If you ask me

Australia’s Anthony Mundine would import the racism that the BLM movement represents.

If you ask me, in the past couple of years there has been a very unfortunate increase in the appalling problem of racism. While racism had been in decline, for the past hundred years or so, it now seems to be on the increase once again. Further, and quite sadly, the people who seem to be opening the wound of racism are the very people who were once the victims of racism.

Racism in America Today

For example, there are the race riots that have been orchestrated by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in some parts of the USA.  The excuse for these riots is often the shooting of black men by the police. It doesn’t seem to matter that the ‘victim’ of these shootings is very often a criminal who has been a real threat to the community and to the lives of police officers. It is now, automatically assumed, that each shooting is another case of white police officers victimizing black civilians.

It has gotten to the ridiculous point where even when a black policeman, under the supervision of a black police chief, shoots a black civilian, then the riots reignite against the police and against their fellow Americans. Some proponents of the BLM movement are now saying that black policemen are no longer black, which is utterly ridiculous!

There is definitely something more than racial division behind these troubles. What is especially worrying is that, under a black president, the issue just seems to be getting worse. Even more worrying, is that there has been no effective leadership, mediation or any solutions, forthcoming from the White House. Indeed, the only comments from Barrack Obama are devoid of leadership and seem to have only inflamed the situation.

Racism in Southern Africa Today

In Africa we have seen the black versus white issue brought to a truly tragic level in countries like Zimbabwe. The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, claims that the cause of the violence, is the imbalance of white ownership of land at the expense of the black population. However, the truth is that the entire episode has been nothing more than Mugabe prolonging his strangle-hold on the political power and natural wealth of his country. Mugabe did this through the resurrection and exaggeration of old and near dead, racial divisions and then amplified the problem through the injection of his own distinctive brand of terror.

It should be noted that, while Mugabe’s campaign was purported to be aimed solely at white ownership of land, his policies have been even more deadly for many black Zimbabweans. Anyone who is not from Mugabe’s own Shona tribal group, whether white or black, is at risk. More than 30,000 people from the Ndebele tribe were exterminated by Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade in the 1980s and victimization, of the Ndebele and other tribes, continues to this day. Racism, against white and black, is alive and well under Mugabe who once, very aptly, described himself as a ‘black Hitler’.

Now we see South Africa teetering on the edge of the same tragic path as Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, some black South African politicians want South Africa to emulate Mugabe’s twisted example and sieze all white owned land and businesses. It is hard to believe that these people are incapable of looking at the results of Mugabe’s policies and not realise the stupidity of those policies. The results have been, not only murder, torture and oppression of black and white Zimbabweans, but also hyper inflation, the collapse of a once prosperous economy and millions of illegal immigrants flooding across the border to escape the economic chaos and the murderous practices of Mugabe’s minions.

How can South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) party not realise that they will be forcing South Africa down the same path? As with their neighbour, Mugabe, this is just a power grab without any thought for the plight of ordinary South Africans, whether black or white, and with a liberal dose of ‘invented’ racism added to the mix. The great legacy of Nelson Mandela, who brought South Africa to a point in history where the racial divide could have, in time, been largely eliminated, has been almost totally destroyed by his successors. Some of this has been through government incompetence but a great deal has been a malicious and determined effort to maintain political power, and to keep the ANC fingers on the public purse.

Racism in Australia Today

Now we come to the situation with Aboriginal people in Australia. As elsewhere, racism has been steadily in decline for many years. Yes, there was still a lot of room for improvement but the changes have been happening and things were way better than they were in the past. Or, at least that was until clowns like Anthony Mundine decided to intervene. Now Mundine has said some stupid and unhelpful things in his time, but his latest call on footballers to boycott the national anthem, just as some misguided American sportsman have done, is one of his dumbest.

Mundine, for reasons that can only be described as selfish and egotistical, has made a bid to be topical in some vain attempt to snatch media attention and the public eye. But, in truth, he is just another trouble maker trying to open the racism wound and make the situation worse in a country where things were improving.

The same can be said for the ridiculous suggestions that Australia Day should be renamed Invasion Day. We cannot change what happened in the past. No one alive today was here when the First Fleet arrived and Australia changed forever. No one, white or black, is guilty of the crimes and mistakes of their forefathers and we shouldn’t try to make them so.

If you want to pull apart national cohesion, and widen the racial divide, then stunts like this are a prime way to do it. How can attacking the fabric of any nation, widening the racial divide and making enemies of our neighbours possibly end racism? Indeed, such behaviour only hardens and exacerbates racism.

So, rather than stupid and confrontational stunts like disrespecting the national anthem and calling our national day ‘Invasion Day’, what are we to really do about racism?

I think that one of the best pieces of advice, to be found anywhere, lies in an interview with the American actor, Morgan Freeman, when he was asked how to get rid of racism and his answer, was quite simply, to stop talking about it. He told the interviewer, Mike Wallace of the US 60 Minutes program, that he should only think of him as Morgan, and not as a black man, and that he would only think of the interviewer as Mike Wallace and not as a white person. You can see this interview here: Interview with Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is absolutely correct. When we stop talking about each other based upon our skin colour, when we stop trying to blame each other for the past and when we start talking about each other as equal citizens, then racism will be a thing of the past.

When we stop describing people as African American, Latino or white American, and use only the term American. When we stop describing people as Shona, Ndelebe or Mabhunu (Boer farmer) and start saying Zimbabwean. When we stop saying Afrikaaner, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Venda, etc, etc, and start saying South African. When we stop using the terms  Aboriginal, Torres Straight Islander or white Australian and start using only the term Australian. When we stop using the terms Maori and White and start saying only New Zealander, then you are a long way down the path to the end of racism.

I want to walk on that path, who will join me?

What do you think? Please feel free to comment below.