Every single Australian person who is outraged at the police (and entire societal) brutality against black people in the US that’s currently in the headlines needs to put the same amount of energy into learning about the VERY SAME brutality that’s used here in Australia to oppress Indigenous Australians.
Every single Australian, whether in Australia or overseas, born in Australia or born overseas, needs to put the onus on themselves to EDUCATE, INFORM and TALK ABOUT the institutional violence black Australians face.
White Australia has:
Warning. These links may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.
- committed genocide against black Australians "comparable to" Nazi Germany
- legally enslaved black Australians
- legally classified Indigenous Australians as animals (Flora and Fauna Act)
- committed mass genocide of Indigenous Australians over 200 years
- denied Indigenous men and women the right to vote for over half a century AFTER white women were granted the right to vote
- actively passed legislation designed to eliminate Indigenous Australians from Australia altogether
- Refused Indigenous people treatment from the Royal Flying Doctor Service in preference of less in need white people (‘Ray Martin: The Great Divide’, SBS)
- Tested nuclear weapons upon the Anangu lands of Maralinga in South Australia
- Minimised and attempted to erase the scientific achievements and discoveries of Aboriginal people (creativespirits.info > Education)
- separated Indigenous children from their families and communities nationwide (page 29) from colonisation to present
- stolen lands from Indigenous Australians from colonisation to present
- allowed a white policeman to murder an Indigenous man (name in link) from the Palm Island community in Northern Queensland in 2004 in custody, resulting in his liver being cleaved in half across his spine from physical abuse
- caused Aboriginal deaths in custody to rise sharply over the past 5 years, including causing Indigenous deaths in custody to quadruple from the 1970s to the 2010s
- minimised and attempted to erase the historical importance of Aboriginal Australians, including that Indigenous Australians may be the earliest humans on the planet
- caused an Aboriginal woman to die in mandatory rehab (name of deceased not present in link)
- caused deaths in custody that NO policeman has EVER been held guilty for
- and so much more that I could stay up all night linking to
Resources
Timeline of Aboriginal history in Australia:
Timeline of racism in Australia
CreativeSpirits.info – a site dedicated to spreading information and awareness about issues relating to Indigenous Australians (n.b. owner is white)
KooriWeb.org – created by Dr. Gary Foley (b 1950) Born in Grafton, northern NSW, of Gumbainggir descent.
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Be outraged at Ferguson. Be outraged about Tamir Rice. Be outraged at ALL the black deaths due to police brutality and institutionalised racism in the USA.
But ALSO be OUTRAGED at the same treatment shown to Indigenous Australians here in this country.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Month: August 2015
Do u ever feel so ugly all u wanna do is go home
can you tag your #blackout posts?? i love your blog but this movement makes me rly uncomfortable
Standard
Don’t pretend like you haven’t done this.
Someone made me a cartoon. Epic.
This is honestly me
The facial expressions when they first look in the mirror omg, this is me
ALL OF THIS. IS ME
10 Warning Signs for POC in Interracial Relationships
Standard1. If your significant other claims to, or is known to “have a thing” for men/women of your race.This is called fetishism, which generally consists of sexual/physical attraction based on stereotypes. For example: the “exotic” Asian/African women stereotype, the sexually potent Black male stereotype… If you’re with someone who just is “into” people of your culture, try asking them why.
2. If they have a friend with racist views.
Birds of a feather typically flock together, and when it comes to things like this, the rule still applies.3. If they don’t check (educationally confront) those friends when they express those views.
What you fail to speak against, is what you ALLOW to happen… I’ll leave it at that.4. If they don’t bring you around family members.
This is sometimes done to shield significant others from discrimination of family members… But beware, the mentalities of family members can be infectious…5. If they are ignorant of, or not making an effort to learn about you or the history/experiences of people of your ethnicity/culture.
Anyone who truly loves/appreciates a person will go out of their way to learn about the cultures which produced this person. That’s a no-brainer. When a person doesn’t make the effort to learn about the societal factors which shape the life of their significant other… that is a problem.6. If they claim to be “colorblind”, or that “race doesn’t matter” or any of that other so-called post-racial, fake liberal B.S.
A person who says this is lying. They’re not saying that race doesn’t matter to them…. they’re saying that deep analysis of such topics make them uncomfortable and for their sake they’d rather just ignore any differences. As the saying goes “being blind to race is just ignoring something that you already noticed.”
7. If you refer to dating them, or they refer to dating you as “trying something new”.
Doesn’t sound right to me… If you want to “try something new” try a new pair of shoes, or a new show on Netflix… But you don’t romantically try other ethnicities as if they’re flavors of Ice Cream, you experience people for who they are.
8. If you seem to be the only person of your race that they are fond of.
Do I need to explain this one?
9. If they cosign your criticisms of your ethnicity
I’ m not really a person who is big on criticizing members of my race when I’m around people outside of my race. Some discussions should stay “in the house” metaphorically speaking. But if you must talk about these kinds of these, your significant other should just be a listening ear. Anything more is out of line.
10. If they cannot, will not, are afraid to, or unable to have discussions on racism.
This is a symptom of a person who is living in denial, ignorance, or both. Either way, it ain’t healthy… Unless you’re in denial too, then y’all will probably get along fine.
Amandla Stenberg is showing a generation of black kids how to shut down racist trolls
While the racist reaction to her casting in The Hunger Games is perhaps what Amandla Stenberg is still most publicly associated with, in the mere three years since, she’s become a bold, outspoken, feminist role model. “That’s the least I can do, is try to start a conversation, try to get people thinking about a certain topic,” she told Mic.
We sat down with Stenberg to talk about her feminist awakening, using her celebrity for good and how her goal in life will help black girls everywhere.
mtv:
this past weekend was the one year anniversary of mike brown’s death. this quote was taken from a post solange made on Instagram during the national protests that followed (pictured).
Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.
Louise Hay
(via herdirtylittleheart)
spotify’s discover weekly playlist is actually fucking insanely good.
UPDATE: AUG 11, 2015. 10:45 PM LOCAL TIME. THE ST. LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT ISSUED A STATEMENT THAT THEY DID NOT HOLD I-70 PROTESTERS IN JAIL, DESPITE HOLDING THEM FOR OVER 22 HOURS FOR PROCESSING. PROTESTER COLOCHA_RACHEL REPORTS OFFICERS ABUSED AND MISTREATED DETAINEES, AND ILLEGALLY DETAINED MANY REPORTERS AND LAWFUL OBSERVERS.
if you follow me please reblog this