I am an incurable cynic and as such I can’t shake the feeling that Australia will never change. Our society will always be unequal on racial, economic and a myriad of other grounds, we will always fear the “other”, we will always be entirely unwilling or incapable to hear any differing opinions.
But, interestingly enough, judging by the letters and comments that spew out of the cesspool-minds of the populace at the slightest provocation, the reasons for the fear seem to be changing. Not on all subjects, of course. There was a quite farcical thread on news.com.au earlier in the week about celebrities backing same sex relationship equality that came out with the same tired fears, non-arguments and unthinking prejudices. Whenever some misguided columnist trots out a “battle of the sexes” type meme the comments are so predictable you could dance to them.
Indeed, the responses to any immigration argument also seem to follow the same lines every time. It’s usually a selection of Muslim bashing, laments about the Australian way of life being under threat and some misguided notions about Sharia law topped off with the old refrain about learning “the language”, by which we assume they mean English. But hasn’t that changed in the last ten years? What about immigrants taking jobs that should go to good honest, hardworking “Aussie battlers”? How about the marked shift in which immigrants Australians fear, from those from Asian nations we all remember being decried in the Howard/Hansen era to the untrustworthy Muslims from the Middle East. What about the way in which they’re viewed? It’s gone from industrious people who will undercut wages and thus threaten workers to a shadowy burka-shaped threat of suicide bombings and complete social collapse. It’s as if people who want to hate immigrants have decided a physical threat of destruction lurking around every corner will gain more traction than an economic threat. Like they’re running an awareness campaign. Eventually they’ll put out a ribbon for sale at post offices and supermarket checkouts.
Am I wrong? Is this just a new way of expressing the same fear that the White Australia policy was based on (which, of course, we can assume was nothing to do with race because there is no racism in Australia, that’s just for other countries)? Or has there truly been a shift in the way Australians express their xenophobia?
The thing is, I really believe in multiculturalism. It’s true that it is problematic in so many ways. It’s true that prejudices and fears and oppressive forces against people viewed as “outsiders” will take generations to overcome, if they can be overcome at all. And more than anything, it’s true that as all these immigrants jostle for position, Aboriginal Australians continue to be erased and silenced. But I can think of nothing worse than living in a world in which everyone is identical. I don’t want to live in a place where there are no different languages, cultures or ways of thinking. To those who demand people learn “the language”, I constantly want to ask what efforts they’ve made to learn another language. Perhaps an Aboriginal one? Imagine how the world would be different if everyone learnt the language of the person at their local shop. Saying goodmorning or goodafternoon in the native tongue of someone you don’t know, but who you see every day. That, my friends, is community. As a continent of immigrants and a nation of constantly competing prejudices we cannot presume to value what we consider to be “our group”, whatever that may be, over any other. That is multiculturalism. Respecting that everyone is different and that society is better for those differences.
The fact is Australia is still in the very early days of being a multicultural nation. When my grandparents were my age, it wasn’t even heard of. Surely we can hope that in a generation’s time a lot of these old fears will be a thing of the past? But what worries me is that if in just ten years the focus of that hatred has shifted to become more seductive to an unthinking dominant group, will Australian xenophobia be a shape-shifting ugliness we will forever be glimpsing out of the corner of our eye?
Update: I thought I’d add some thoughts based on a conversation I had with eleusis7 on Twitter. He said that as an immigrant he’s wary of people who presume to talk to him in a language he might understand. And that was an angle that I half considered when Meggy commented about traveling and speaking the local language but couldn’t quite put into words. There’s a specific kind of arrogance in the presumption that you can guess a person’s culture based on the way they look. As eleusis7 said “it’s a special kind of racism, ie you look different, maybe you’re not one of us, maybe I’ll try speaking in a different language that you might understand”. That is such a great point I couldn’t not add it. For the record I realise how arrogant that would be and it’s a matter of privilege that I didn’t consider that in my post. I was working with a utopia notion of a world in which people talk to each other in their neighbourhood, know each other and are able to converse in an appropriate language. There’s no reason that English speakers should only speak English, is the point I was trying to make. As eleusis7 said, it’s not so much the requirement to learn English that is the problem, it’s the lack of respect with which that message is delivered.
It’s an interesting conversation about language, how society respects languages that aren’t dominant and the fact that even English is the language of the coloniser and hence far from politically laden. I also wonder how to reconcile the preservation of different cultures and languages with the fact that without a working language of English immigrants will be politically, economically and socially isolated. As the dominant group, I see that it’s the responsibility of Australians who speak English as a first language to make the accommodations for that. But I’m interested in your thoughts.
11 Comments
November 6 at 10:39 pm
I am positive that anyone in Australia is allowed to not only hold but share their small minded, oppressive, sexist, racist etc etc views as long as they preface it by “I am not sexist/homophobic/racist… but” or “I have an asian/aboriginal/white/female friend.. therefore…” this grants us a free for all on any misguided and unfounded hatred really. The idea that everyone is ‘equal’ is too abhorent to most ‘Aussies’ as they were here first didnt you know
November 6 at 10:42 pm
On an unrelated note, when travelling to other countries and cultures i always learn how to say Hello, how are you, please and thank you oh and most importantly “cold beer”
November 6 at 10:59 pm
Oh yes, somehow saying “I have wildly intolerant views of group X” is okay so long as you can claim to tolerate one member of said group. So irritating.
November 7 at 8:42 pm
@Meggy & Shiny
It’s so fucking true. My family, well, mostly the males in my family are usually the worst at this. “I don’t hate people from XYZ but I hate XYZ traits of theirs” which is just the biggest logicfail ever.
also, Meggy:
Best thinking ever, I do that too, except instead of “cold beer” I usually ask “how much for a pack of smokes”.
It amazed me when I went to Amsterdam earlier this year how every (English) tourist over there just expected them to speak English first. I’d always try and remember to say “Hello, how is your day?” in Dutch *before* asking “Do you speak English?”
It’s amazing how far learning to say “please” and “thank you” in whatever country your visiting’s local tongue will get you. Manners are still important.
November 7 at 8:44 pm
Also:
Shiny, why is that you and I always seem to read the comments on Perthnow when we just know it’s going to cause some serious brain drain?
November 8 at 6:49 pm
Um, because we’re masochists?
November 9 at 10:29 am
Berry – i think that people from predominantly English speaking nations are in most, quite rude and suffer from superiority complex. In the Europian, South American, Asian nations i have visited hte people are polite, more gracious, more willing to help strangers, willing to try and overcome the language divergence whereas over in Australia people generally find it all too hard. They think its some sort of right of passage to travel and appear worldly/cultured by remain completely ignorant while doing so!
Our country seems to have this ‘closed door’ policy, in that what happens outside peoples own house is of little to no concern for people.
November 9 at 10:31 am
Comments on news websites can’t possibly be representative. When John Howard was PM, the majority of the comments – towards the end – were anti-Howard. Now they’re anti-Rudd. I guess it’s the people who feel like their voices aren’t being heard (which is ironic, because they are being heard) yell the loudest. The latest Nielsen in the SMH shows two options: do you approve or disapprove of the way Rudd is handling the asylum seeker issue? It’s assumed that those who disapprove think he should be tougher, but I wonder how many feel he’s being too tough?
November 17 at 5:36 pm
I found your blog through no-added-msg and just thought I’d comment on the last bit about people who presume to think they are cultured by being to say hello to a person in their own language. I experience this on a fairly regular basis, being a person of chinese descent (a bit of background, my family tree made a few side trips before they actually got to Australia, so going back 3 or 4 generations, each generation was born a completely different continent). Now, its not a bad thing to able to say hello to a person in their native language. If you did it to a person in their own country, where you are the tourist, yes thats plite and will be received quite well. That demonstrates that you are not ignorant and appreciate that you are in a foreign country and are making an effort to learn their culture.
Like most things that universally exist beyond such things as spoken word, its all about context. Its incredibly embarrassing, rather arrogant, self serving, patronising and just plain ignorant to assume the ethnicity and ability to speak english of a person you do not know, have never met and have not actually heard speak. That is the mistake that many Australians make, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, I generally assume that they are ignorant and well meaning rather than just plain stupid but you do get the really really stupid ones.
I’m talking about those people that randomly catcall to you in the street with a “Ni Hao!” or a “Konnichiwa!” as if its a demonstration of how cultured they are because they can say hello in another language. Generally I respond with a glare or a rather curt “Hello” and walk away since they don’t usually have any other reason to talk to me other than making a fool of themselves in front of their peers. Given the number of people that rant about new immigrants needing to be able to speak english, they seem rather perplexed when they meet a non-caucasian who actually does speak english fluently. I of course have a rather unusual background, so its understandable that people get confused. It goes something like:
“Wow you speak really good english”
“Really? funny that”
“Yeah, you have a really good accent. So where are you from anyway?
“”
“Oh is that in China?”
“Umm…no, it South of the River, nearish to South Perth”
“Oh, so you were born here? are your parents from China then, or Singapore? Malaysia, ?”
“No. They are from ”
“Oh wow I didn’t know you were adopted.”
“I’m not”
“But you don’t look black”
“You have incredible powers of observation”
“What, you mean there are chinese people in Africa? wow thats amazing!”
But the fact remains, that regardless of the fact that the ability to speak minimal english is needed to get by in Australia, the people that get offened the most are those that don’t like hearing other people speaking to eachother in their native tongue in public. I used to catch the bus with alot of Malaysian highschool students. They would talk to eachother in cantonese and english to the bus driver. Other people on the bus would sometimes mutter angrily to themselves that these people should speak english to eachother because its rude. Rude? its not like they are saying nasty things about the other bus patrons, they are simply talking to eachother in the manner which is most comfortable. This seems to be the crux of the issue.
It is possible to preserve ones culture and still assimilate. Its a hard balancing act but I found, being raised in Aussie culture, that you have a huge amount of pressure from the “Aussie” side of things to completely cast off one’s heritage and embrace all things “Aussie”. Such things as I was told, like swearing profusely, drinking beer and liking AFL. Being raised by strict immigrant parents I was amazed at the lack of respect my peers at school had for their elders and lack of, well, aspirations to achieve academically, in fact they actively encouraged eachother to be mediocre (Not a generalisation, just an observation of that group of people). Its no wonder that asian students often top the end of year 12 achievers list. They don’t have any greater potential than aussie kids, their parents just push them harder (some to the point of ental breakdown but thats something else entirely) and encourage them to achieve the top grades. Why should we, who are not of Anglo-Celtic heritage, give up our own heritage, languages and culture in order to conform when we have so much to offer to the people of Australia. If those people that call for total assimilation would open their eyes to the world around them, they would enrich their lives instead of isolating themselves in their own preconceived world of mediocrity.
erm…thats all I have to say for now lol.
November 17 at 5:58 pm
Great comment, thanks for your thoughts. I think what you say about being able to assimilate and preserve one’s own culture – is what I think when I hear “multicultural”. The notion that one language or culture doesn’t necessarily trump another but can be complementary.
Hopefully as people are exposed more and more to people speaking in their native languages to each other in public, that pressure for total assimilation will fade. Still, it seems to be taking a really long time.
November 17 at 6:19 pm
A perfect example would be the fear campaign against Kevin Rudd just because he can speak Mandarin fluently. He’s not perfect and certainly has failings in certain areas of policy but seriously…his ability to speak a NON EUROPEAN language should be admired and held up as a shining example to all, not used as a thinly veiled attack against multiculturalism. It cannot be denied that the asian community in Australia gives him a lot of respect for it. (like my parents, who grew up being oppressed by white colonialists and still think after 30 years living here that Australians are racist, reckon the sun shines out of Rudd’s behind…)
Alas, sometimes I fear we are actually regressing as a society. The number of yobbos that use the Southern Cross and Australian flags as badges of their ignorant nationalistic views are demaning the very nation they purport to revere
Hate to say it, but to use an often abused saying, those Diggers who fought and still fight for our country and our flag would probably be rolling in their graves if they could see these people now.