Aboriginal protesters burn the Australian flag

[Trigger Warning: Racism]

lifeisliterallylimited:

aflightoffancy:

feministdisney:

thisshitisallracist:

5-year-winter:

What a way to earn the respect of the Government…

What are they even protesting against? That be right; Indogenous rights, like they’re not getting enough money from the Government already, and us white people are the racists…

I mean it’s not like we go and burn their flag - yes probably becuase we wouldn’t know where to buy one other than eBay or a cultural centre.. But that’s not the point, we still don’t do it!

Without white man they would probably still be content, yes content but without any technology, transport or petrol (God forbid..) They’d still be sleeping in the mud and throwing spears and boomerangs.. And this is how they show their gratitude. By burning our flag..

My forefathers were not in this country when white man originally massacred hundreds of thounsands of them. Just like many Germans these days denounce their forefather’s Nazi actions.. how much longer can they possibly keep holding this against us who did nothing?

Bleeding us dry I say.

So. I’m not Austrailain, but I’ve been trying to read up on what is exactly going down. And well…uh.

No.

Listen, flag burning is flag burning, be angry at that. But don’t tell a group of people to get over them being slaughtered and nearly wiped out. 

And don’t ever think that the “White Man” brought anything resembling salvation/enlightenment. Just…don’t. 

“What a way to earn the respect of the Government…”

what an intro!  “Let me whitesplain how to get the government to respect you.  Ah, yes: Act white, it’s always worked for me.  You won’t have anything to protest, then, and if you do protest anyway, do it in a nice, inoffensive way, because I’m sure that will always work out for you.”

Yeah Germans might denounce the Nazis but what does that have to do with today?   Denouncing something some people did before you doesn’t mean racism has just completely gone away or anything.   It’s not a secret that a lot of Germany still has a lot of racial issues.   There are clubs here (Munich) that will not let you in, if you are not white.   You will get stopped more on buses and on trains.   There are a lot of conflicting feelings over all the Turkish immigrants living here.   You basically cannot emigrate here if you are originally Mexican regardless of your qualifications. Merkel was quoted as saying “multiculturalism” doesn’t work well for Germany, or whatever.  Etc etc.  Racism is complex and conscious apologies in any country are not enough to eliminate it.

“And this is how they show their gratitude.”  Why can’t this be a joke blog that is actually just sarcastically pointing out the racist assumptions people always have when it comes to colonialism and…everything??

As another white Australian, I’m just going to take a moment to talk about this. 

You know what, the most problematic about this whole thing is not the actions of the Aboriginal protesters. It is not the flag burning. And yes, while perhaps interrupting an award ceremony, banging on the windows of the restaurant was not necessarily the best choice, we are talking about people who had every right to be terribly upset. Who were told that the Tent Embassy, which I don’t know /heaps/ about but they originally focussed on land rights, mining on Aboriginal lands, and protection of sacred sites, and generally achieving equality and representation. All still relevant. Aboriginal people are still underrepresented in tertiary education, overrepresented in prisons, are more likely to live in poverty and have a shorter life expectancy. Now in light all of this, to be told we’ve progressed so far that there is no longer a need to recognise the Tent Embassy or continue to protest these inequalities by someone who is the leader of the opposition and very likely to be the Prime Minister following the next election is more than a little insulting. 

What we’ve since been inundated with are images of the Prime Minister fleeing from the scene of the riots, a vulnerable looking white woman, who is so desperately afraid, fleeing so quickly, that she loses her shoe and falls over. Today we’ve had pictures of the flag burning. Which I’ve heard explained as a rejection of the flag under which atrocities were committed against the Aboriginal people, again understandable.

And to the OP, it was /legal/ to hunt Aboriginal people in Queensland until the ’70s, so please stop pretending this is all part of some great distant past that we can now ignore. There are people alive who were taken from their families because removing them from their loved ones and their culture, and raising them ‘white’ was considered more humane. Please educate yourself on your history if you wish to act as a spokesperson for it. 

Wow, I could write a long intellectual piece of writing directed at the O.P. 

or.

I could just say. Fuck you, you fascist piece of shit.

(Source: 5yearwinter)