Racism

According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary
racism is defined as -
1. The belief that a race has certain qualities or
abilities, giving rise to the view that some races
are better than others.
2. Discrimination against or hostility towards other
race/s.

I guess the worse case of this was the Nazi belief
that the German race was better than the Jews.

Since moving to the Latrobe Valley in 1974, I have
seen or heard of a few cases of discrimination/racism.

The first was about 1974-1980 when a number of
aboriginals (defined as a native of a country prior to
the arrival of colonists) would gather in a park in
Commerical Road, every second Friday and drink
alcohol from brown paper bags. They would be there
from 10 a.m. to nearly 4 p.m. and were quite drunk,
loud and abusive to passer-bys. I was amazed and
asked why the police were not called to have them
removed and was told, "They are aboriginals." So
I said, and was told "The police would be accused
of racism." I sai9d that was bull s..t as the men
were drunk and abusive in public and as such were
breaking the law. The reply was "Yes if they were
white, their arses would be put in jail."

The second was in the 1980's when another driver's
wife, (My husband was a bus driver for the local
bus line.) that she was paid money to send her
children to school. I wasn't paid to send my kids to
school when I asked her how I could get onto this wicket
she said it was only for children of aboriginal descent.
She also told me that her aboriginal husband took that
money and used it to get drunk every weekend and then
he beat her up. (My white husband took money out of his
pay every weekend and got drunk and beat me up so I know
where she was coming from on that issue, but it was the
money paid to sent her kids to school, I NEVER GOT THAT!!!

The third was in 1997 when my fiancé's son Ross was
being bullied at school. He was white and the bully
was an aboriginal boy. This 'coloured' boy HIT Ross.
nothing was done even though Ross told the teacher
about it and 'witnesses' supported Ross's story. This
other boy was not even suspended. My fiancé told his
son "If he hits you again knock him down!" A couple
of days later that is what happened. Ross was suspended
for a week but the boy who started the fight WAS NOT.
When I asked about this. I was told "We can suspend
him, he's an aboriginal and we would be called racist."

In the early 2000 to about 2005, the local shops were
plagued by gangs of aboriginal boys aged about 13-15.
They would come in and annoy the customers and owners
and run off with what they could get their hands on.
When complaints were made to the police we were told
"Oh yes we know who they are, they are all under age
and live with an adult in (Name of street)." When
asked what was going to happen about it we were told
"NOTHING, there's no point."

In 2005 one of these gangs came to our shop and my
fiancé told them to get out and only come back in groups
of no more than TWO and only if they had MONEY. As
they left one of them screamed out "Racist bastard."

The sixth example was in the local paper. Now my
fiancé is in a housing co-op and if they advertised for
a receptionist and put in the ad "Whites need only to apply."
It would be described as blatant discrimination and racist.
Yet the local Aboriginal co-op put an ad in the local paper
and put in "Aboriginals need only to apply."

The latest example might not be racist. Earlier this year
my granddaughter and her fiancé wanted to sell their house
to buy a bigger one. They looked at similar houses to theirs
in town, that were up for sale. So they had a price to work
with, they then checked out the banks to see if they could get
a loan for the difference between what they expected and what
the new house was going to cost. It just fitted their budget.
So then they called in three of the local real estate agents.
This is what each one told them. "You'll never get that for
this house, expect at least $30,000 to $50,000 less." They
were shocked and asked WHY??? Because their house's back yard,
back's onto (the street I mentioned in fourth example). This
street is known for the number of drunken brawls that occur
ONCE a fortnight, which includes quarrels and stabbings. Then
when it is quiet there are loud shouting matches nearly every
night with loud blaring music.

So now they are stuck as no-one has made an offer on the house
(not even at $20,000) less than what they wanted.) Any less
than that and they could not get the new house as they could
not afford any extra on the housing loan, as the repayments
would be too much for them.

So in each case the discrimination I have seen or heard about
has been against white people. Never once have I seen or heard
any racism being directed at 'coloured' people.

Adam Goodes

I will start off by saying that I am neither a bigot nor
racist.

I did not see the game on Saturday, so I do not what
behaviour Adam Goodes indulged in to be called an ape.

I see nothing offense in the term as far as racism goes.

Charles Darwin in his study of the origin of man, said
that we are all descendants from the apes. From the
behavior I have seen displayed by some adult 'humans'
some of us are a lot closer to those descendants that
perhaps society would like.

I saw some of that behavior displayed by Mr. Goodes
when the TV stations replayed the footage from the
game.

What I saw was an adult male who appeared to be screaming
at some spectators in the stands. He was shaking his head
and pointing his finger. He appeared very anger.

I have seen the same behavior from adult alpha male apes,
at the zoo. This occurs when they do not get their way.

What I saw was an adult bullying a child!!

Not only that but the security guards did actually
remove said child, much to my disgust. I was also
disgusted that the spectators around the girl did not
protest the security guards actions.

I later learned that this 13 year old was held at the
police station and question for a number of hours.

If this had been a 'coloured' child and the person she
yelled at was 'white' adult, none of this would have
happened.

White people have tried to appease 'coloured' people
for the wrongs of the past for so long, that they have
now made door mats of themselves. It is about time they
stood up for themselves.

To make matters worse Mr. Goodes went on TV the next
day and instead of saying
"I am sorry for my actions last night, I got angry and
over reacted, I am a man and as such know that 'sticks
and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt
me.' I hope the child was not traumatized by my actions
and those of the security guards."
Instead he tried to justify his behavior by blaming the
child, he claimed to be 'hurt' by the remark, (For god
sake GROW A PAIR!!!)and to exacerbate the situation he
then vilifiedthe child's parents by saying their were not
raising their child the right way!

If I was this child's parents I would be seeing a lawyer
with the intention of suing this man for slander.

As for what racism really is I will write about next time,
and as for this storm in a teacup, as Forest Grump said
"That is all I have to say about that."

Anything

The Kransky Sisters

"Driving Miss Daisy"

Saturday 27th April saw Meg, Kath and myself driving to
Melbourne.

It was a big surprise and was Meg's Mother's Day present
and my birthday present combined, as she paid everything
for me.

We went to one of the shopping centers as Meg wanted to
return a jumper she bought that had a snag on it.

She drove around for nearly ten minutes before we got a
spot. It was in the spaces set aside for Kmart customers.

As it turned out the shop did not have any others so she
kept the one she had after all, and the time we wasted there
meant that we did not get to go to the Melbourne Hotel for
high tea.

As we drove through town we passed two theaters, one had
the Russian ballet, the other had "Driving Miss Daisy."

I did not want to go to either of those shows but if given
the choice I hoped it was the second rather than the first.

We found a park just around the corner from the theatre and
we went for lunch. we tried four places before we could find
a place that could fit us in. Both Meg and Kath's meal came
and they had finished eating before mine arrived.

But we got to the theatre with ten minutes to spare.

I did enjoy the show, Angela Lansbury was in the main role and
she was amazing.

At the end of the show I asked one of the ushers could he go
back stage and get the cast's autograph for me. He came back
and said that there was a side door and the actors left by that.

So we went around to the side and we waited for about 15 minutes.
An usher came out and looked at the 10 people standing there and
went back inside. There was only four groups there waiting.

He came back out and said that Angela had left and the other
actors did not leave between shows. everyone left. I said that
he was lying as the first people were there as soon as the show
finished.

It was very disappointing. That close to have her in Melbourne
and we travelled 180 kms and couldn't get her autograph.

After the show we went for a walk and found a chocolate shop that
the girls thought was great. They bought some. But just around
the corner was a cake shop and the front window was wonderful,
there was a line of about twenty people waiting to eat in. But
we just bough some cake, each piece was $9 which was about twice
what it should have been.

When we cam out we saw a