(Eugene Kane is an African-American) The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep00/kanecol24092300a.asp Cheering for Australia's underdogs There's no question where my sympathies lie during these Olympic games. Here in the good old U S of A, we're conditioned to root for the underdog. Which is why I'm rooting for the Aborigines. As most are aware, the Olympics are being held in Australia, that colorful land down under known for kangaroos, "Crocodile Dundee," and famous exports such as Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson and Olivia Newton-John. It's also a country that was founded as a prison colony for the British Empire in 1788, but has managed to overcome its outlaw past in spectacular fashion. Today, Australia is the sixth largest country in the world (and the smallest continent), a vast sprawling nation of 19 million people with a thriving economy and thoroughly modern cities such as Sydney, a shining metropolis currently on display to the world. Like most civilized countries, Australia has an uncivilized past, one that can be found in the legacy of the Aborigines, also known as the indigenous, or original, residents. They had lived on the land for perhaps 50,000 years before the white settlers came. Estimates vary, but perhaps a million Aborigines lived in Australia before white settlers came; today, the number is closer to a quarter-million. Aborigines are dark-skinned people who exist at the bottom of the economic ladder in Australian society, plagued by chronic unemployment, substandard education, poor health and crime. In recent years, widespread consternation over "the aboriginal issue" by activists has developed into a civil rights movement similar to what America experienced in the 1960s, as African-Americans petitioned mainstream society to address unequal treatment. On the eve of the Olympic games, there were reports that major Aborigine groups were planning demonstrations aimed at disrupting the proceedings in order to cast a worldwide spotlight on pressing social issues in their communities. Aborigines die 20 years earlier than the average Australian; they are the least educated, most jailed and most unhealthy group of residents on the continent. Yet, many white Australians insist the problems in the aboriginal community are of their own doing and resist government programs aimed at alleviating the pain. (Blaming the victims of historic discrimination by the dominant society for their current circumstances? Where have I heard that one before?) Many aboriginal groups were upset at the Australian government for not offering an apology for past practices that decimated their community, including the forced removal of Aborigine children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them into white culture, a practice that started in the early 1900s and lasted until the 1970s. One measure of how significant this issue is came during the opening ceremony, where much was made over the selection of an Aborigine, track star Cathy Freeman, to light the Olympic flame. From my living room seat, Freeman looked like an African-American woman; you could have told me she was from the north side of Milwaukee, and I wouldn't have blinked. But she clearly understood the significance of her role in the opening ceremony well enough to express concern her selection would be controversial. "When I got the flame I was very embarrassed. I was thinking about what all the people were going to think about Cathy Freeman lighting the torch," she told the Associated Press. "I tend to think about negative things. You can't please everybody; everybody has different views." Her anxiety was sadly familiar to any minority who has found himself or herself in the uncomfortable role as pioneer. It's the kind of situation that unleashes all the insecurities that come with being perceived as "different," even in your own homeland. But Freeman also described the experience as one she'd never forget. "It was a tremendous honor for the aboriginal people." Our racial history is strikingly similar to Australia. Blacks, in particular, recognize a bond with the Aborigines as dark-skinned people with daunting social problems who have yet to fully integrate into society at every meaningful level. Still, the overall social progress of African-Americans in the United States seems miles ahead of the Aborigines. The more appropriate comparison is with American Indians, the original residents of this country, forced out and relegated into depressed communities thanks to the American creed of "manifest destiny." In case you forgot your high school history lesson, "manifest destiny" was the driving motivation for white settlers in the New World to spread out and claim occupied territories as their own, solely because of a sense of their own superiority. (Also, a superior ability to make war on less sophisticated civilizations.) This sort of historical truth is too harsh for many, and too close to home to point fingers. When the Olympics are held in the U.S., we don't trumpet the fact that our country is built on the graveyards of American Indian nations who once owned this land. Consequently, we can't expect Australian citizens to show any more degree of shame for the way things turned out in their homeland. That's the way it goes. The winners always get to write their version of history. But that doesn't mean you can't stop rooting for the underdog. Particularly, if you're a black American or American Indian. And the plight of the Aborigines seems awfully familiar. Call Eugene Kane at 223-5521 or e-mail him at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sept. 24, 2000. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." 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