Trouble in Oz

In case you hadn't heard, race riots have hit Australia. This is terrible news. From everything I've heard about Australia, those are some top-notch folks. Decent, friendly, down-to-earth. And they think American accents are sexy, so obviously they're doing something right.

They say you should never blame the victim. With all due respect that is both bladerdash and poppycock. Since it all depends on what the victim was up to. There's a big difference between a guy who gets a bottle smashed over his head because some drunk guy mistakenly assumed he was looking at his girlfriend, and some guy who gets a bottle smashed over his head because he suggested that someone's girlfriend is dressed like a whore. I don't think anything merits getting a bottle to the noggin, but I wouldn't have a lot of sympathy for the guy in the latter scenario.

Everything I've read seems to indicate that the Lebenese Muslims who were the focus of the rioting would probably fall closer to that second category. Sure, they didn't do anyting that merited getting attacked by a mob of drunken beach trash (a term which probably has a lot more weight in Australia).

But then, when was the last time you heard about someone being gang raped in this country? Apparently they're a lot more frequent in Australia, and they aren't being perpetrated by Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious. Or, picture yourself (if you're female) or someone you care about (if you aren't) in this scenario:

You're working on your tan when the sun is blocked out. You look up and there are four "youths" "apparently of Middle Eastern descent" blocking out the sun with a look that doesn't seem to be saying "Don't mind me, just minding my own business."

"Come on," says one of them. "She's not worth doing 55 years for." (This being a reference to the prison term for gang rape.)

This is serious stuff. But it gets to the bigger problem.

Australians are just like Americans in this respect: they don't want anyone to think that they're racist. Well, most of them, at least. And the Australian mulitcultural aparatus is just as rampant there as it is here. Basically saying anything negative about any race (except the Anglo-Saxon one, of course) will get you branded a racist and banished from polite society.

The only problem is, what if people have (in their mind) serious concerns about other races? It doesn't matter if they aren't serious to you, just that they're serious to them.

If you banish all complaints about other races from polite society, if people still have complaints, eventually they'll just end up expressing them in impolite ways.

Another similarity with America: Australia needs a dialog about race. But they need a real one. Not the one they're getting, where every minority group says what a horrible bunch of people white Australians are, and white Australians say, "Yeah, sorry about that".

This guy gets it about right. A quote:

I do not embrace multiculturalism, as such, because I do not believe all cultures are compatible with non-discriminatory liberalism. I prefer a multi-ethnic, non-racial society, which has at its core a canon of values that include racial and gender equality.

I admit to feeling a little uneasy at the sight of a Muslim woman shrouded not simply in a headscarf but a face-concealing, head-to-toe chador, and wonder just how much choice she has had in deciding her lifestyle. I am not hugely sympathetic to a Muslim seeking asylum because he claims to have been discriminated against because of his support for sharia law.

Some multicultural theorists will squawk and say that I prefer only a soft multiculturalism (if they insist on calling it that) that does not offend western liberal values. They would be spot on. My acceptance ends when the assault on the liberality of society itself begins.