Hail Australia

Racial Violence Continues in Australia

Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a day after thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach in the same area in one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence.

Ah, Sydney, the third best city in the world--if you happen to be white.

Here's the reaction of Australia's prime minister, who I've always thought to be racist:

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has played down claims that racism fuelled the weekend riots, putting him at odds with the NSW Premier, the Police Commissioner and many community leaders.

"Mob violence is always sickening and always to be unconditionally condemned," he said. "Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians, irrespective of their own background and irrespective of their politics."

But he said the riots were primarily a "law and order issue".

"I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country. I have always taken a more optimistic view of the character of the Australian people. I do not believe Australians are racist."

Well, it's easy to be optimistic when you're not the one getting beaten up.

And it's easy for mobs feel empowered to go after minorities when your prime minister says things like Muslim women should make themselves less conspicuous.

Contrast Howard's denials with that of a young editorial assistant at the Sydney Herald, who says "Young Lebanese Australians now feel they are second-class citizens" in his article, headlined Treat us like dogs and we'll bite back.

Howard has been described as leading the last openly racist country in the developed world; it's not a surprising characterization, given that until the 1970s the Australian government still kidnapped Aboriginal children and gave them to white parents, and enforced a 'White Australia', apartheid-like immigration policy.

It's clear that Australians have a major racial problem--they've always thought of themselves as an isolated outpost of white civilization, never mind the convict background of their forefathers.

But with China on the ascendancy and the new 800-lb regional gorilla, sooner or later Australia is going to have to look itself in the mirror--either by choice or by compulsion.

Photo by of a man being surrounded and beaten with bottles by Andrew Meares for the Sydney Morning Herald.