Monday, September 24, 2007

Mmm, Melbourne

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? No, for thou art strange and cold even when it looks like it's sunny and warm outside and Southern Cross Station—which shall forever be Spencer Street to me—is like the interior of a fridge and somehow I defend its peculiar architecture to a visiting friend and that's when I know that Melbourne is the city I have grown rather fond of...


*sigh*

The busiest weekend I've had in a long time involved an excellent five or so hours catching up with a friend from High School (Kimmi!), a lazy brunch in a laneway cafe, wandering, attempting to shop (and failing outrageously because the vast majority of clothes at the moment are simply appalling and only served to induce laughter. Or occasionally, horrified looks and leaving the store quickly), coffee, political discussions, excellent hot chocolate, general merriment and a mutual hatred of bad books.

It was the perfect Melbourne day, really.


The only bad thing about it was the public transport racism. On the train on the way to Spencer Street, there was an older couple behind me. They spent some time discussing the murder of Anan Liu, with the husband presenting the sentiment that "All Asian males are animals." All while there's a sweet-looking young Asian man sitting in the seat across the aisle from them... I turned around and glared at him in disbelief, but he and his wife looked smugly oblivious. Then on the bus home, a teenage boy was expressing his thoughts about how non-white people should leave Australia and go back to their own countries if they had a different opinion to him about anything, including McDonalds.

Jerks. And racist jerks at that.

I should have said something to them, but the dude on the train was big and scary looking, and you sort of don't want to incite some variety of violence or whatever... Ugh.

Even when you leave Sydney—no matter what it thinks of itself, it's ultimately a town of cashed-up, superficial bogans—and move to somewhere considered to be more multicultural, cultured and European in style, it seems you can't get away from that insidious racist element that seems to have crept into Australian life further and further and become more and more "acceptable" since Pauline Hanson made her political debut and J-Ho followed up by adopting some of her policies in the years following it.

It's one element of Australia I hate so much, that's so ridiculously unnecessary, that should have been left to rot in a dank, dark corner of history, that we should have learned from, that shouldn't be encouraged by people laughing along when someone says something obviously racist, that we need to put a stop to before it further feeds the fear of the "other" that's wrecking our multicultural goodness...


Other than that, it was the perfect Melbourne day.


Graffiti photos taken by me on the train ride in to Spencer Street Station.
Must remember to take the camera again next time and snap some more...
Gotta love graffiti on the backs of buildings facing onto the tracks.

4 comments:

Becky Daniel said...

that's so frustrating. i've lived a really sheltered life actually and was shocked in high school to discover that blantant racism wasn't murdered in the 50s, but is alive and well and sipping tea next door. and probably within myself if i look close enough.

i've got adopted prejudices about other races (asians are smart, italians are fashionable, rednecks are impreds...), but when we morph ignorance into hatred, it's disasterous for everybody.

Della said...

I think you're right that we think racism has been gotten rid of, but really it's always still been there and you often don't realise just how close to home it can be located...

At least with prejudice, which is formed without knowledge or full understanding of facts, it can be dispelled with education and information. Guess it depends on how strong a hold someone keeps on their prejudices, how much they enjoy them or how "safe" or "superiour" it makes them feel?

I agree that when it becomes hate, it's definitely not a good thing. And it's unfortunate that more people seem to be slipping into that state of mind.

“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument” ~ Sammuel Johnson

Odysseus Snelling said...

I was actually discussing this with a friend coming back from the Caf the other day... we find it amazing that in spite of the Civil rights movement that we are still incredibly racist. It is was observed that some of the most vile perpetrators of racist attitudes are actually Christians. A sad state of affairs for a religion that is meant to be taken to the world and accept everyone.

I think we were actually discussing it in the context of comedies, because there's some incredibly racist ones out there. And I think that despite the fact that the comedians are demonstrating the absurdity of racism, those that are genuinly racist feel that it justifies their opinions.

In the approximate words of Will Anderson... "Stop using the bible to support the prejudice that's really inside you..."

Della said...

Hmmm... Perhaps some are Christians (and they should know better), but there's tonnes of racism out there of all varieties and it's not just Christians who are doing it.

It's interesting, but I was reading something about black rights, Christianity, etc the other day and one of the people being interviewed saying he still doesn't think the US would elect a black president even though they like to think of themselves as progressive, modern and so on. I don't think they'd elect a woman either.

You're right about the racist comedy stuff out there at the moment. I'm not sure why but the stereotyped Tongan guy on Summer Heights High really annoys me, because you just kinda think, "Hmm, okay, maybe a couple people act like that, but why just keep on wheeling out the old, tired junk of stereotypes??"

The thing of not using the Bible to support your own prejudices is a good point, even if Wil Anderson made it. Still, I don't think it can just be blamed on Christians (particularly when you think back to things in the past with the way Christians have also often been involved with civil rights work, etc, and are still involved even if it doesn't get much coverage).

An end to dog whistling politics would help, too, I guess...