architects, 1000 scientists and so on and including a 1000 other essential service categories desperately needed in our communities - to be met within a 10-year time frame. For instance there are around 80 medical doctors working in the broader community today with 100 trainees currently studying in medical schools. If 100 Indigenous students enrol in a medical degree at universities annually and complete their studies we will achieve the 10-year target for that profession.

There is an old saying that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” and I think now is the time for Indigenous Australians to be setting local and national benchmarks that we can all set our sights to collectively achieve. Maybe the 1000ism proposal might be deemed a creditable enough agenda item for the National Indigenous Council to discuss at their first meeting in early December.

Where to from here?

Madonna Palmer should not have to grieve in silence over the loss of her army son to suicide because she is powerless. Dave Wharton’s family should not have to recoil in disgust every time they pass the Cunnamulla RSL club on reflection of the pall bearer debacle.

Indigenous people should not have to tolerate the pompous postulations of politicians and social commentators when condoning the actions of racists: A futile exercise in “defending the indefensible”.

I live in hope that true egalitarianism may yet be experienced in my lifetime and that the huge shadow of racism, hanging menacingly over our children’s heads as they cheerfully play in the schoolyards throughout the nation, is lifted forever. Racism, in all its ugly forms, should be condemned to the past along with the multitude of enthusiastic perpetrators who currently enjoy prominent positions in public office.

I respectfully remind Indigenous people of the need to be united in the fight against racism and to regain the fighting spirit of our ancestors by reading the reflective words of wisdom from Giulio Andreotte an Italian statesman and Prime Minister when he said Il potere logora chi non ce l’ha - which translated reads, “Power wears down the man who doesn’t have it”.