This cartoon by Bill Leak, published after comments from Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, has stirred up another 'race row', this time in Australia.
The comments were apparently about the need for Aboriginal people to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children, comments I might add that could be applied to many races and ethnicities (see any white UK inner city housing estate, or any ethnic ghetto such as Tower Hamlets).
The row is partly about the point of the cartoon, which is after all highlighting the fact that Australian aboriginal society has a massive and very long standing drunkenness problem, accompanied by all the associated social and feckless parenting skills. But also that the parents of today's aboriginal youth, also had parents who brought them up and were themselves brought up in the same manner.
In this case its shown as an obviously half drunken slouching aboriginal parental drongo, and himself a product of a home where no parenting skills were exhibited, doesn't even know which of his children he's supposed to be looking at.
The other complaint was that the portrayals were racist ... I am not sure why?
Firstly, everyone is so darkly drawn they could all be Aboriginals or even a mixture of races ... secondly only the drongo is portrayed as slovenly, while thirdly, the disaffected youth isn't displayed as an unwholesome example of the culture, but rather as a surly brooding teen who has run afoul of the police (not much new about that in any race either).
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council criticised the cartoon, saying it was "Embarrassing for Australia's national newspaper to publish it. Sadly racism and discrimination is a fact of life for Aboriginal people who have lived on and cared for this country for more than 60,000 years. It is time the decision-makers at 'The Australian' accept personal responsibility for the hurt they have caused Aboriginal people today."
However, the newspaper (which has an excellent record of discussing aboriginal affairs) stood by the cartoon, saying too many people skirted around issues in Indigenous affairs ... "Bill Leak's confronting and insightful cartoons force people to examine the core issues in a way that sometimes reporting and analysis can fail to do." they said in a statement.
Good for them ... we can't just keep applying double standards for the treatment of members white society, and another for any 'ethnic minority' who chose to take offence at any criticisms of their short comings ..... that applies in the UK as well as Australia.
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| Aboriginal Race Row ... Valid Comment or Racial Stereotyping? |
The comments were apparently about the need for Aboriginal people to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children, comments I might add that could be applied to many races and ethnicities (see any white UK inner city housing estate, or any ethnic ghetto such as Tower Hamlets).
The row is partly about the point of the cartoon, which is after all highlighting the fact that Australian aboriginal society has a massive and very long standing drunkenness problem, accompanied by all the associated social and feckless parenting skills. But also that the parents of today's aboriginal youth, also had parents who brought them up and were themselves brought up in the same manner.
In this case its shown as an obviously half drunken slouching aboriginal parental drongo, and himself a product of a home where no parenting skills were exhibited, doesn't even know which of his children he's supposed to be looking at.
The other complaint was that the portrayals were racist ... I am not sure why?
Firstly, everyone is so darkly drawn they could all be Aboriginals or even a mixture of races ... secondly only the drongo is portrayed as slovenly, while thirdly, the disaffected youth isn't displayed as an unwholesome example of the culture, but rather as a surly brooding teen who has run afoul of the police (not much new about that in any race either).
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council criticised the cartoon, saying it was "Embarrassing for Australia's national newspaper to publish it. Sadly racism and discrimination is a fact of life for Aboriginal people who have lived on and cared for this country for more than 60,000 years. It is time the decision-makers at 'The Australian' accept personal responsibility for the hurt they have caused Aboriginal people today."
However, the newspaper (which has an excellent record of discussing aboriginal affairs) stood by the cartoon, saying too many people skirted around issues in Indigenous affairs ... "Bill Leak's confronting and insightful cartoons force people to examine the core issues in a way that sometimes reporting and analysis can fail to do." they said in a statement.
Good for them ... we can't just keep applying double standards for the treatment of members white society, and another for any 'ethnic minority' who chose to take offence at any criticisms of their short comings ..... that applies in the UK as well as Australia.
Yes, difficult to include ethnicities in some social commentary without attracting the race card. It probably wasn't even an aboriginal who made the complaint, keen as we are nowadays to take offence on somebody else's behalf.
ReplyDelete'probably wasn't even an aboriginal who made the complaint' Your almost certainly right as nowadays left-wingers love to take up offence and causes that the ethnics hadn't even noticed. Unfortunately the story didn't specify race in the criticisms.
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