Did you spend much time in Queensland, where they call black fellas…black fellas? Hick central of the universe. The worst thing about Aussies is they wear their racism and paranoia with pride and I include first generation migrants in their too.[/quote]
I was in a go-go in Pattaya a couple of months after Obama won the 2008 election. Some Aussie dude sat down next to me and after finding out I was from the U.S., said, “So, you Americans just elected a coon!” I couldn’t quite believe he’d just said what I thought I heard, so I asked “Wha?” and he replied “You know, a NIGGER!”
Comprehension dawned. He really HAD said “coon”, and meant it just like I couldn’t believe he had.[/quote]
International travelers always encounter these types of people. Some are just practicing English and some are trying to provoke a response. I have always found a “non-reactionary” response to work the best. I just smile and nod. I explain that I don’t use those terms and try to introduce a concept that Americans are Americans and no English speakers use these words. American’s are Americans. And Asians are Asians - not “Chinks” or “Japs”. “Don’t you think that the correct term should be used?” if they are curious - educate. Doesn’t always work and if not then I presume that the interloper is just trying to evoke a confrontation. This is a good time to exit. You can’t win the argument. Pricks are pricks and your not going to make a difference.[/quote]
Not sure what you’re trying to say. I bought him a beer and we had a great time watching strippers.
You can be friendly and racist and hick all at the same time, I had great workmates in Australia but they were screaming racists and even admitted it themselves. If you saw what happened to the aboriginal communities there’s not really any question about it, they never gave back the vast lands that were taken away nor do many respect aboriginal traditions or sacred areas. Don’t be an asylum seeker there either, sticking people in camps in foreign countries is not cool.
It may not be “cool”, but why should they be obligated to provide housing, food, medical care, a car, a big-screen TV, and pocket money to anyone who washes up on shore? Because, face reality, that’s what happens – “asylum seekers” are not Cold War scientists and artists any more, they’re almost entirely uneducated, impoverished people who just want to move someplace with a better economy.
Did you spend much time in Queensland, where they call black fellas…black fellas? Hick central of the universe. The worst thing about Aussies is they wear their racism and paranoia with pride and I include first generation migrants in their too.
That border show was a joke too.[/quote]
In Queensland black fellas call themselves black fellas as well and call caucasians white fellas and mixed bloods yella fellas. Nothing racist about it. Black fella, white fella, doesn’t matter, what ya colour.
I know that, but it’s racist obviously, similar to Taiwan in a way. Anyway it’s much deeper than that, ask any queenslander about land rights see what happens. You see it really depends what perspective you look at it with. New Zealand has done a much better job of things.
I’ve been travelling for 17 years now, and have run into my fair share of Aussie blokes who I’ve not gotten on with.
They’ve just rubbed me up the wrong way. And perhaps I’ve rubbed them up the wrong way too. It generally revolves around sporting rivalry, which I guess is quite immature.
But I definitely detected a kind of smug arrogance in them, ala Shane Warne. Or is it insecurity?
I’m busy sorting out some beef with an Aussien here in Xiamen who sat me down and told me he didn’t like me because I gave his girlfriend my business card, and that amounted to hitting on her. I didn’t even know the girl had a boyfriend.
He said to me “you South African blokes are all the same - troublesome”.
To be fair, the decent Aussies I’ve met make up for the ones I didn’t get on with. Even dated an Aussie girl when I first arrived in Taiwan - she was forever taking the piss out of me, and the world at large, and I loved it!
Lastly, expats abroad/travellers don’t represent the people of the country, IN their own country, IMO. For example Israelis often behave terribly when travelling, but meet them in Israel and they’re a delight (I lived there for a year).
I agree that a lot of Queenslanders are racists, but I don’t agree that the term ‘black fellas’ is racist. If I say some of my friends are black fellas, it doesn’t make me a racist. If I say ‘those blackfellas are a bunch of lazy bastards’ that’s racist.
If I’m fishing with an aboriginal mate and I use the word ‘aboriginal Australian’ or ‘indigenous’, he’ll probably think I’m a pretentious prick.
I agree that a lot of Queenslanders are racists, but I don’t agree that the term ‘black fellas’ is racist. If I say some of my friends are black fellas, it doesn’t make me a racist. If I say ‘those blackfellas are a bunch of lazy bastards’ that’s racist.
If I’m fishing with an aboriginal mate and I use the word ‘aboriginal Australian’ or ‘indigenous’, he’ll probably think I’m a pretentious prick.[/quote]
Ask Luis Suarez what he thinks about calling Patrice Evra negro, and then ask Patrice Evra what he thinks about it. In another issue a football comentator here was in trouble for calling a black footballer coloured last month. Go back 20 years and he would have been apologising for saying them the other way round.
Are we all racist from someone else’s perspective in time and place?
[quote=“superking”]
Are we all racist from someone else’s perspective in time and place?[/quote]
Yes, it would seem so.
Instead of the ability of the man, or for fuck’s sake, the woman, it’s how they act & pose & pretend.
My definition of racist for the term black fellas is because of the clear delineation between different groups, especially by skin colour, so it’s not a very serious charge to make and why I compared it to Taiwan rather than in a more negative light. I had this exact conversation with white natives there who would constantly put down the black fellas，the wogs, the Asians etc etc and at the same tell me one of their best mates is a black fella or whatever. I guess it’s pretty normal among hicks worldwide though.
I think OP’s story is likely fairly common among expats who have returned home to see their countries from a different perspective. Perhaps a form or reverse culture shock, or the result of new subjectivity, our homelands don’t seem the same as when we left them-- or as we idealised them from afar. The “morons” were always there; they just weren’t noticed as much until you had something (or somewhere) else to compare them to. There really is no going home again.
God forbid we should delineate between different groups. We’s all the same, we’s comrades: Men, women, blacks, whites, proddy’s and micks. All for one and one for all!
In Australia, the average black fella is superior because he is a survivor, whereas the average white fella would die if stranded 50 miles from a supermarket or McDonalds. That’s why dickheads build cities - to avoid nature and survival of the fittest.
Fox is suffering reverse culture shock. The average aussie is no more ignorant than the average Taiwaner. Most people in all countries are ignorant as fuck.
I grew up in an area with no aboriginals whatsoever. Later on I went north and became good friends with quite a number: to them I was, very clearly, a white fella, regardless of any opinions I had on the matter. Now, I consider myself thoroughly assimilated .
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