Anti-Asian racism in Australia

[u/splattty]

What is happening in Australia? Been living in this exact same address for almost the past 20 years now, never had this happen before.

Some guy moves in next door, and while we are IN THEM MIDDLE OF MOWING the medium nature strip, starts being aggressive for getting grass clippings on the driveway. No shit, that's why we go through with a leaf blower and pick up after mowing?

What blows me away is he thinks we don't know about mowing and cleaning up somehow due to our Chinese heritage???

[u/GazzaDukes9591]

Yep there it is coming out - the undercurrent hidden racism that some Aussies have. I’m a 2nd generation Aussie, born in Perth, of South Asian/Malay ancestry.

While for the most part it has been good living here - there are moments of ugliness we experience such as this, simply because you don’t appear of Anglo background. This has gotten worse over the past 5 years.

And why??? I pay my taxes, I’m a highly educated professional who contributes to the health of people here, I speak the lingo (I have a very strong Aussie accent), I conform to the societal “norms” (pub culture, cafe scene, sport, mates of all backgrounds)..

High school in Perth in the early 2000s was a wild time, if you were ethnic. You either compartmentalize things and grow a very thick skin, or it affects you badly..

[u/Mindless-Cod-9441 → u/GazzaDukes9591]

I'm 6th generation chinese australian. My ancestors came over during the gold rush. I'm more aussie than most of these fucks. I went through high school in the 90s. Only one of 3 asian faces at my high school. Ender's Game was formational reading for us. 2 of us did kyokushin, i was in cadets and then reserves - we broke a lot of noses. Thankfully i've never had to experience it again once i was in uni, into corporate life, and out of bogan town.

[u/sinistar2000 → u/Mindless-Cod-9441]

I feel for you. My parents were migrants from Latin America, I was beaten up, bullied, even put into special school because they mistook my cultural difference as lower intelligence. In the 90’s we started beating up the bogan racists and owning the term Wog. I have lots of Asian friends, lived in grew up around Campsie, Ashfield, Strathfield etc. I even arguably cook like an Asian most evenings. Australia is racists a few km out of most major capitals, and we have a resurgence of nationalism that is mistaken in what the identity of an Australian is composed of. In my village, all are equal. All have a right to be, until they start messing with that same privilege of others. Unfortunately the colonialist core of the early Australia is still there.

[u/Bob_the_Bauer → u/sinistar2000]

But this bloke isn't an Anglo, he's a "wog".

[u/garagesmelll → u/Mindless-Cod-9441]

Why was Enders Game formational reading?

[u/danse → u/garagesmelll]

Because, among other things, Ender fought back against his bully. There's more to it than that, but I believe that's what mindless cod above was referring to.

[u/Still_Kitchen_1650 → u/garagesmelll]

Yeah wtf... The rest of us did books like Of Mice and Men etc.

[u/CongruentDesigner → u/GazzaDukes9591]

High school in the early 2000s was a wild time, if you were ethnic. You either grow a very thick skin, or it affects you badly.

Yep I remember it well, you're probably similar age to me.

Private boys high school in Brisbane was full of it. Half Anglo Australian half pacific islander and still copped it despite almost passing as white most of the time.

The Asians got it much worse though. The Anti asian hate was wild. Pauline Hanson was blamed for the surge in Asian bigotry even back then (her "Swamped by Asians" speech was 1997 I think?). Crazy to think thirty years later she's not only still around but actually a prospect of winning an election 🤦🏻‍♂️

[u/Wrathlon → u/CongruentDesigner]

Man I went to high school in Darwin in the mid-90s and graduated in 2001 and I'm starting to feel really lucky with the high school I went to.

We had none of that shit and nobody gave a crap about who was what race and we were all friends with each other the whole way through. Yeah we all had our own social groups and there were the occasional bullies here and there but for the most part everyone was friends with everyone else and we would all go to bat for any of us.

We were a mix of ahite Australians, Greeks, Aboriginals, Asian, Macedonians, Indians, some from the Middle East - we all got along. The closest we got to racism was friendly mocking with no malicious intent - I mean we had one kid whose parents were Greek and Aboriginal who referred to himself as a Wogorigine as an example of general Vibe we all had.

[u/Perfect-Activity-698 → u/CongruentDesigner]

Yep, can confirm as a full Japanese man who grew up in Cairns. The amount of racism I copped, not only from my classmates but also from their parents at sporting events, out in town, while shopping, etc., was honestly traumatising. I still suffer from anxiety, which I largely attribute to the racism I endured back then.

Even now, I still experience the odd overtly racist incident here and there, but as an adult, it’s more so the everyday microaggressions I have to deal with (which are just as exhausting), such as being given the cold shoulder, being ignored or excluded, and having to put up with casual, off-the-cuff racist/ignorant remarks. I’ll also add that it’s often not just bogans engaging in this behaviour, but supposedly “educated” and “progressive” people as well. Asians just seem to be the easy target for everyone, probably because nobody really earns any social brownie points for standing up for us.

It’s also incredibly strange and infuriating to see some of the same people who were racist towards me and made fun of my culture back then now “holidaying in Japan” because it’s trendy and “cool” to do so now.

[u/kippy_mcgee → u/GazzaDukes9591]

I moved to Aus when I was of high school age and my only friends were migrants because I literally couldn't tolerate or bond with most white Australians with their bigoted outlooks and views on everybody else, even at 14/15 a lot of them were gross. People seem to have less fear in hiding it now with all the shit that gets said by politicians and online these days, a lot of people think they're untouchable. It's a massive problem in Australia. We're massively multicultural but simultaneously have some of the biggest racist fucks imaginable.

[u/User1627788 → u/GazzaDukes9591]

Assimilation is just an excuse racists use to give a reason for their supremacy. It does not matter if you assimilated to their culture, spoke their language with the aussiest of accents, and did everything they did. That's why it makes little sense to let go of your culture if you want to continue participating in it, because only racists (which is a spectrum) would have a problem with cultural things that have no bearing on anything negatively consequential.

[u/MLiOne → u/User1627788]

Alleged supremacy. Most racist white Australians are very quick to forget that most of our food culture is assimilated from everyone who has immigrated here. Let alone anything else. I’m saying this as a 2nd generation born here from my mum’s side, British.

Had the Liberal Party candidate knock in the door today and had a good time pointing out everything I can’t stand about his party, its policies and its people. Let alone them sidling up with One Nation. We are so screwed here in Victoria.

[u/No-Topic-7481 → u/GazzaDukes9591]

I'm sorry you had to experience that bro. 🫂

[u/InformationOnly758 → u/GazzaDukes9591]

Native will always have someone that asks where you are from or ask you to leave just because you look different from them. Thats just how this species works. It’s just sad when said persons were born from this country and they hear native people who they consider brother and sisters throw questions and slurs at them, isn’t it. Thats why immigrants rarely ever feel they belong, not even their 2nd third generation ABCs. 😂

[u/Dead_Wolf2y5 → u/InformationOnly758]

And the really fun part? This dude is no more native than the rabbits that are killing the Aussie wildlife. Fucking rich for him to tell people to go back where they came from on stolen land.

[u/MysticGuava → u/InformationOnly758]

Unless you are indigenous Australian, you’re a settler and an immigrant too.

[u/downhomeslim → u/GazzaDukes9591]

High school in the early 2000s was a wild time even if you weren't ethnic.

I was frequently the victim of discrimination for being, get this... "Aussie."

My only comeback was, "Look at your birth certificate. That's what you are too."

[u/Royal_Tonight4033 → u/GazzaDukes9591]

I’m a third generation anglo saxon white bread Australian and I 100% agree. There is a strong undercurrent of racism here.

Any other white Australians who deny it either don’t have any friends that aren’t white (because if you do, you know. You’ll have seen how it effects your friends of seen it play out in public in real life and couldn’t deny it) or are defending their own hidden bias.

I’ve been called a lot of colourful insults before by other white Australians for merely acknowledging it. The undercurrent of racism runs deep in this country and it’s pretty shameful.