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Hi Aaron,
I don’t post very often but I love reading all your articles and posts of the others and I just wanted to pass on that your Australia Day article, for me did what I believe it was supposed to do. It made me think and reflect. I grew up in Bankstown. I lived there for 35years and the changes to the area, the community culture and the feel or soul of the place in that time is just really sad. I was never afraid to walk around Bankstown square when I was younger as I and most of the teens, of different heritages, just all wanted the same thing as all teens – acceptance and to be cool. But as I grew older, and possibly wiser, I used to walk briskly back to my car after work with my keys clenched in my fists in case someone attacked me. The society that I lived in was changing and the preconceived prejudices were being passed from parent to child.
Another part of your article talks about why young men of another nationality would have such racial resentment and it made me remember something else. I received a Catholic Girls education (and yes, sometimes I feel sorry for me too!. Lol), and some of my dearest friends were girls (and boys) of Lebanese heritage. Some of the things that stand out clearest in my memory are some of these girls especially, struggling to find their place in our western, modern society. One particular friend of mine who is Lebanese, was followed to school randomly by her father and sometimes her brother(s)/uncles, as she was too outspoken at home and was being influenced by ‘bad’ (me) girls. Doesn’t matter that I had never met her father or that her brothers called me a slut (but in Lebanese, which she taught me) whenever they saw me, but because I was non-Lebanese, then that was it. I was bad. It always struck me as so sad that her family came voluntarily to Australia for a ‘better way of life’ and to get away from the war, yet chose to not try to understand and be a part of the society they chose to live in. Her father learnt basic English, wouldn’t let his wife learn it and him and the boys ruled the roost. Yet they werent fundamentalist Lebanese, these people were church going, god worshipping, Catholic. I know the Catholic doctrine has a lot to answer for but I just couldn’t figure out how the 2 ways of life gelled.
Watching snippets of the race riots last year, and I agree you couldn’t call them anything but, I was sick to my stomach, the same as watching the link in your article, the Granville boys video and having an very short browse in stormfront (very scary). It made me think of my friend and be sad all over again, as I knew that if her dad is still alive, to him it would be undeniable proof that he was right all along.
Another thing that I remembered is having conversations with a couple of my male friends who were told by their parents that they were to go out and have sex with anglo girls but they were not to touch ‘insert nationality here’ girls. Oh and not to worry about any babies as they didn’t matter as we were all sluts. WTF! One of the other things that this has all brought back for me is being spoken about in another language right in front of me. Problem is (actually for me) was that I understood half of what was being said. I had quite a broad “cussing” range in several languages. Back then it was a popular past time for the boys to teach anglo girls to swear in their ‘parents’ (interesting distinction) language.
Look forward to your next piece. Cheers
Su-Anne. :)
Thanks so much, Su-Anne, I have little to say in response, actually, because you've pretty much said it, and I don't like interfering for the sake of it, when people write in with their own experiences, unless there's something pressing from it. But thanks so much for your experiences, it gives us another perspective from someone involved in the horrible cultural conflict in our society. In the end, we have this useless catch-22, where both sides "respond" to a "response" which is a "response" to a "response", and in the end, the line becomes blurred, and both sides see each other's actions as legitimising their racism, rather than realising it is actually caused by each other's racism. And I think your experiences and observations reflect this. So thanks so much for writing in! Aaron
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