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When did the anti-Indian racism start?

I have lived in Australia for 40 years and have only once heard anybody make an anti-Indian comment.

All of a sudden the Indian government is claiming that Indians are not safe here because of the racism.

You never hear anti-Indian comments on TV or in the papers (unlike the comments the English get all the time, even from our Prime ministers! ) Do you think the Indian attacks we have heard about lately are a result of the selective reporting in the Indian press. (After all most of the people who have suffered attacks were not Indians)

Update:

I have Indian friends who say they have never felt racism towards them in Australia.

Update 2:

"Smart stupid silly me" I am truly astonished at what you say because everyone who has spoken of this situation to me has felt that they were more opportunistic crimes rather than racist and not one person has made anti-Indian comments, so it is really hard for me to understand any feelings of outrage from anybody. Do I just live in a particularly non-racist area? I don't think so because I get plenty of racist jibes myself.

Update 3:

Well I certainly understand the "If you don't like it here go back where you came from". That was said to me a great many times before I learned to keep my mouth shut. So that certainly fits with my experience. One thing more bothers me and that is that it seems as though the Brits are getting blamed for all the racism that people are experiencing here. European friends cop it too, but when I came to Australia I was shocked at the attitudes I encountered, particularly to Aboriginal people. The Brits. have moved on since those days and are an inclusive nation (despite some racists, yes). But they are much more aware of racism when it rears it's ugly head than we are in Australia, where we feel that we have a right to denigrate anybody (to make ourselves feel less inferior! We don't need to feel inferior but we will keep on having that problem until we see that by trashing other people we are trashing ourselves. Hard to get people to understand that)

Update 4:

I have absolutely NO sympathy for the attackers of anybody of any race or religion or nationality.

6 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The attacks in themselves were not racist in nature EACH time, although some were.

    But, the average Indian living in Australia felt that the racist comments during the crime, apathy of police and general public towards the crime and a huge blatant support of the criminals by the average Aussie was truly disappointing. Most people took the stand that Indians were not welcome and the frustration of the criminals was justified. If that isn't racist, what is ?

    Sorry to say, but it was the post-attack sentiments expressed by people and the average handling of the matter that has created this.

    If only criminals were denounced as criminals and locked away. Sympathy should be reserved for victims, not attackers.

    Lynette makes good points. Australia's reputation as a racist nation far precedes this event. Indians, on the other hand, have always been percievd as a model minority around the world. Also, the statistics of the number of attacks (racial or not) on Indians is telling.

    Perhaps Australians are just taken aback at the protests because they have always been this way and have never been confronted before. Racists often don't realize when they are being so.

    edit: If you live in an area where you experience racist jibes, but your Indian friends have never experienced racism, perhaps it is an unusual locality.

    When all this was being raised internationally, the dominant Australian sentiment appeared to be that if they didn't like it there, they could leave and that this was a situation that immigrants were themselves responsible for.

    A little sympathy and kindness would have helped a lot more than making an aggrieved victim feel more alien.

    Source(s): I hope you see the source of outrage. Here is a discussion from when the attacks first started.: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgfiV... Compare the aussie answers with others - mostly non Indians - including the b.a
  • delisi
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    i could evaluate it to be illiberal and ignorant relatively than racist. I fairly have met such human beings myself and that they merchandise to all of us speaking any language different than English no count what coloration the speaker is. a number of the main illiberal human beings I fairly have met have been English audio device in countries the place the language isn't English. They assume all and sundry to talk English and get aggravated while they do no longer. finished marks to the female for dealing with the region nicely.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    I agree. There were a couple of racial attacks by hoons, then the Indian press got into it in a big way and distorted it all out of all proportion. Almost all of of the violence on Indians has been from other Indians, including multiple instances of murder.

    Indians have always been very excitable. Time for them to take a long cold shower.

  • 1 decade ago

    Australia, like most of the world is an extremely racist country where racism is heavily imbedded in our history. We are heavily imbued with an attitude of 'white supremacy' that we continually deny:

    http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=346740871785...

    Over a decade ago an Indian friend of mine, who was born and raised in South Africa, said she never felt racism like she did when she first set foot in Australia!

    http://eurasian-sensation.blogspot.com/2010/02/add...

    Most Australians are incredibly racist and are not even aware that they are being so. Could the fact that we are seeing so much anti-Indian racism simply be that;

    1. Indian people are standing up against our 'taken-for-granted' expectations of our "right" to be racist and we are finding this incredibly confronting, and;

    2. We are now seeing a growing anti-Indian backlash by racists in Australia who do not like to have this "right" challenged in any way?

    http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=2479

    Following is some interesting commentary on the issue:

    "The point is the sudden increase in racism in Australia

    Well, I believe that the point here is not if India is racist or not but the fact that there has been a sudden increase in racism in Australia in the past few years. All countries are racist, it's how nature works but that's not the point we are trying to get across here.

    It is the fact that the sudden increase is disrupting everyone's original view on Australia. I'm a high school student living in Australia and have experienced racism myself but not at a scale that is happening right now. Australia I believe should do more about the recent events not only police vice but in other ways as well. Such as making awareness of the fact that racism is wrong and include it in the school syllabus like they do with bullying or drugs.

    I think this article high-lights many aspects of Australians history where racism has taken part, but I believe it is highly biased. The government should be doing something about it soon, so that the future generations don't experience the same things that recent generations have had to go through.

    reply

    Wed, 01/06/2010 - 04:33 — Kavita Krishnan (not verified)"

    http://links.org.au/node/1084

    "EVAN

    Posted Tuesday, 2 June 2009 at 4:08 pm | Permalink

    ARE MY CRIMINALS ARE BETTER THAN YOURS? - Q&A

    Q. How did the Indian press and visiting students find out Australia’s violent thieving thugs are actually racist?

    A. They didn’t. Our thugs are opportunist, not racist, just like any nations’ thieving thugs. It would make a good survey, though I think it may be confounded by “socially desirable responding bias”, which would be where the hard crims would think it is cool to be rascist and not answer the questions truthfully.

    Q. Why are we over-reacting to the racist tag being applied to us?

    A. I guess because we are damaged by our colonial history where violent racial acts occurred under the Australian flag. We know we didn’t do it personally but we also know we have not really done enough in our lifetime for indigenous people that have continued to suffer from those earlier ignorant acts.

    Q. How do we deal with that?

    A. With regard to the indian student thing, don’t get drawn into it - the rancorous indian students and press aren’t calling us all “violent thieving thugs”, because they know that would be too easy to knock down as flawed logic - “transferring the evidence of the particular onto the whole”. But call us racist, well… then we are getting those old guilt-buttons pushed. Let it go. After all, it is as silly as saying MY CRIMINALS ARE BETTER THAN YOURS. With regard to long term however, lets make a better effort for indigenous Australians so those buttons are so easily prodded."

    "VENISE ALSTERGREN

    Posted Tuesday, 2 June 2009 at 5:27 pm | Permalink

    Evan, Australia didn’t have a flag until recently. Every deed done, every war fought-exceptions Vietnam and Iraq-has been done under the flag of Britain.

    The more excited ‘concerned Australians’ become about being racist, the more I’m inclined to believe we are racist. If we were not racist we wouldn’t get so excited. After the Cronulla incident I was sure large numbers of people were racist. Those hoons didn’t get to be the way they are without a lot of parental advice."

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/06/02/indian-press-o...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Indi...

    http://www.medindia.net/news/Anti-Indian-Racism-In...

    http://www.sa.org.au/racism-and-refugees/2614-phon...

    http://adamaitken.blogspot.com/2009/06/anti-indian...

    http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/des...

    http://www.medindia.net/news/Anti-Indian-Racism-In...

    RE "HOONS": EVERYONE LIKES TO POINT TO GROUPS LIKE NEO-NAZIS AND THE KKK WHEN THEIR OWN RACISM IS BROUGHT UP BUT THE FACT IS THAT IS NOT ONLY TRANSFERRING THE FAULT OF PAST GENERATIONS ONTO THE FUTURE IT IS DENYING THE FACT THAT FOR THESE YOUNG PEOPLE HAD TO LEARN RACISM SOMEWHERE AS YOUNGER CHILDREN TO BE ATTRACTED TO HATE GROUPS IN THE FIRST PLACE!

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  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Wow! thankyou! I was asking myself the same question yesterday

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    I don't consider that is accurate

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