Stupid College Kids Aping Black Culture
There were lots of great things about my overnight trip to the nation’s capital, but there was very one particular stand out blemish to the small road trip.
I don’t go clubbing a lot or very often but generally when I have, I thoroughly enjoy it. I’m well aware that I dance like at total geek/dork, but there’s nothing like ‘losing yourself’ in the music.
My experience however of clubbing in our nation’s capital left me feeling extraordinary disappointed at how seemingly backwards we are in Australia. A group of us were walking through the heart of Canberra’s ‘night life’ on the Friday night and although we had a couple of drinks we were by no means rowdy, we were simply jovial and keeping to ourselves. At some point during the night the fact that a couple of us (2 out of 5) were ‘Asian’ dawned on a few observant Canberrans and they simply couldn’t resist the temptation to throw a few unprovoked racist comments.
The comment that was particularly funny but at the time most enraged me, was one that was directed at ‘Dave’ – a friend of Carmen’s who is as ‘white’ as you can get. In amongst the ‘banter’ the best comeback the other guy could come up with was “look at you! you’re asian” to which I had to interject and query his intelligence and vision and although I’m not proud of calling some random guy a “blind xenophobic f*-wit” it was immensley satisfying particularly when he looked completely puzzled… ?maybe I should have said xenophobic in English for him.
Racism, especially that directed toward “Indians” has been rather topical of late in Australia and even though this was not the first time I’d experienced racial prejudice, until now I had dimissed and denied how ‘racist’ we are as a nation. Admitedly Australia is better than most countries in accepting other cultures, but we still have a long way to go…. which leads me on to something completely different which I will post about perhaps in my travels and that is how “we” as a nation seemingly strives for mediocrity (proudly) when in fact we should be striving to not lead but to set examples to the world.
As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: verb 1. make or become different 2. exchange for another 3. move from one to (another) 4. (change over) move from one system or situation to another 5. exchange (a sum of money) for the same sum in a different currency or denomination.
noun 1. the action of changing 2. an instance of becoming different 3. money returned to someone as the balance of the sum paid or money given in exchange for the am sum in larter units 4. coins as oppose to banknotes 5. a clean garment or garments as replacement clothing 6. an order in which a peal of bells can be rung.
It wasn’t very long ago that “change” to a lot of people who graduated high school in the year 2002 was a dirty word overused and over analysed in the 2002 HSC. I have to admit that the word had lost meaning thanks to the English curriculum. The meaning and the ideas of making “change” has been a bit of a lost concept.
Recently, I have been co-inspired by Wyatt Moss-Wellington and dear friend Louise Nutting in our combined discontent (I suspect that Wyatt may have stronger feelings) of the current situation we live. The positive person within me wants to say that we should appreciate how lucky we are to be living in such a fortunate country, but as time goes on I can not simply ignore how I don’t agree ethically and morally with the views portrayed by “our” politicians and also the lies that are being perpetuated by the mass media on a global scale. Not only do I disagree ethically and morally on many of the federal government’s standings on issues, I also believe that we can not simply be counting our blessings and say that we have it “pretty good” here in Australia. Yes it’s pretty good here in Australia, but we should be better, in fact we should be leaders in the world.
I can’t but reflect on the lessons that we were taught in high school, particularly in English and how the aim was to teach us how to reflect, consider and analyse the different perspectives, view points or opinions (whatever you wish to call them). We were taught through the use of Frontline to look through the ‘dodgy’ practices of a current affair programs, yet my feelings are that our newspapers and television media have degenerated to such a state that it is no longer just the current affairs program that we need to take with a grain of salt, but also the wider news that is available to us on news website and television news bulletins.
We should all be demanding to know the truth, yet the problem is knowing when it is you’re being lied to. My fear with “not trusting” all the time is that personally you can run the risk of being an overly sceptical person which when unmonitored can slowly turn you into a cynical person.
One of the first things we need to do as part of the process of making change is to find a way to spread the truth. As for the rest… we have much planning. Even if things are in vain, at least we’re going to try and make a change.
March 22, 2010 9:30 pm | 
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