Speaking the TRUTH gets you labeled a "racist".

PC howling wowsers flapping their wrists over a simple abreviation are mising the point. There are real issues that urgently need addressing.

 

Yes.

Number 1: treat indigenous people with the respect they deserve by not using racial slurs.

 

Maybe if they stopped acting out the way they do people might just treat them with more respect. But the way things are going ....not going to happen.

 

They don`t have to be treated like mincing PC losers who can`t handle an abreviation.

 

Bambu probably gets it from living in Aboriginal communities, as I have. As Bambu said:
"Abbos" or "Abos" is considered a racial slur these days.
"Blacks", "Aborigines", or "Blackfellas" are acceptable.

That more or less matches my observations. If I am in a pub in Western Queensland - I may describe a companion as a "blackfella" - or "your mob" (as opposed to "my mob"). "Abo" would be just plain rude.

I don't mind how they refer to me - because I have been raised in a culture of priviledge that was merely an accident of my birth. I understand we started life at very different points on the handicappers scale. I don't take undeserved pride in my enormous fortune.

 

No.

They just need to be treated like everyone else: no racial slurs.

Normal people understand this: uneducated, ignorant, racist sum-bags - not so much.

It's a funny old world.

 

But even with this more and more they are preferring the term "Murri" as a name NOT associated with vilification and one they chose themselves

BTW who noticed Google today?

Done out in all beautiful indigenous paint for Oodgeroo Noonuccal' birthday - she would have been 91 today

 

How can the word "Abo" be a racial slur? It`s not as if the word "Abo" has become synonymous with "laziness, violence, uncleanliness, dishonesty, brutality or unreliability", or any other negative adjective, is it. I agree with your referance to uneducated people making too much noise on this type of issue. Far too many comentators mouth off with very little, or no experience on these matters, they parrot the dribble that their mind controlers order them to think, their ignorance being their biggest atribute.

 

Funny you should mention that BB, because only last week, I was talking to a Murri Islander in Townsville. He`s a good bloke, he & his half Aborigine, half Murri wife were on their way to Cherbourg to be with his wife`s people. He`s a big tough bloke, but he was worried about going, because the Aborigines hate Murris. Hope he`s oK, but I doubt it.

 

Any word can become a racial slur if used in a derogatory manner or if the people being referred to find it offensive. We don't dictate what is and isn't offensive for different groups of people.

 

By the same token, we needn`t allow ourselves to be endlessly browbeaten either. There will always be certain types of folk who love to wear the hair shirt, to bow and scrape, and grovel, but they are invariably very ineffectual people.

 

"It is not political correctness gone mad to suggest that all members of society should speak to each other and about each other respectfully.
Claiming it as just PC is just an excuse to justify perpetuating bigotry."

.
.
.

 

It's great to see someone with enough gumption to speak the 'hidden' truth about this stain on our country. Hiding the truth never resolves the problem. Neither does whinging and whining about past events. They should get on with life, as no one owes them a living. We are sick and tired of caryying them on our (bent) backs.

Where is their pride if they constantly live on handouts?

 

It`s the Australian way, to abreviate, and casualise names. Generally, we are easy going and free spirited people, we won`t be dictated to. We just laugh at control freaks. Get over it.

 

" ... just an excuse to justify perpetuating bigotry".

Amen.

 

Please don't use the term "WE", I have lived in Australia all my life, 58 years and I take objection to your including me in that garbage. I see no reason why I should be DICTATED to by you, or any other person who feels that inciting violence, hatred or vilifying people because they have different skin colour or ANY other reason.

As a matter of fact it is in my opinion, un Australian to judge people at all.

I am Australian, I believe in a "Fair Go", something we never have and continue not to give our Indigenous people. I do not abbreviate names I think it is crass and childish, nor do I casualise them. I believe I am very easy going and I am definitely free spirited.

I am also reasonable, caring, patriotic and I am getting of my Rs to do something about it.

 

Faces of Wilcannia

The artists quote "Faces of Wilcannia is a portrait series documenting the residents of a small Aboriginal community in outback Australia.

With widespread unemployment, alcoholism, violence and abuse, Wilcannia presents a front of despair: a town whose struggles lay clearly on the surface. However below this surface is a community striving for the same quality of life as all Australians: people dedicated to culture and
loved ones despite an uncertain future."

I have personally been there many times, a very sad town.

here is a video you may find interesting
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8WYwcK91fI&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8WYwcK91fI&feature=related[/ame]

 

Maybe this one
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hQ5R-pDjA&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hQ5R-pDjA&feature=related[/ame]

or this one

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj3OrIxTq0g&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj3OrIxTq0g&feature=related[/ame]

 

And I'm a proud Aussie, so what's special about you and your partner?

The ill treatment of Aborigines in the early days of settlement has been grossly overstated, probably just to get more handout entitlements.

You can't live in the past forever, whilst others support you in an old and archaic lifestyle.

 

YOU SUPPORT ME, garbage I SUPPORT MYSELF and so does my partner. She has worked for 25 years, has a certificate III in child care and is studying for her diploma, I have university degrees in Neuro Anatomy, Biochemistry and Histology. I have taught 4GL Programming to diploma level, I managed one of Sydney's largest pathology companies, and worked as a Senior Health Manager for an area health service for 10 years. I have run in 2 federal elections as an independent.

The ill treatment of Aboriginals is actually grossly underestimated, and much of it is actually quiet documented. If you would like, you could spend a week with me and I will show you that it still goes on today.

We have never ever said that there is not a problem with Aboriginals as far as alcohol, drugs, violence and unemployment, just the opposite we recognise that it is way out of proportion to what it should be.

We both realise that it is them that has to get themselves out of this situation and that it is 2011 some things from the past need to be put away and the future needs to be sought.

You sir have treated me like some sort of imbecile and I have taken offence.

I have never said that there was anything special about us, just the contrary, we are simple people with simple tastes, simple needs and a wish to get on with our lives. We both choose to work towards a better future, so my partner uses her love and empathy for children to help them grow into good future citizens.

No she doesn't work with Aboriginal children, rather she works in a rather up-market facility where she works with the children of doctors, solicitors and business people. She does this to show that she is as good as any other race and she has been very well received.

Daily people stop us in the street to talk about their children with her, I am usually very surprised even though it happens all the time at just how many people have come to love her.

I chose to work in hospitals after losing my first wife to cancer to try and fix some of the shortfalls I found.

To insult me and my partner based purely on your own bigoted and unfounded remarks just demonstrates the low level racists will go to.

After writing this my anger towards you has turned to pity.

 

I can almost guarantee that you yourself exist on social security benefits, a quick scan through your posts shows that you utilise this forum 24/7.

 

Yes you are your partner have done well AND credit where credits due you are looking for ways to help but as we have talked about before there are many problems out there.....

I believe stamping your foot while posting about past actions of white aussies isnt going to help the cause of aboriginals in any way, but calmer words do wonders...
There are many of us out there that see the "plight" of the aboriginal people far different to you bud and you are going to have to either face that or take on half of australia. We all have different views and perceptions on how the problem came about but at least we all think there is a problem. Yes some of us use words that are not the nicest...ive had aboriginals do the same to me.

 

I am not trying to stamp my feet about past actions, what has happened has happened, it is time to recognise that it happened, then we can all get on with the enormous task of fixing it.

It is a shared task, we need to GET OVER our racial intolerance and recognise that people are different would be a start. You and I are very strong men, we have determined that, and I believe that a respect has developed between us. We both see the same problem, we both have similar solutions (yes both my partner and I believe in dry communities), what we differ in though is our beliefs in the cause of the problem.

If we don't find the cause, any repairs we do will be band aides that will not last. I think you will appreciate this. I go to a mechanic and say my oil warning light is on, he tops up my oil and I leave. It happens again so I go to another mechanic, he sees my engine is so full of sludge the pumps and journals are not working properly. He flushes my engine and refills the oil. Years later the same thing happens. A third mechanic asks me how often I have my car serviced and oil changed. I say "Say what?".. Find the cause and half the problem is solved.

 

It has been recognized and "apologized" for so its time to move past it.

Agreed.

Agreed too. Now the way to solve things up to now has been to throw shed loads of money at the problem...it hasnt worked and has been rorted beyond belief. Time to take a tough line and look at issues within the modern aboriginal culture that are big roadblocks to them being part of mainstream Australia.
As we have discussed before those issues are
welfare dependence
alcohol
violence
taking personal responsibility for ones actions.

 

Reading these threads, other blogs, the youtubes from which I got these videos there is still a lot of work to do. Using words like "Abbo" even if it is just to stir up awareness is counter productive. Even if just 1 in 4 have this attitude, then the problem becomes nearly unmanageable.

If an Indigenous girl was operating a checkout and every 4th even 8th person was derogatory, eventually she would be fired. I have personally witnessed the prejudice that they put up with on a daily bases, I can tell you it becomes a bit too much sometimes.

A "gentleman" took his child to my partner's centre and was met by her at the office, she went to take the child by the hand to take him to the class, his father thrust his arm between her and the child saying, "Oh no wait a minute", his friend, who had recommended the place to him just smiled at her, took his friend by the shoulder and said, "She is the one I told you about, a true angel, sorry I never mentioned she was black, didn't think it mattered". My partner again took the child's hand and they walked off towards the door. My partner stopped, said to the child, "Say goodbye to Daddy, then we will go and play".

Each time I see the pain, my heart cries.