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Do you think so? How many Americans really know about Australia-South Africa relations now, let alone back then?
I always thought it was because of the treatment of the aboriginals, especially for black Americans.
I do remember, back in the late 80s I think, one person did say to me that he didn't like Australia or Israel because they continued to support South Africa. But, yeah, I'm not sure most Americans would've been aware of that.
Regarding the Aboriginal issue, most Americans -- if they give any thought to it all -- equate Aboriginals and black Americans. By that measure, Australia does seem to come up short as black Americans are far more integrated into society at all levels, right up to the White House. But that's just going on skin color.
While cultural comparisons are always dangerous, the closer comparison would be between Aboriginals and Native Americans/Inuits in terms of the percentage of population and integration into larger society. By that measure, Australia doesn't come off as badly. Or, perhaps both Australia and the US come off almost equally badly (though the one big difference is the US does allow autonomy for Native American tribal lands and some tribes have gotten pretty wealthy from casinos in areas that otherwise don't allow gambling. I don't believe there's anything equivalent for Aboriginal lands.)
I'm equally interested to see how quickly Australians of Asian and Middle-Eastern descent fully integrate into the Australian social structure as that may actually more mimic the African-American experience in terms of being a largely urban minority population that's around 5%-10% of the population.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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It is annoying how some people think of all blacks as being the same, when Australian aborigines are closer to white people than Africans.
Yes, I think if the Australian government was too critical of Apartheid they'd be accused of hypocrisy with their WAP. I think criticism of it did pick up after the 1973 but even in the early 70s most Australians seemed to support it. When the SA rugby team played, and anti-apartheid protestors staged a protest, they copped a lot of flack from the crowd but then again it was probably mainly cos they were interrupting the game.
I do remember, back in the late 80s I think, one person did say to me that he didn't like Australia or Israel because they continued to support South Africa. But, yeah, I'm not sure most Americans would've been aware of that.
From the late 60's onward Australia supported the UN embargos against South Africa. Sporting competition between Australia and SA was banned from 1972 onwards because of the racial segregation of teams. It might surprise you but England, France and I think the British Lions all toured SA during the apartheid-era and NZ invited an all white Springbok side to play in NZ in 1981.
It really does seem like once again Australia has been given the short end of the straw.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrueDat
Regarding the Aboriginal issue, most Americans -- if they give any thought to it all -- equate Aboriginals and black Americans. By that measure, Australia does seem to come up short as black Americans are far more integrated into society at all levels, right up to the White House. But that's just going on skin color.
True, but a fairer comparison is to native American populations. In that instance America, like Australia, doesn't have much to be proud of.
True, but a fairer comparison is to native American populations. In that instance America, like Australia, doesn't have much to be proud of.
Yes, that's what I said. Aboriginals, like Native Americans, are largely outside the large cities and are 1%-2% of the population. Just as most Australians don't know any Aboriginals, even casually, most Americans don't know any Native Americans. Both are often nearly invisible parts of the social fabric.
I do remember, back in the late 80s I think, one person did say to me that he didn't like Australia or Israel because they continued to support South Africa. But, yeah, I'm not sure most Americans would've been aware of that.
Regarding the Aboriginal issue, most Americans -- if they give any thought to it all -- equate Aboriginals and black Americans. By that measure, Australia does seem to come up short as black Americans are far more integrated into society at all levels, right up to the White House. But that's just going on skin color.
While cultural comparisons are always dangerous, the closer comparison would be between Aboriginals and Native Americans/Inuits in terms of the percentage of population and integration into larger society. By that measure, Australia doesn't come off as badly. Or, perhaps both Australia and the US come off almost equally badly (though the one big difference is the US does allow autonomy for Native American tribal lands and some tribes have gotten pretty wealthy from casinos in areas that otherwise don't allow gambling. I don't believe there's anything equivalent for Aboriginal lands.)
I'm equally interested to see how quickly Australians of Asian and Middle-Eastern descent fully integrate into the Australian social structure as that may actually more mimic the African-American experience in terms of being a largely urban minority population that's around 5%-10% of the population.
I don’t think you could draw any comparisons really, I’m not big on US history I would admit, but assume that the USA has being 5-10% black for most of last the last 200 years?
Large Scale immigration from Asia is only a very recent thing in Australia (the WAP saw to that), it started in the 1980's but even at the turn of the century in 2001 the population was only about 6% Asian.
Since then virtually all the population growth in the country has come from people of Asian ancestory, the number of Asian Australians has almost trebled in the last 10 years.
The point been integration takes time, and as such Asian Australians have had much less time to integrate than African Americans have, so I would assume the intergration is nowhere near as developed.
Im not entirely sure about the middle eastern communites, almost all the people from that part of the world live in Sydney and Melbourne.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 09-04-2012 at 11:09 PM..
Hispanics (of any race) are now a larger group and Asians are the fastest growing group though still relatively small in terms of percentage. According to the chart I posted, there are even fewer Native Americans than I thought, just 0.9%.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danielsa1775
I don’t think you could draw any comparisons really, I’m not big on US history I would admit, but assume that the USA has being 5-10% black for most of last the last 200 years?
Large Scale immigration from Asia is only a very recent thing in Australia (the WAP saw to that), it started in the 1980's but even at the turn of the century in 2001 the population was only about 6% Asian.
Since then virtually all the population growth in the country has come from people of Asian ancestory, the number of Asian Australians has almost trebled in the last 10 years.
The point been integration takes time, and as such Asian Australians have had much less time to integrate than African Americans have, so I would assume the intergration is nowhere near as developed.
Im not entirely sure about the middle eastern communites, almost all the people from that part of the world live in Sydney and Melbourne.
I'm reading something about the history of Chinese Australians and it's eye-opening. I guess the main gist of my question actually concerned Asian, particularly Chinese, migration, since in the early years Chinese migration was far from negligible. In fact, many towns/cities were even majority Chinese. Of course quite a few left, but many remained, and when Asian migration was virtually halted (though not COMPLETELY halted, largely in a more practical sense through language tests) in the 1920s Asian populations dropped precipitously. Would Australia be 30-40% Asian today if not for the policy? Aborigines aren't really affected by immigration laws but were effected by the racially discriminatory WAP and other policies aimed at marginalizing them or amalgamating them into respectable white society.
What was shameful was the racism against Caleb Shang during WW2, a bloke who was awarded the DCM and Bar plus the Military Medal in WW1 deserved better than to be treated to that rubbish.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nzrugby
What was shameful was the racism against Caleb Shang during WW2, a bloke who was awarded the DCM and Bar plus the Military Medal in WW1 deserved better than to be treated to that rubbish.
It is a pity, maybe he was mistaken for a Japanese person, either way, it's good to know of the contributions of Australians of Asian ancestry during wartime.
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