Lets All Band Together & Bash Idiots – Regardless Of Race

So I think we can fairly say, we have our Indians and our Australians that are ruining it everyone. Can’t we all enjoy a frosty cold beer alongside a tasty hot curry and all start bashing on these idiots from both sides.

Flashback! This man is selling his home but refuses to sell to Asians.

I Got Hate Mail

After my post yesterday, understandably I received some serious hate mail. I could only allow one comment to remain, the rest were unpostable.  So instead of trying to explain myself and my post, I’ll like to bring attention to this article in The Age that quotes a Mr. Yadu Singh about the situation of racism, Australia and India.

Article Here

“Dr Singh said his committee was working to educate Indian students about behaviour that placed them at risk of being targeted, such as travelling alone on trains, walking and dressing “without confidence”, and identifying themselves as recent arrivals in Australia by speaking loudly in their native language.”

Telling People To Stop Being Racist Isn’t Enough

Thank you Dr. Singh! It’s good to see people who understand that being politically correct alone has little power against an ongoing and arduos fight. There are other more effective ways of fighting the problem, or at least ways to tackling the problem from multiple angles.

You Can Still Be Indian

It doesn’t mean that to be safe you have to hide your culture altogether, that’s not right. But as with Australians travelling overseas, a certain level of caution, education of a new culture you are immersing yourself in and compromise can go a long way.

Recently we’ve been treated to media coverage on the tension between Indian people and everyone else in Australia resulting in a epidemic of Indian beatings. Once such place Indian beatings are on the rise is Melbourne where thousands of Indians (and friends of Indians) congregated to rally peacefully against racism towards Indians.

Not So Peaceful Rally?

Unfortunately as with most things, not everyone was okay with the peaceful part. Indians are angry over the racist attacks so tensions ran high, people were arrested and windows on Flinders Street station were smashed. These are the pictures we are seeing of the Rally by the media today.

Soooo…Why are Indians disliked and targeted?

Personally, I know many people from many different backgrounds and the one race that cops the most negativety are the Indians. So what are some of the negative traits things that people attach to Indians as a race. But more importantly, what can be done about these things to reduce tensions.

• “They smell bad” is a common gripe. Some may argue though that everyone else may smell bad to them and it comes down to diet and other cultural factors. But at the end of the day it is a cultural factor and sense of smell evolves and is subjective.
  • How people can learn to tolerate each others odours, I don’t know.
• “The men are sleazy.” Many woman are completely grossed out by the Indian man and some say that they don’t like the way they look at them or speak to them. I’ve had more then one female say to me, I don’t hate Indian woman, I hate Indian men. So this is a combination of sexism AND racism. Rexism.
  • Education of Australia’s so called stance in respect to sexism and the equality of sexes could be the ticket here. In india, sexual equality is probably not that high and this is a culture that is far removed from a culture such as Australia where questionable treatment, including staring, towards woman is frowned upon. That’s not to say that Australians and other cultures are not guilty of misconduct, but politically correct conduct in Australia should be put forward in the interests of avoiding tension.
• “Their Music is horrible” Indian inspired music has actually been peaking its way into the mainstream with a few progressive artists, clever sampling the success of movies like Slumdog Millionaire. However, at the end of the day, the sound of loud Indian music is something of a loud and annoying ringing in the ears of the non-Indian. This means that the music can actually make non-Indians feel quite irritable, perhaps angry or even scared when subject to it particularly at high volumes.
  • A friend tried to convince me once that Indian and non-Indian people were biologically different in a way that meant ears were shaped differently and music is heard differently. Consequently, what may be music to an Indians ears, could be a mish mash of squeely random noises to a non-Indian. If this is the case, there is not much that can be done about this.
  • Maybe again it is just cultural and a matter of the music one has adapted too. So perhaps as Indian music continues to fuse with music we are more familiar with, hearing Indian music will not result in anger and irritability as much.
  • In the meantime, any music that is too loud and forced to be heard by others is annoying. Not just in public, but also in your own home when those that live around you have to hear it. That too is annoying.
• They are loud and obnoxious in public
  • This is actually an issue that was bought up by the government when this issue of Indian attacks first started to appear in the media. http://www.theage.com.au/national/indians-told-to-keep-low-profile-20090218-8bjz.html
  • Generally speaking, non-Indian people find loud talking obnoxious. Indians however do not and as the previous article suggests, this results in tension and irritability amongst the remaining population who do. This on top of the already negative views on Indian people just fuels the fire. So maybe, especially the adults, keep the tone on public transport and in public to a level that is more in tune with the surrounds.
  • As with music, speaking too loud isn’t just annoying in public, it’s annoying any place that others have to be subject to it such as for neighbours in a residential street.
• They speak their language and its annoying
  • Again, as with the music, this could just come down to sound phonetics. We may sound just as annoying to them speakin our English. So to help this problem the speaking at an appropriate level is probably best.
• They just want your money
  • Most Indians want to study here or migrate here with the motivation of improving their lives. It is a part of a bigger plan and as such, Indians are generally keen and motivated. This motivation can be seen as materialistic and money orientated and perhaps there is a fine line. I have no advice here, at the end of the day it is a cultural stereotype and every person has an ambitious aspect to their personality and more importantly, other aspects.