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Racism as a Function of Egalitarianism "we don't believe we are better than the "brown skins" as the English do; we fear we are inferior" Adele Horin - journalist Australia has a strong egalitarian streak. Ironically, it is perhaps as a side effect of this streak that Australians are often perceived as racist by the international community. One of the problems with egalitarianism is that it often results in criticism being directed at foreigners who intentionally or unintentionally communicate attributes of superiority. Australians often react to the perceived superiority with subtle insults that could be taken as racism. The insults are not designed to make the foreigner feel inferior, rather, they are designed to stop them feeling superior. For example, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Australian public embraced Eric the Eel, an African swimmer with no more ability than those watching. Eric struggled to swim 50 meters but every stroke was accompanied by the kind of cheer normally reserved for gold medallists. While Eric the Eel was being celebrated, America's champion athletes were booed. Nicole Beatty, a letter to the editor writer, explained the booing of Americans, "We don't boo Yanks because we think they are better than us. We boo yanks because they think they are better than us." In other words, whereas some cultures build their esteem with insults that intend to make them feel superior, many Australians build it with insults that intend to stop others appearing to be superior.
Eric the Eel at the 2000 Olympics The ethic that a tall-poppy is fair game can lead into some derogatory comments that are unintentionally racist. For example, when American businessman man Solomon Dennis "Sol" Trujillo was head hunted to become Telstra CEO in 2005, he offended the ego of some Australian businessmen, politicians and journalists. As a consequence, they repeatedly made reference to Trujillo's Mexican heritage, which included caricatures of him as one of the three amigos. The insult was picked up and proliferated throughout Australian society without any complaint. When Trujillo returned to America, Australia's left-wing prime minister Kevin Rudd celebrated his departure with the words "adios." Reporting journalists laughed at the comment. In 2009, Trujillo told an American audience that he was the victim of racism. It was a claim many Hispanic Americans agreed with. As far as they were concerned, the jokes were the equivalent of drawing Obama looking like a monkey in order to belittle his policies. Some Australian journalists later made concessions that although Trujillo had a small point, it was hard to feel sorry for a multi-millionaire. While Sol was indeed a millionaire, a derogatory stereotype of a a race had been used to demean the tall-poppy and in that regard, a whole race had been offended in the desire to offend the singular individual. Such was their focus on vilifying Trujillo that the journalists failed to realise that they were also vilifying Hispanics. (Kevin Rudd likewise refused to apologise or concede his adios comment could have been racist.)
Another problem with egalitarianism is that Australians often treat other cultures like they treat themselves, which includes subjecting them to forced self-depreciation. For example, for decades the Red Faces segment of Hey Hey it's Saturday was used as a stage for people to make fools out of themselves. In 2009, a group of highly successful medical practitioners, from non English speaking backgrounds, continued the tradition with spoof of the Jackson 5. While Australians have learnt to accept having the piss taken out of them and take it out of themselves, other cultures find piss taking deeply offensive. Specifically, Americans reacted in quite a hostile way to the Jackson 5 being made to look like buffoons.
Hey Hey it's Saturday and the Jackson Jive A third problem with egalitarianism is that some cultures view it as a sign of rudeness, arrogance, or disrespect. For example, in 1980 a Japanese prefecture sponsored a weekend seminar to discuss problems that Japanese people might experience in Australia. One speaker, Hiro Mukai, stated: "Australians appear very naive to the newly-arrived Japanese. They speak the same way with everyone." Japan is a hierarchical society, in which a different language is used depending upon the relative status of the people communicating. Formal Japanese is particularly important when people encounter each other for the first time. In Australia; however, the language is very egalitarian. Titles are rare and a boss will probably speak to a worker in the same manner they would speak to a friend. Ironically, this can be offensive to many Asian countries. It can even be offensive to European countries, such as England, where a lack of formality is interpreted as a sign of arrogance. In a nutshell, many cultures consider a failure to give respect to be a sign of racism. They don't appreciate being treated in the same manner as a garbage collector or a shoe salesman. Furthermore, they don't believe Australians should automatically assume to be on the same level as them. A fourth problem with egalitarianism is that can be used to justify prejudice. During China's cultural revolution, student activists tortured and humiliated anyone that they believed lacked egalitarian values. Paradoxically, the students used their belief in their own egalitarianism to justify their own superiority. Arguably, something similar has occurred in Australia with the racism directed at Indian students. As far as some Australians are concerned, the attacks have been justified because the Indians are from hierarchical cultural backgrounds. A final problem with egalitarianism is that it makes many Australians equate self-praise with racism. In 1998, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission defined racism as "an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups, that devalues and renders inferior those groups, that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society." In order to deal with their difficulties with self praise, many Australians feel they have to tell the world that Australia is a racist society in order to prove that Australians don't really consider themselves superior. For example, the author of this article used to teach the cultures of English speaking nations in a Chinese university. The Australian authors of the Australian section of the prescribed textbook had defined Australia as a racist society and used the stolen generations and the white Australia policy to justify the opinion. As strange as it may sound, defining Australia as a racist society was probably a method used to impress. The textbook's authors probably thought that if they publicly denounced racism and showed that they weren't in denial about Australia's racist history, then the Chinese would not think Australians had white-supremist attitudes. It was probably a similar line of thinking seen in the self-depreciating comments of Australian actor Errol Flynn, when he wrote: "I portray myself as wicked, hoping I will not be regarded as wicked." Unfortunately, if you criticise yourself, it can be a bit silly to expect others not to take you literally. If someone says they are racist, then it is quite likely the audience will just agree. Even if the outed racists were pre-1950s whites who are now dead, as far as most of the world is concerned, racist parents = racist children. Shit in your own nest, and you smell like shit as well. If you come from a racist tradition then it means you are most likely racist too. As the old saying goes, "the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree." Feedback to this site has likewise shown some of the difficulties that some Australians have with self-praise. The following email was received in the days when the site was a bit more positive. It shows someone trying to fight his supremist tendencies by insulting the culture that made him who he is: "Seeing ourselves as larrikin convict types allows us to avoid all
responsibility - it's always somebody else's fault, we're always victims or martyrs,
morality is for pompous wowsers, excellence is just 'elitism' (the new Australian
weasel word, as seen during the republic referendum).
The historian Henry Reynolds (who has exposed the violence against Aborigines
on the Australian frontier, and Aboriginal resistance) in his book 'Why Weren't
We Told?' finds it a 'strange paradox that we can celebrate our failed assault
on Turkey [in 1915] but feel embarrassed about the successful invasion of Australia',
even though 'without a successful prosecution of the border wars [against Aborigines]
there would not have been an Australian nation in any recognisable sense'. We're
afraid of the very words 'war' and 'invasion'. Convictism, larrikinsm, 'mateship'
- these ideas allow us to let ourselves off the hook, to think of ourselves as
'innocent underdogs' rather than what we really were, according to Reynolds: 'calculating
overlords'.
Does the convict heritage make us love freedom? On the contrary, I think it makes us obsessed with security yet afraid of all responsibility - including the moral responsibility of admitting how this country was conquered. I'm sure the difference between 'master' and 'convict' hardly mattered to the Aborigines. " D Morgan It is strange that as the site as lost its very positive pages, it has received less insulting emails. It seems that many Australians are more comfortable with an insult than they are with a compliment. While insults are the norm in Australia, most of the world is very different. If critical Australians give them insults instead of compliments, most get upset about it. Unfortunately, because many Australians have been brought up in a critical culture, they criticise other cultures as freely as they criticise their own. Inevitably, this disrespectful frame of mind makes them appear racist. Furthermore, to deny cultural diversity in the name of pretending all cultures are the same leads to quite ignorant perspectives on the world. When foreigners encounter this ignorance, they again conclude it to be a sign of racism. Although it may not be fair, part of the problem with the Jackson Jive sketch was that the Australians failed to realise that what is acceptable for Australians is not acceptable for other cultures. In other words, they treated the American judge and the Jackson 5 as they would treat Australians, instead of considering how they were different.
American views on the Jackson Jive In some ways, the charge that Australians are racist is a silly one. Australia is an anti-supremist country and always has been. Even the White Australia Policy was partly inspired by a fear of the superiority of non-whites. One of the chief architects, Afred Deakin, wrote of Asians, "It is not the bad qualities, but the good qualities of these alien races that make them so dangerous to us. It is their inexhaustible energy, their power of applying themselves to new tasks, their endurance and low standard of living that make them such competitors." Unfortunately, while the desire to pull up the underdogs is a noble one, the need to protect the ego by excluding or cutting down the superior can lead to some mean spirited commentary, and policies. In any case, whether an insult is being used to increase one's own superiority or cut down the superiority of someone else, both are reflective of ego troubles and are a lazy method of addressing those ego troubles. In many areas, foreign cultures are superior to Australian culture and insults of those cultures merely serve to prevent Australians solving some problems in themselves, as well as contributing to charges that Australia is indeed a racist society. Sometimes tall poppies, and other cultures, could do with some displays of respect. Just as it is possible to cheer Eric the Eel for having a go, it is possible to respect Michael Phelps for setting a standard to be emulated. While it may not be possible to emulate a standard such as winning 8 Olympic gold medals, as Eric the Eel showed, sometimes just having a go is a step in the right direction. Sitting in the stands dishing out criticism really isn't baheavour with any virtue at all.
Comments on AustraliansAlone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. Douglas Adams - English As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger, unless they are an American. Douglas Adams - English Australia seems refreshingly free of class prejudice. Here people take you for what you are, and are less concerned with how you speak, what job you do, where you went to school etc. I enjoy meeting people from many walks of life and treating each other as equals. Paul Davies - British migrant Australian culture feels as grotesque as The Day of the Locust. There’s no sense of a high culture anywhere, and extreme characters abound. TV ads are often leeringly sexual "These are the only balls you’ll see at our health club," says an ad for a women’s workout center, focusing on some tennis balls Phillip Weis- American We come from 2,500 years of culture and we all know where they come from Ajurna Rantaunga - Sri Lankan You have no need to feel iffy about a country where "relaxation is the aim". There's nothing to be worried about if "no worries" is your mantra. People have killed for less. Soumya Bhattacharya - Indian Australians have a tendency to be loud and obnoxious when they are beered up, which in my experience, is much of the time. They're descendants from pockets and cut purses, and as we all know, the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. Michael Carey - American What sort or peculiar capitalist country is this in which the workers' representatives predominate in the upper house....and yet the capitalist system is in no danger? Vladimir Lenin - Russian Australians are, I have found, ready to laugh at themselves if they think that the joke is funny and the humour not ill-directed. And the ability to be self-deprecating is the mark of confidence; it is, as much as anything else, the yardstick by which a society measures how tolerant and self-assured it is Soumya Bhattacharya - Indian
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