mmmmmm i there is a problem to opening up to the subtlies of the ethnic minorities. quite simply put, there is the issue of stereotyping.
i have written a blog article a year or so ago that might have relevance to this topic, basically a rant against discrimination...
only problem is that this blog article is rather more concerning Asians, rather than Muslims - which has been, and is, subject to hot topics for debate over these years. however, i do believe the same rational could apply.
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Discrimination in the Shadows...
03/03/2005
In this world of political correctness, we now know what to say and what not to say. We know know what is generally discriminatory and a form of bullying. We know know that all human beings, like you and me, are to be treated equally, that they can walk down the street without the fear of discrimination, racism or any form of verbal or physical abuse, backed up by government laws, but more, by the morals that govern our everyday behaviour and lifestyles.
However, in practicality, there is still a blur in the vision towards the achievement of equality for all people. Discrimination, believe it or not, still lurks in the shadows, still inflicting its effects upon the victims of discrimination, probably even more effectively than in the past, because people can get away with it. It is a sad thing, quite ironical in our politically correct world.
Let me give you an example. The term "Asians" is used quite a lot. It is immediate context, it describes a people that occupies the continent in the immediate east of Europe, and north of Australiasia. However, the term is used so loosely, so carelessly, that it has detrimental effects, and, most disasterously, used without the people using it knowing that it is discriminatory. We talk about Asian food, or Asian music, or Asian appearances...society, using Australian society as an example, simply cannot tell between the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Indonesians, the Thai, the Phillipino, etc...and so society just plonks them together in a group and calls them "Asians".
But, I give the argument about Europe. Both continents has equally diverse cultures, nations, religious beliefs, literature, to the likes of Asian countries, although there are similarities between these countries. However, Australian society is able to tell between who is German, or English, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or Polish, etc...but in relative terms, to other continents, like Asia, like the Middle East, like Africa, like South America. For continents that have such unique aspects, why is it hard for Australian society, which is becoming more and more multicultural, finding it hard to tell the difference between countries in other regions than Europe and North America? I know that some people may argue that not all people use the term Asians as a form of discrimination, some people do genuinely use it to describe the people occuping the continent called "Asia", and that goes the same with "Europeans". But I say, a majority of generalised cases, that it has been used for the wrong reasons. I know people in my school that when I suddenly speak Chinese, then they say "OH! Speak Asian! Let me hear you speak Asian! Talk Asian!"...You ****heads (sorry, excuse my language) what language do you want? Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Indonesian? Malay? What? You see a "Lebbo" down the street, and probably your first reaction would be "terrorist". Fact is, not all "lebboes" are religious fundamentalists like most Islamic terrorists are.
I know in our school, and in many Australia schools, that people like to pay each other out. "Nerd" or "wog" or "you bloody idiot" or...whatever. People pay each other out, usually for fun, just for the experience at the time of an event. Usually, these pay outs wear out, they shrug it off, knowing that they where only joking and having a bit of a laugh. However, some people do go further to actually use this excuse to use racial discrimination against certain people. Someone would say something racist towards another person...not rather too offensive, but enough to get their attention, and the reply back would be a pat on the back and "jokes mate, jokes". But, imagine doing this everyday. It might just be a small comment during class, or during lunch. This "feeling", this atagonistic feeling that someone is peppering racist comments towards another over a long period of time will just accumulate and accumulate, slowly but surely. The thing is, if the person discriminated against suddenly lashes out against his offender, it seems that this guy is fussing over such a small thing, but clearly, we see, over a long period of time, its not. Yet the sad reality is, that no one understands but the person who is constantly been bombarded systematically and frequently by these seemingly small and insignificant pay outs that does a huge deal in the long run. It is a sad reality that people can seemingly get away with racist, discriminatory and unethical things.
Society needs to indentify this problem, firstly understand that this is having an adverse affect upon the religious and ethnic minorities in this world. We need to find mutual understandings between the major 'ruling' cultures, and the ones that have been placed in the shadows.
People, polio has been eliminated. Slavery has largely been very limited. Today, we do still have AIDS, poverty and war. But, if we are going to tackle these issues in a reasonable and logical manner, then we must tackle mainstream discrimination at its very heart - cold, corrupt and uninviting. The war has only begun.
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The reply to that blog was thus:
I know what you mean. People DO excuse their own hurled insults with a "Jokes mate."
I am very interested in the contrast you show between how Australians find it easy to discriminate between people of European origin, but have difficulty with our 'Asian neighbours.' If you'll excuse the expression.
I would, however, like to offer an explanation. Differentiating between Europeans comes more naturally to me, being of European origin myself. Here is another parallel - Say for instance you have a lot of difficulty telling apart twins, the parents or friends of the twins have no trouble telling them apart because they know what characteristics to look for and they can recognise them.
It is the same situation here. Many Australians of European origin have not had the same exposure to people of Asian origin, as say for you. Take for instance people from country areas where there is a low Asian origin demographic. They would not have had much exposure to Asian origin persons of different nationality.
On your issue of telling apart languages - yes, I can tell apart French, German and English, because i have studied them at school, they have very distinctive characteristics (of which i am aware), and they have the same alphabet as English. I cannot tell apart different Asian languages because I do not know what to listen out for, and I have never studied an Asian language at school, and there is very little media exposure of them.
I am sure that you, like me, would have a lot of difficulty distinguishing between people of differing South American origin - or Eastern European origin for that matter. I cannot tell the difference between Czech, Latvian, Hungarian, Estonian, and Serbian languages.
People from this region, however, would feel the same as you, when branded with a generic "Some random Russian language" or something like that when they talk, or "Go on, speak some Russian."
You've opened a really interesting issue here <blog writer's name>.
I think Australia should adopt Asian studies as a compulsory course in early high school. Indonesian should be taught and greater awareness should be raised about the characteristics and qualities of our neighbours.
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To which my, rather partial reply was:
Thank you <replier poster's name> for ur comment.
However, I would like to say that Australia IS SEEN as a increasingly more multicultural society, and that people, in essence, would have the responsibility to accept these new cultures, and to get to understand them. I think what we need more is not just realising this problem, but also understanding each other, understanding a different culture towards yours.
Ironically, the go is that the mainstream Anglo-Saxon society, instead of actually learning and understanding about different cultures in our 'salad bowl' of multiculturalism, they chose to refuse to have much interactions or relations with these people, and so it is hard, for mainstream European-decendants to identify and tell the difference between different Asian cultures and beliefs because people has refused to do so in the first place.
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speaks volumes...or does it...?
