Fair enough was just making sure your not full of shit sorry to hear that you met so many that had opinions and yet hadn't been anywhere. I can asure you we are certainly not all like that, I grew up in the very north of Western Australia and have been around aboriginals my whole life, many who I have had as friends. Most of the misconceptions come from people that spend their entire lives in the cities (both sides) and is normally mixed with youth
O/T Today tonight is tabaliod trash imo I never believe a single word I hear on that show infact mock the tactics they use to gain sensationalised stories
depends where you are, i work on minesites, and i've tended to find a lot of the blue collar workers to be pretty predjudiced (not all, just some)
these are guys i work with, but there does seem to be an "undercurrent" of racial tension in australia sometimes...
Every race has good/bad people, and i'm cool with anyone who is a decent human being
Maybe it's just me, i don't really like people bundling an entire race together (tbh i think white people, of which i am one, have a LOT to answer for) and that seems to happen a lot in the "worker classes" i've had interactions with.
Yeah, I've not been but a friend of mine was there for a month a couple years ago, in Cairns, and said it was amazing how casually places like amusement parks use Aboriginal imagery in ways that would cause a huge scandal here in the US. Basically the equivalent of a "Darkie"-themed amusement park in the Deep South of the US.
Not that the US doesn't still use lots of Native American imagery itself, mainly in sports teams, casinos, and tobacco advertising.
Had a couple of weeks there and I couldn't wait to leave
(it's beautiful but when you've seen the harbour, it's the same as any other city )
No problem, I would too
I wouldn't claim to have great knowledge of the deeper issues but I've seen more of Australia than anywhere else - including my own country - so I sort of feel like I've at least skimmed the surface of all aspects of life out there.
Don't get me wrong, we also met loads of people like yourself who grew up among the culture. It seemed the people with the biggest issues were those who didn't.
Up Broome way? We lived there for a couple of months during the wet season and also worked and lived on a pearl farm up near Beagle Bay. One of the happiest times of my life
Absolutely spot-on, and exactly what I was saying. They are not liked because in the cities they are always pissed, filthy and (usually) hassling passers-by.
If one is shouting abuse at me while pissed, I am not going to think of their wonderful culture. I'm gonna think "f*cking Abo".
They are not blameless, no matter what the PC brigade say.
Well, to be fair to them, if they had actually gone there they would apparently have been killed so they couldn't have warned you. It makes sense (sort of).
I've never been to Australia but I have heard the stories about some Aboriginals being drunk, violent, aggressive etc. I've also heard that in some small towns in the outback young Aboriginal kids will buy a can of petrol to sniff it, but I don't know how much truth there is to that. Every country has sections of its population that are racist or that cause trouble though.
It's not "politically correct nonsense" to try to consider and understand the causes of why some of them are the way they are, similar to the conditions of some Native Americans in the US.
Boozed up Aboriginals is a massive problem all over the outback and it's true about the petrol sniffing too (particularly in the dry towns where alchohol is banned outright). You wouldn't go wandering into a big group of them late at night in the same way you wouldn't wander into a big group of pissed up Brits - it's no secret that everyone go nuts on booze.
Most Aussies we met just felt it was time they started living a western life by western rules - i.e. get an education, get a job and obey the law. Equality.
That might seem a reasonable point of view but you're asking people to pretty much abandon a way of life that goes back tens of thousands of years. They're hardly going to jump for joy at the idea.
I'm sure I've seen quite a strange movie like this, a bit like an adventure with psychedelic scenes here and there. Now that it's in my head, it's going to bother me for days not remembering the name
Never has an Aussie I know said anything that made Aboriginal drunks any different from other drunks, I can't say first hand, but if you don't go to fishy places or piss people off for the sake of it you should be fine.
You got it wrong mate, the majority i know, are! Racial or not, im talking from my experience! Out of the Aboriginal people i know, its the MINOR minority that are just regular. Ive even gotten into fights because of Aboriginals asking for money every time you walk past..
Thats not racial, me saying the majority IVE SEEN, are drunk, violent and agro, its my own experience, weather people think its racial or not.
Ive learnt alot about the Aboriginal culture, after all, my closest and best friend for the last 14 years is aboriginal.
Nope even further up was born in Wyndham, and grew up in Kununurra long before anyone new about the town or the surrounding regions. And yes it was much better then than now
And as for aboriginals living like westerners, why would they want to? I often as a young boy desired to live off the land and live a simple life especially in the rich land of the north.
Where exactly I'm going to live i'm not 100% sure. I'm not even sure I'll be moving down there. But I would just like to see if there is a racial problem and the extent of it.
If you come to the cities, you'll be fine, you'll blend right in- there's a big Asian culture in Melbourne so you'll be able to find a lot of the stuff that you love from back home.
If you're really planning to move outback, it's going to be tough no matter where you're from, because the environment is so extreme. Be prepared for boiling hot days and freezing cold nights.
Australia is really no more or less racist than anywhere else that's vaguely comparable. We have our fair share of idiots- going by your posts I guess it doesn't apply to you but if your english is sketchy then perhaps your biggest problem will be with people who have a very short tolerance for broken or hard to understand english.
Thanks electric kar, my English isn't broken at all and I would consider myself fairly well educated. However, I do have a strange Chinese-ish Singapore/American accent. How I got that accent I have no idea, but here in Hawaii I found the tolerance very very low. It came to the point where they pretended they didn't understand me.
Weirdly enough, everyone I talked to in LFS didn't have a problem (they said I sound more American than anything else) and the east coast people didn't really care either. Although some high end side of new York still looked down on me cause of my apparant accent
As an Australian who migrated from an East Asian country, I haven't had severe racial problems. I've experienced some negativity, but not to the extent that I felt was too much to handle. To clarify my background, I came here at a young age, attended all of my high school years and university here. My English is spoken with Australian native accent, and is generally regarded as excellent.
I think white Australians do have a subconscious tendency to be slightly prejudiced against non-whites, especially if the non-white person doesn't speak English well, or behaves very differently from the norm. In my experience, people from low educational backgrounds tend to be more prejudiced than those who are educated or have experience travelling or working overseas. Those who are around 35+ years of age, particularly seem prone to racial prejudice, whereas most of the younger folk seem indifferent to racial differences.
In my case, I experienced no racial prejudice at all when I attended university. But when I entered the workforce full time, it was apparent that there quite a bit of prejudice there. Because I worked in a multi-national firm with a lot of foreign interaction, it was interesting to see how my colleagues and staff dealt with those of other races. Those who were young, had tertiary education, or have experienced travelling or working overseas, were very open and expressed no negativity when working with foreigners or non-white Australians. This was in contrast to those who were somewhat older, with relatively little education or overseas experience, who were much more prone to being angry or frustrated at foreigners, or even speak offensively to them. Whether this is due to the latter's honesty or actual prejudice, it's hard to say, but I have a feeling that the cause is prejudicial.
Having said that, there is definitely professional racism in terms of a "glass ceiling". I have -- without a shadow of doubt -- observed that people of non-white backgrounds tend to be overlooked for promotions or new jobs. White Australians or white immigrants definitely get preferential treatment, even when non-white candidates are equally qualified and experienced.
I know those generalisations are very broad. Certainly, they should not be used as general rules of thumb. They're merely my observations, which may not correlate to behaviours in other places of the country.
Overall, I don't think Australia has a racial "problem", along the lines of blacks vs whites in America or Jews vs Palestinians in the Middle East. It's something that is quite subtle and not easily seen until you immerse yourself in Australian society. Most people (comfortably more than half) are open to other races and cultures, and look favourably to multiculturalism.
sorry to hear that you met so many that had opinions and yet hadn't been anywhere. I can asure you we are certainly not all like that, I grew up in the very north of Western Australia and have been around aboriginals my whole life, many who I have had as friends. Most of the misconceptions come from people that spend their entire lives in the cities (both sides) and is normally mixed with youth 
I never believe a single word I hear on that show infact mock the tactics they use to gain sensationalised stories 
)