(no subject)

[maharetr]

I am feeling...irate. Really, explosively angry at the moment and it's a result of a tiny snowball that's been rolling along for a while, I think. Things inside and things close to home and things in the newspapers and over east all tumbling along and a couple of things tonight that added huge clumps of snow and suddenly the rage is huge, so this is going to be somewhat incoherent.

Dad really seems to think that Australia isn't racist, that we as a culture aren't racist. When John Howard stood up on TV and said "Australians aren't racist" Dad said: "I agree", sort of challengingly I thought, and I didn't say anything, but god, I disagree so strongly.

I'm still not sure about the sequence of events is re: the riots in Sydney, but mum and I were talking about a police officer on TV who said he'd never seen a mob turn on a woman like that, and we were trying to figure out which 'side' attacked her and so forth, because it had been really unclear. My back was to dad when he said, in a joking tone: "maybe she deserved it."

[Backstory here: a few days ago there was an ugly, ugly front page article in the west australian about women school leavers who had been raped or attempted-raped. And I'm using that phrasing deliberately because the attackers? barely mentioned. And the police? were saying women wearing short skirts were "a large part of the problem". Someone wrote into the paper saying: "you morons!! not their fault!" and someone else wrote back to that letter saying: "they were wearing short skirts, what do they expect?" I've just sent off a reply to the latter letter.]

So blaming the victim was a Hot Button for me. It always is, but he's said a similar thing about a murder victim when he was trying to back up an argument, and I hadn't said anything to him then, I don't often speak up against things that make me irate, but this time I was irate enough to say: "Don't you dare say things like that near me, (or to me)", (I can't remember my exact phrasing), but I glanced up to see mum smiling at him and I added: "Ever". And dad responded by saying: "Get off your high horse." (or equivalent) And I just... shut down, couldn't think clearly enough to reply to that. And I'm sitting here irate and almost shaking.

In other news, the weekend was fabulous: went to Scietech with mum which made me feel practically nostalgic, and there was DVD watching and snuggling and Slashmas and, lik 24 hours ago things were so wonderful and I'm nose-diving now and it's sucky. I just needed to vent it *somewhere*. Yay for LJ :)

Comments

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

oh honey! would that i could share my chocolate with you some more and help distract you a little while you climb out of this funk...

i haven't heard anything about it... i'm sort of glad as i really don't have the brainspace for it at the moment, not to mention the fact there's the pure unadulterated fact that even if i did have the headspace, there's absolutely nothing i can do to effect a change or make a difference...

i continually feel more helpless in the wake of our government plunging us further and further into a black hole of break down and backwards-ness...

today has been irritating for me as a whole... the bright spot truly was you.

*love and kisses*

people have to tell themselves that

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

in order to believe that the world is just. If some victims didn't deserve t heir fate, then that would mean that the world wasn't as a whole fair, and that we are obligated to get off our backsides and try to *do* something about it.

Here's a related post from Hurricane Katrina comparing with the public response to the Kent State Shootings.

And yeah, I try not to let myself get dragged into discussions with my dad, either, but I can't always avoid it/restrain myself.

Re: people have to tell themselves that

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

That's it, depressingly.

There was another thing that really bothered me, but I haven't been able to nut it out logically until now. TV reporters interveiwed a (white Australian) guy who talked about how guys were playing soccer on the beach and 'causing some distress among other beachgoers'. The interviewed guy pointed out that the soccer-players (presumably, the men of "middle-eastern appearance" as our paper keeps calling them) had been saying offensive things to women.

I, watching this, snarl at the TV. Dad says: "no, wait, hear him out." The guy talks about how his wife and daughter was harrassed and had soccer balls kicked at them. I tried to articulate to dad that the fact that a group of Lebanese men gang-raping several women as happened a few years ago hadn't resulted in riots and that was serious violence against women.

Also, I've come to realise my inital, instinctive snarl was all about the fact that this man was speaking for his wife. He had not been harrassed, by the sound of it. We never hear what his wife felt about being harrassed or about the violence (all of it) that followed. Being harrassed, on the whole, is not his fear, and I feel like the white Australian guys were using it as an excuse.

Re: people have to tell themselves that

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

Times like these, you laugh or you cry.
"Think how much worse it would be if life was fair, and all the awful things that happened to us happened because we actually deserve them. I for one take great comfort in the completely impersonal hostility of the universe." Marcus Cole, Babylon 5

Here's a post with more discussion of the yobbos

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

from your neck of the woods, obviously I can't really assess the accuracy of their perceptions, but it's [Australian racism] clearly been a problem for a long time, but when people aren't challenged (which is easier when they are spread out over a large area) it's easy to not realize it so much. Until something like this happens.

Re: Here's a post with more discussion of the yobbos

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is fantastic, thank you. I'd been out of the media loop for a few days, so all the reports I was seeing/reading were assuming I knew the chain of events. This is the first time I've been able to see it laid out. The perceptions seem reasonably accurate, too.

Dad seems to be of the opinion that Australians will say racist comments about a group, but when meeting individuals from said group will be nice to them. The fact that being racist behind their backs is still being racist just...doesn't seem to matter him? Like they don't quite mean it or something. *sigh*

[greedy_dancer]

i'm not quite clear on what's happening in Sydney exactly, although sydneysiders has been in ebulition for a couple of days ... good old Johnny though ... Australians not racist? White Australia, rings a bell? *rolls eyes*

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

Parents can be difficult like that sometimes.

The parts where you respect and love them and disagree with them utterly - and primarily, it's because they aren't able to argue at the level you would expect from your friends. And then you aren't able to argue at the level you expect from yourself...

Oh hang on. That's me and my parents.

*hugs you hard*

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

*clings back*

It's me and my parents, too. Although I feel more like I can have discussions/debates with mum. And you're so right about ability to argue, parents vs friends, and added to that the ability to listen and be open to other opinions.

Dad: X!
Me: But there is also Y?
Dad: X! Y is wrong.
Maybe not as literal as that, but god it feels close sometimes.

*sigh*

[bardiegrub.livejournal.com]

That really sucks! I'm so sorry.

When I visit my parents I have to make little pacts with myself beforehand, like "I will not be in the room while the news is on".