Long Time Festering

Racial violence erupts in Sydney do silently scream the headlines in newspapers the world over. It turns out that Sydney is full of racists after all. It turns out that the average Australian may well be more in line with their prime minister, John Howard, than one would have first thought. One could be forgiven for expecting more from the Australians, given that the country is so similar, culturally and socially, to New Zealand. However, these recent events have the potential to topple any preconceived notions of Australians' inherent good nature that have been held by many people until now.

Many observers, including Sydney's hard-hit Islamic community, are citing the media as having played a significant role in the perpetuation of an underlying xenophobic mentality in Sydney. This article published by the University of Sydney a significant amount of time ago -- almost three years ago, in fact -- highlights the issue of the mainstream Australian media making links between ethnicity and crime. It, of course, would also serve to make it apparent that the negative media coverage is something that has been a problem for a long time. This week's events are being attributed to media-spawned racial tensions, as well as recent crime, finally reaching boiling point.

Although the violence commenced on Sunday, with a series of attacks on men and women of Middle Eastern appearance occurring at Cronulla beach in the south of Sydney, and the ransacking of an ambulance that was transporting five victims from the scene, it continues even now. Apparently, racist text messages have been circulating, one of which issues a declaration of war between Middle Eastern youths and Australians, and police are still struggling to control the atrocities that are being committed, including not just beatings but stabbings as well. Neo-fascist groups appear to be having a field day -- unabatedly, drunkenly expressing their hate.

The text messages echo methods that were employed when the violence first began in Cronulla, which involved mobile phones being used to attempt to tactically organise the racist mobs. One report gave description to a text message that alleged Lebanese young people were attempting to escape from Cronulla via rail, and that they were assembling at the train station. Racists ran from the beach to the station, however faced only police resistance, with the text having been false and the police having been tipped off to it. Nonetheless it is absolutely disturbing that such efforts are being taken by the racists to optimise their obscene rampage.
What is likely one of the saddest aspects of this situation is the fact that not all of the perpetrators of the violence are white supremecists as one would probably expect. A significant number of them appear to look little different to you and me. Of course, what sets us apart from them is that we have minds. However, it is tragic that such seemingly average, everyday people are becoming swept up in the xenophobic hysteria that is becoming ever more prominent in Western countries post-11 September, 2001. With extensive nationalism apparently on the rise, the only way to go from here for Australia is down.