I'll briefly summarise the current situation. There has been a spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. The Indian Government and media have blamed the racism of Anglo-Australians for the attacks. However, in all of the high profile cases, there has been hardly an Anglo-Australian in sight. In fact, in the most recent cases, the perpetrators turned out to be Indians themselves.
For instance, in January an Indian man claimed that a group of racist men had poured petrol on him and set him alight in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon. The Indian media reacted predictably:
Victoria police say, “there is no reason at this stage to consider this racially motivated.” If the statement had been calculated to enrage, it could hardly have been more provocatively phrased ...
Canberra has been far behind the curve on this issue right from the start ... When you set a person on fire that is like a statement. It goes far beyond a crime of opportunity. The act of burning is likely to be interpreted as a wider symbol of intolerance and ethnic cleansing. If that happens we can say goodbye to rational debate and practical, sober responses. Canberra’s obtuse, insensitive attitude is laying the ground for serious damage to bilateral ties.
It turned out that Mr Singh accidentally burned himself while torching his car for an insurance claim.
Do these false claims of racist violence perpetrated by Anglos on Asians matter much? They matter a great deal. There is a significant public opinion in nations like India and China which is dangerously hostile to white Australians. If you visit the chat forums of the Chinese and Indian media, you quickly get a sense of what is at stake.
Here, for instance, are just a few of the comments I collected from a brief visit to the chat forum of the China Daily. They're in response to stories not only about attacks on Asian students by white Australians but about the "stolen generations":
Comment 1: SUBHUMAN. Seriously, Anglos don't belong in the 21st century. Their war crimes throughout history show they belong in cages, perhaps in a zoo as feed for the animals ... Anglos are illegal immigrants from Schleswig Holstein ... They are the lowest form of crap there is ...
Comment 2: In terms of evolution, these white Australians display streaks of atavism ... So much was given them by providence, a mere smidgeon of humanity was expected of these white Australians, so little they give in return. A disgusting people!
Comment 3: It beggars belief. What kind of crap would separate all the children from their parents? What kind of turd? What kind of excrement?
Comment 4: every single anglo sucks
Comment 5: white Australians are rather good at character assassination, dissembling and, sometimes, just downright lying. Then again, what else can they do when presented with factual accounts of their racist nature but lie? A sad, sad nation peopled by a sadly misguided people. Petty minded and mean spirited.
Comment 6: Australia is a very nice place, except that Australians live there. If the Australians were deported to, say, Nigeria, and then Asians moved into Australia, it would be a good and nice place and productive too.
We ought to take the existence of this kind of sentiment seriously. They are the kind of views which might be used to justify harsh treatment against us. And we are a relatively small community with a declining position in our own country and facing the growing power of nations like China and India.
So what do we call a white Australian who reinforces the prejudices against us? Who unfairly blames the attacks on Indian students on white racism? Who places at some considerable risk the fate of our children and grandchildren?
Enter Red Ted Baillieu, the Liberal Party leader. He made a speech to the Australia India Business Council, in which he promoted the idea that racists in Melbourne were "creating fear and terror for many who live in our community".
What a foolish and low act for an Australian politician. The Labor Party Premier, Mr Brumby, made the correct response:
The Premier hit back, with his spokeswoman saying Mr Baillieu should know better than to use divisive and inflammatory comments that he knows are not true. "Mr Baillieu's deceptive treatment of this issue makes things worse not better," spokeswoman Fiona Macrae said.
What might be motivating Ted Baillieu? Political opportunism springs to mind. He has been making a big pitch to Indian voters here in Melbourne, visiting temples and even writing his own regular column in one of the local Indian newspapers. Perhaps he thinks the future of the Liberal Party lies with the growing Indian electorate.
If so, he is acting at our expense. When there is already a public opinion in powerful nations that Anglo Australians are subhumans who ought to be shipped out, you don't go about reinforcing such prejudices to bolster your own credentials.
How can we expect those in other nations to have a better regard for us, when our own "elite" is so quick to condemn us?
What are we to make, for instance, of Melbourne Anglican bishop, Philip Huggins, asking for forgiveness on our behalf for "our prejudice and indifference" toward people from other countries, "especially Indians" who are "oppressed in our land"? Why would a Christian bishop mimic the secular leftists in assigning whites the role of oppressors? Why would he fuel a sense of racial grievance against whites, when this racial grievance looms so dangerously on the horizon? It's grossly irresponsible and lacking in conscience toward his white parishioners.
And what about the writers of the popular soapie Home & Away, whose Australia Day episode had this plot line:
on Australia Day a bunch of hooligans wearing flags assault the new Muslim character in town, call him a terrorist, tell him to go home and then, when he hides in the Diner with his friends, they burn down the Diner.
So the white Australian political class is happy to present a vicious image of rank and file Australians to the world, which then feeds into a dangerously hostile attitude toward us in overseas countries.
In this circumstance, special pleading isn't going to do much to help. Talking about how you as an individual Anglo aren't racist isn't going to have much of an effect. You'll just be accused of dissembling.
Things will only change when we put our own house in order. We need to call out those individuals, like Ted Baillieu, who seek personal advantage at the expense of their own community. We need to identify this not as high class paternalism but as low, unconscionable behaviour.
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