Changing Things I Cannot Accept
“Black Dolls, Gollywogs and Dictionaries”
A common refrain people of non-European descent hear when we voice offense or concern is “political correctness gone mad”. Somehow nostalgia and tradition have become trump cards for the continued promotion and consumption of racist paraphernalia and vernacular. It’s no wonder then that for a lot of my peers and including myself, it’s easy to fall into a routine cynicism. However this is not the way it has to be, I want to share in this piece, moments of change in 2015, where taking action and reasserting our right to not be dehumanized in public spaces or institutions has resulted in progress. The first experience is a personal one, when I was in a local Darwin chemist and stumbled across this.
I can’t call myself an Indigenous Australian and also say sovereignty never ceded
Aboriginal sovereignty is not an abstract idea and can’t be dismissed as such. IndigenousX host Callum Clayton-Dixon explains the concept and why he thinks it’s integral to the future of Indigenous people in Australia.
Government not on track to meet Closing the Gap targets because of course they aren’t.
A Productivity Commission has found that the government will probably not meet 5 of the 6 Closing the Gap targets, leaving many astounded to hear that they might actually achieve one of them.
(It should be noted at the outset that the government’s ‘Closing the Gap’ is not the same as ‘Close the Gap’, which is a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and community organisations.)
Cultural Awareness Training Is Not A Punishment, Or A Cure-All For Institutional Racism
By now you could possibly have seen the story about a South Australian cop who called an Aboriginal man a “black c—” and said he would like to “tie the hose around your neck, set you on fire, and drag you around the streets attached to our car with the lights and sirens on.” I say possibly because the story did not get much airtime in the national press and the police officer in question was neither demoted nor fired
I’m Not A ‘Proud Australian’
I don’t “feel” Australian. I don’t ever identify as just “Australian”. I don’t sing the anthem. I don’t wave the flag and don’t really care when I see someone burning it. I don’t feel proud on Australia Day. I don’t eat lamb chops. Frankly, I don’t particularly care for the people who do all the aforementioned. Indeed, a good portion of the time, I tend to view them with disdain and frustration.
