Cassius Turvey: Aboriginal boy's killing puts spotlight on racism in Australia

I seem to remember reading in Bill Bryson's book about Australia (Down Under, published in 2000) that white Australians he met there would seem perfectly polite and decent until he turned the conversation to Aborigines, when they'd often practically start frothing at the mouth.

Have you come across this, hedda? Would be interested in hearing your views on this.

It's interesting thread Jo.

I have witnessed racism from black, white and Asian. In 1990 to 1992. I was going to USA back to the UK. To collect my belongings and saying goodbyes to friends I have met there.


In Texas, there's a place called Fort Worth. I went to Stop Six, to drop a friend home after a night out. He is black, and lived in Stop Six, it is a black neighbourhood.

I got nothing but glares, my car was spat at and I got verbal abuse. It was first time I was a called a "cracker and a white negro".

Desoto wasn't as bad but I only felt safe if I was friends with someone who knew the local people.

Even then I was bombarded with questions, like where I am from, what are you after or do I know so and so?

If you looked at a pretty girl they thought you were a threat and say "Black girls here don't go with white dudes, if we see you see you looking at our women we will kill you".

This was the first time I had a gun pointed at me. Every gun is a loaded gun. My friend calmed the situation down, but I was on egg shells during the rendezvous.

I was warned not to go through either hood but I wanted to see a home and say some farewells.

You have to be a masochist in Oz to be a racist..walk out onto the street into any shop and you are surrounded by people from a 100 nations.

Aboriginals have been badly treated though and ghastly creatures like Pauline Hanson stir the pot with stupid claims like $Billions are spent on them (mostly in govt employee wages) implying they get the money and spend it.

The murder of young Cassius is a horrible story and there are pockets of racism against Aboriginals.

Afterall the British tried to breed them out and they were only accepted as citizens in a 1960 referendum.

Generations of being treated like that..of course they are behind the eight ball when people like me have had generations of privilege going back 100s of years.

Overall, Aussies accept everyone and the vast majority know Aboriginal Australians need a leg up.

Don't start me though on the young drunken Brits and Irish backpackers in Bondi

Thanks for your interesting post, hedda. I had no idea that the British tried to breed out Aboriginals and that they weren't given citizenship until 1960. That's incredible.

That sounds like an unpleasant experience, GM.

Jo wrote:
Thanks for your interesting post, hedda. I had no idea that the British tried to breed out Aboriginals and that they weren't given citizenship until 1960. That's incredible.

That sounds like an unpleasant experience, GM.

Go there to find out how unpleasant people can be. It's funny also a lot of hate crime id against the Asians is done by black Americans.


The media won't report it of course and if you lived in dodgy parts like I did you witnessed a lot.

We used to joke about The Equaliser the show TV. "It wasn't a show but a documentary".

Eric Adams, is the worst major of NYC in 40 years. He only apologised because he was caught using a racial slur.


nypost.com/2022/02/04/eric-adams-apologi...-cracker-colleagues/

Generally most people aren't racist in Australia, remember it's a huge multi cultural society..

It's not dominated necessarily by white anglos, in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide (and no doubt other cities) there's a huge Chinese, Indian, Thai, Cambodian, Veitnam, Sri Lankan, Greek, African communities, people who now call Australia home.. The media and interest groups often raise the racism flag with big headlines because of one or two nasty and very unfortunate cases.. but it's not indicative of the nation..

Of course you get drunks, yobs (chavs) and silly idiots who say and do stupid things when they're out in groups on a Saturday night.. but that happens pretty well everywhere in western countries..

So it's wrong for the media or interest groups to blanket label things in such a way... but of course we all know how the media like to exaggerate and embellish things for Headline News.

da da da v wrote:
Generally most people aren't racist in Australia, remember it's a huge multi cultural society..

It's not dominated necessarily by white anglos, in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide (and no doubt other cities) there's a huge Chinese, Indian, Thai, Cambodian, Veitnam, Sri Lankan, Greek, African communities, people who now call Australia home.. The media and interest groups often raise the racism flag with big headlines because of one or two nasty and very unfortunate cases.. but it's not indicative of the nation..

Of course you get drunks, yobs (chavs) and silly idiots who say and do stupid things when they're out in groups on a Saturday night.. but that happens pretty well everywhere in western countries..

So it's wrong for the media or interest groups to blanket label things in such a way... but of course we all know how the media like to exaggerate and embellish things for Headline News.

Most people aren't racist, only just a small minority of people. Jo has started another race baiting thread.

Bill Bryson, probably asked a small handful of people in his book not the whole fucking country. Even then he was probably being a provocateur to get a reaction to write about for his book.