I don't know ANYTHING about race and racism in Australia, so I'm learning a lot from your comments. I really should read more about Australian racial politics because, from what I understand, the Aboriginals in Australia face a similar, though not equal, situation to Natives/Aboriginals in Canada.
I'm South Asian, and even though I live in Toronto (we love to talk about our multiculturalism like its always a good thing), I get those overt one-off "go back where you came from" comments too. I think a lot of my misunderstanding came from the fact that I don't understand the way race operates in Australia on the same level of understanding how it works in Canada. For instance, the Aboriginals in Canada face racism
Even though Toronto is this immigrant hub, there is a heightening anti-immigration sentiment that's uh, really disturbing. If you're white, then you were always here, and if you aren't, then you came from somewhere else. That's why I was totally missing your understanding of the 'get out of racism free' card. No one in the city gets a pass like that unless their skin is white and their accent is Canadian. There's a hierarchy of race, but a hiearchy of racism doesn't fit what I've learned about Canada. In my understanding, racism manifests itself differently in different contexts for different people. For myself, I will be affected by aspects of institutional racism that another person of colour from another race will not be affected by, and vice versa.
For instance, after 9/11, I am read as Muslim even though I'm not, especially because of my last name (until I changed it legally), and somehow Muslim is becoming equated with terrorist. There's this notion that Canada is harboring terrorists, so when traveling abroad, I'd be stopped at airports, my luggage slashed, and so on. For a time after, I didn't feel safe enough to google anything about Al-Qaeda because I thought no one would believe I'm not a terrorist.
But an Aboriginal, or Chinese, or black or whoever else might not get this type of treatment - at least not for the same reasons - the racism won't manifest in the same way. Even so, I don't have to face the same kind of racism that Aboriginals face that is embedded into our colonial laws (The Indian Act is one hell of a piece of legislation). The "Asian Invasion" is still mentioned here at times. Some of my friends get stopped on the street with random comments like "there are too many Chinese people in this city" even if they're not Chinese at all.
So, I keep getting long winded in why I completely misunderstood where you're coming from. (By the way, I'm not countering you - I'm just exchanging words.)
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I'm South Asian, and even though I live in Toronto (we love to talk about our multiculturalism like its always a good thing), I get those overt one-off "go back where you came from" comments too. I think a lot of my misunderstanding came from the fact that I don't understand the way race operates in Australia on the same level of understanding how it works in Canada. For instance, the Aboriginals in Canada face racism
Even though Toronto is this immigrant hub, there is a heightening anti-immigration sentiment that's uh, really disturbing. If you're white, then you were always here, and if you aren't, then you came from somewhere else. That's why I was totally missing your understanding of the 'get out of racism free' card. No one in the city gets a pass like that unless their skin is white and their accent is Canadian. There's a hierarchy of race, but a hiearchy of racism doesn't fit what I've learned about Canada. In my understanding, racism manifests itself differently in different contexts for different people. For myself, I will be affected by aspects of institutional racism that another person of colour from another race will not be affected by, and vice versa.
For instance, after 9/11, I am read as Muslim even though I'm not, especially because of my last name (until I changed it legally), and somehow Muslim is becoming equated with terrorist. There's this notion that Canada is harboring terrorists, so when traveling abroad, I'd be stopped at airports, my luggage slashed, and so on. For a time after, I didn't feel safe enough to google anything about Al-Qaeda because I thought no one would believe I'm not a terrorist.
But an Aboriginal, or Chinese, or black or whoever else might not get this type of treatment - at least not for the same reasons - the racism won't manifest in the same way. Even so, I don't have to face the same kind of racism that Aboriginals face that is embedded into our colonial laws (The Indian Act is one hell of a piece of legislation). The "Asian Invasion" is still mentioned here at times. Some of my friends get stopped on the street with random comments like "there are too many Chinese people in this city" even if they're not Chinese at all.
So, I keep getting long winded in why I completely misunderstood where you're coming from. (By the way, I'm not countering you - I'm just exchanging words.)