Stop the Ruscism. The Chinese has Australia in its pockets. The Chinese and the Russians are colluding. Ukraine will win. Some tens of people chorused on the stoops of Sydney’s Town Hall. I’ve been to too many of these protests. There is a brand of Sinophobia and Asian racism that is acceptable and tolerated in Australia and is understood as being part and parcel of the landscape, especially so by those of us who spent our formative years down under. Whenever there is some socioeconomic upheaval or change, the Chinese and Asian migrants are ready and easy fodder for blame. Covid. Blame the Chinese. Housing crisis. Blame the Chinese. Cost of living crisis. Blame the Asian migrants. Disinherited by your wealthy boomer parents?
Blame the Chinese for the Chinese government’s policies. Because the Chinese, each and all 1.5 billion of them, are representatives of the CCP. White-appearing Australians, on the other hand, are individuals, and in their singularities are distinguishable and apart from their government. Non-white Australians, however, are each and every single one, regarded as representative of entire demographics, regardless of their actual affiliations, social, economic, or political.
I’m not racist but… is arguably a racist white-presenting Australian’s go-to mantra. I’m not racist but it’s safe as houses to say that how Ukrainians were treated as they fled the recent Russian invasion was markedly different, for instance, to how asylum seekers from the Indian sub-continent have been treated as they flee the protracted conflict in their countries. I’m not racist but…
One cause is not superior to another. However, if some causes have often been given priority by our legislators and elected officials, we know why. It’s a terrible thing to become aware of and to recognise: that ‘Humanity’ – that is, the quality of being humane, showing compassion and care – in many ways has been and continues to be applied selectively. On paper, vaunted by UN resolutions, treaties, and conventions, the life of every single human being is proclaimed to be equally valuable, equally worthwhile, that all human beings are to be accorded equal rights and equal treatment. The reality is evidently far from these proclamations.