I remember Mum saying that racist white women wrapped up their racism into this kind of myth of machismo for white menfolk here. That if a man could keep his woman AWAY from First Nation people that he was somehow a good provider & protector for her. The fact that white women thought it was correct and were even proud makes it one of the more insidious form of racism there is. ( http://aso.gov.au/…/docu…/freedom-ride-blood-brothers/clip1/ ) I was looking at this video from 1965 and although I don't know these people personally it made me think about what my Mum told me and I believe it's true.. I think a lot of racist whites STILL think like this because many haven't personally met a First Nation person. They don't want to because they actively avoid it out of a traditional culture of hate. They have a lot of opinions based on racist folk tales in the Bible mostly about the son of Ham...which is a myth in itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham The myth goes something like this; Black people are not as good as white and are only black because God made them black to show that they're only fit for slaves. Now, it's not IN the Bible but it's a myth made by kings so their white slaves/servants wouldn't think they were more slave-y than black people. It's a culture of hate in order to help define a mythic 'proud' white racist family unit in servitude to a King...or Queen in the case of this continent.. If you add every other kind of white racist privileged embellishment from media and politicians then there IS apartheid in this country. It's all kept inside of suburban homes with their huge fences, large dogs and SUV's with the strayan flag on the window sticker. The 'polite' segregation wrapped up in the colonial myth of 'mates' with other whites BUT it's still the 'boss man and jacky-jacky' mentality for First Nation men and as for white women...they aren't a real women if they meet a First Nation person, ever. The solution? Get in their faces about it and make a joke about it. Shame them enough to make it seem like it's not cool or sane to do it. Also, if you're in a First Nation family...like mine is...you'll find that some tend to copy exactly what our oppressor does to us. They do that out of pain, fear, anger and frustration. Our misguided family members need to learn that difference is natural and isn't worth the fear or hate it creates. If some of our family imitate white racists and don't associate with even fair-skinned First Nation people like me then they're part of the problem that white racists created for them and themselves. Rich white racists make the problem in order to solve it with hate & violence in a class based pawn move and First Nation people aren't THAT. We aren't pawns in a huge game. Elite, rich, white racists WANT us to keep OURSELVES segregated from them so they can stay 'pure' (whatever that means) and they don't have to lift a finger because WE do all the work for THEM. We're like their bloody slaves and they don't even have to lift a finger. When any person segregates themselves from a portion of humanity they are slaves to whoever told them it was OK to do it. Let justice, peace & love be your guide. Because these days that's the REAL revolution.
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My First memory of racism was an attack on my Nana because she's darker than me and I didn't know it at the time.... All I knew was that someone was hurting my Nana and I loved her. I know what racism is because when I was 4 years old and my Nan was in our front yard watering her lawn for us to sleep on at night in the summer... I remember a white woman coming out of nowhere stage right and starting to point and snap angry words at my Nana. I didn't know what those words were but I could hear my Nana gasp at them. I remember saying the only word that I knew was angry at her. I was half hiding under a huge pink flowering hibiscus bush as I charged forward and back again to defend her because I loved her ....and there was this stranger trying to hurt my Nana. "Bloody...Bloody...bloody Bloody..." I went...pointing my finger at this white racist woman and then I got enough courage to rush to be next to my Nana's dress to hide in it. Nana picked up the hose out of my way and kinked it shut with her fist cutting off the water...and looked at this racist wench right in the eyes even as she was spitting and now screaming out words that really made no sense to me. My Nana said something under her breath and that racist shouted out louder hoping a nieghbour would hear her as if to assist her or something in a really sharp warped kind of crazy voice that was so shrill that it hurt my ears. It must have been really racist because my Nan, who's usually a calm women, had her hand came out to the side of her apron ...and she started flicking with her thumb and middle index finger as if something was biting her. It was like she was trying to flick off the anger she wanted to inflict on this racist bitch to the ground... I remember saying "Bloody BLOODY Bloody bloody..." and looking out at all the distance as that woman turned away and started off the street towards her house somewhere else. She walked like she'd won some huge prize for being white? Just as she got to the corner of Nana's verge and onto the nieghbours front lawn my Nana let her have it with the hose. She had the head of the hose pinched with her thumb on the top off it till the water came out in one jet hard as nails. The hard water hit that racist woman from the top of her expensive dumb shoes to the back of her head till her hat flew off her head and she staggered forward with the shock of it. She then ran in a zig-zag stumble with this fake drama run...screaming up the street clutching her wet ass as she ran off. My Nana and me looked at each other strong because we were family...and nothing anyone else said about us would change that. Just a note: I wasn't 'the fair one' or 'the white kid' in the family EVER... I've always been just Julie. My Nana said later that that woman had been gossiping with the whole neighborhood about Nana because she wanted her gone because she was black. Hell, the whole family looked different but we couldn't give a rats ass.
So this racist woman was being there every 5 minutes spying for years it seemed to me and was all 'sweet' at first while doing it just so she could get her power up to try something and Nana picked up on it of course lonng before she arrived. It was a case of not knowing how but when she'd try something which happened a lot of Nan in her life I know now. So Nana told her a bit of a fib (a lie) to catch her out & that. She told her that was growing gunja (marijuana) in the back yard for happy trips....well...this racist tells the cops she's growing maryjane to get Nana out of 'HER' street, 'HER' suburb...'HER' planet etc. I think she looked at us as if we should be gone into child welfare and adopted out to some white strangers. So the cops arrive, all guns blazin' and Nana & us are all are out in the bush hunting for wood across the street.... So the only thing the cops found was Nana's tomato plants! They would've gone round to that racist woman's house and given her a verbal for being a public nuisance! hehe. "Bloody...Bloody....BLOODY!" I painted pictures for people to use last night for today. The Flying Foam Massacre Memorial Day at King Bay. A quote from a friend; "There is a Gathering of people at Kings Bay Western Australia on Sunday 21/2/2016 to Commemorate a campaign of Genocide on the Yabuara people of the Pilbara region in Western Australia.. On this Day in 1868 English colonists began three months of systemic massacre against the Yaburara people of what we know today as the Burrup or Dampier Island. We pay our respects to past peoples of the Burrup, ancient peoples who left their message for future generations in some one million rock art paleolithic, the oldest and largest group known to ever exist on earth. We pay our respects to the many generations who over millennia assumed guardianship of what many regard as the Australian original peoples Rosetta Stone. We Stand in honour of the peaceful unarmed and non-combative Yaburara people whose hand of friendship extended to the newly arrived colonists was grabbed with greed as colonists sought not merely the hand of friendship proffered nor contentment with the arm but a greed driven desire to take the life out of the whole body of all of the Yaburara people. Today we Stand in honour of the Yaburara who were Massacred in the three month evil known today as the Flying Foam Massacre. It is because of this massacre that Colonial Australian Courts recently disallowed a Native Title Claim, in effect rewarding the colonial society whose rights descend from the Flying Foam Massacre .We honour those slain. We Stand in solidarity with the the Ngarda Ngarli Aboriginal people of the West Pilbara with Senior lawman and spokesman Wilfred Hicks and Tim Douglas by whose consent this Event takes place. We also acknowledge and act with the consent of tribal elder Audrey Cosmos . Idle No More Solidarity Sydney , The Indigenous Social Justice Association and Occupy Sydney join with Global Stand up for the Burrup, supporters and friends in calling for UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LISTING of the Entirety of The Burrup Rock Art and its surrounding area. Recently the West Australian Government gazetted 44% of the Burrup as a National Park Conservation zone. This is the first response since requests petitions protests and negotiations for such conservation began in 1965 in response to acts of industrial destruction and wanton desecration. It is a small step in the right direction and for the first time gives UNESCO the scope to consider Heritage listing under its Charter. We call for the West Australian Government to extend all declared National Park to all of the Dampier Archipelago. To conserve 44% is the equivalent of Egypt preserving one pyramid knocking a second down to develop a high rise building and allowing the third to be converted to an hotel. It couldn't happen in Egypt and it shouldn't happen to the oldest and largest paleolithic collection in the world. The fact that parts of The Burrup have already been destroyed to serve the short term profit interests of mining and gas extractors from far away makes the prospect even more abhorrent. Today we join with our Brothers and Sisters in grief and remembrance and demand UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LISTING FOR THE BURRUP." - Lanz Priestly |
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November 2017
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