Thinking how far we've come - racism has been different in Australia.
For most kids living in or near big cities especially, nobody ever had Aboriginal kids at their school. No Aboriginal families living nearby, except for some country towns where they had what can only be described as ghettoes. "Housing Commission" areas which for various reasons were almost exclusively Aboriginal. A lot of this was cultural - because of the history of Aboriginal kids being taken from their families (the kids targetted were mixed race, on t he grounds that they were salvageable, they could be raised to live in white society). Families trying to reunite would go to areas where other Aboriginal people congregated. This still happens today - kids were being taken, under this policy, up until the 1970s.
I went to school with Aboriginal kids. They were residents of a nearby Mission and were great kids. Just about all of them were brilliant at sport - our school sports team was heavily Aboriginal. A lot of them were also good academically. But outside school - no mixing. The Mission wouldn't allow play dates. I tried, there was one girl especially who I hero-worshipped. She was good friends with an older girl we knew from church. The older girl from our church eventually became a doctor. The Aboriginal girl would have been made to leave school at 15 and go out to work, probably as a cleaner.
Where were their families? I don't know. The kids didn't know. We were told that these kids were from families that lived outback, where there were no decent schools, and these kids had been moved to the city to give them a chance at a decent education. There was a magazine circulated to the church families who supported the Mission - the magazine was called "Sky Pilot". I remember reading it and wondering. Now I understand that they were "Stolen Generation". But back then - I didn't realise and I don't think my parents did either.
I remember watching TV programmes about it. I remember the misunderstandings which were seen as "common knowledge". The people who removed these kids thought they were doing a good thing. We now realise just how terrible it was.\
When I was 15 we drove to the outback country town where my brother was stationed. We saw an Aboriginal family walking along the road. My sister in law snifed and said, "I wish they wouldn't let them live here, our property values will drop."
I asked why and was told that property values are very dependent on where people want to live, and a lot of people, "not US, of course!" don't want to live near Aboriginal people because they consider them dirty and untidy. I pointed out that they looked neat and clean, although the kids were barefoot. But then, I walked everywhere with bare feet too.
I was told I would understand when I grew up.
I'm still waiting to understand.
Decades later, my kids went to a city school with a high Aboriginal enrolment. This is because the school is placed right next to a current ghetto, the biggest one in Sydney. But the school works with the Aboriginal community and together good social progress is being made. It's still difficult for these kids to get the same fair go we expect for all our kids, but it's much easier than when I was a kid.
In some areas of Australia, it's still appalling. Pedophiles use drugs and alcohol to lure in their victims. Often the pedophiles are the very people put there to help and protect these people.
Our government is now working on fixing that. But the danger always is - just because we think we're doing a good thing, doesn't make it right. The social differences are often a big problem because we think we understand, we try to understand, and still get it wrong. Now officials are reluctant to remove kids, for fear of causing the damage done to past generations. This is leaving vulnerable kids in terrible danger. The pendulum swings too far one way then too far another.
Socially - there are very few Aboriginal people living in a predominantly white (increasingly multicultural) society. We do have a few in our village, but they don't stand out. They're just part of the town like everyone else.
When we went to New Zealand last year we were pleased with the degree of Maori culture being incorporated into New Zealand life. We wished we'd had the chance to do something like this in Australia but felt it was far too late now. We've successfully killed off Aboriginal culture, all that's left is the dying throes.
Then our new Prime Minister made his famous "sorry" speech, and now I wonder - maybe it's not too late for Australia after all.
We have our own racist insults (going both ways). In the past there was segregation especially in country towns. It was a civil disobedience back in the 60s or 70s over access to a community swimming pool that triggered the current awareness of what damage white society was doing.
We've come a long way. We still have a long way to go. We need to avoid being too touchy and instead learn to keep on forgiving - ourselves and each other - and keep an open heart. Being too sensitive and seeing racism in every remark, innocent or otherwise, is not the way forward.
Marg
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