[Ian]
As a European having spent a couple of years in Oz and three in the
US, I would agree with your "judgements". ie it's not a matter of
sloganizing "tolerance" but judging what you find, as your experience
does.
No doubt that Oz is a greater ethnic and cultural mix even that the
US. Remembering that I was based in Perth, but spent time in
Melbourne, Sidney (but not Brissy) and also several trips to NZ, I
have a question. Whilst the "immigrant" community was ethnically
diverse and seemingly integrated, I couldn't help noticing the anomaly
that the marginalized down and outs were generally the Aboriginals,
whereas in NZ the Maoris seemed much more integrated.
Is that impression correct ? Any idea why ?
I spent 9 months in NZ a couple of years ago, never been to Australia
though. NZ is quite weird when it comes to the Maori I think. Maori culture
is used as a means of boosting national pride, hakka and maori art - calling
the place Aotearoa even though your of European decent. And still there is
a lot of hidden racism around. At least I thought there was.
It was pretty much like what I understand racism towards African-Americans
is often like: when you talk to "white-people" for a while and if the
subject touches the problems of high crime rates within the Maori-population
(which is indeed a problem) similarly to racism in other places the
explanation that people offer to it is not that these people often come from
quite poor conditions and that they might have a harder time getting a job -
instead statements like "they are lazy and violent" are thrown around.
Quietly, when only "white people" are around. Not considering that it might
be just that attitude that makes it so hard for the different groups of
people to truly integrate.
And it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy for young Maoris too. If
people around them expect them to be more violent than others - many of them
will more easily turn to violent behaviour. It really is a quite old story.
Sigh
//Chris
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