Today the daily telegraph had this story headed call for calm over local revenge http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17492852-5001021,00.html
The story was about racial tensions in the Sutherland Shire and in particular at Cronulla Beach. Now we live in the Sutherland Shire and my teenage son frequents Cronulla. He goes out to the point to surf with his friends, mainly Aussies, and so he doesn't actually hang on the beach so he doesn't seem to see too much of this happening. Thank God.
However, I am now scared for him to go to the Beach. Racism and negative feelings in the Sutherland shire towards Lebanese and even other ethnics groups are not new. We came to live in the Shire 11 years ago and found that there were hardly any ethnics living here at that time and in particular Lebanese. The so called Anglo's here called it "Gods Country" and we felt it was said to mean that the Shire was pure and hadn't been infiltrated with ethnics - ethnics were not warmly welcomed.
My children are of Lebanese background and we have felt the attitude and the tension in the shire. Its is very hurtful. My children are mixed so they sit in the middle. It is a difficult place to be.
Now with the problem at the beach. I can understand why people get scared when they see a group of Lebanese boys/men walking together. Let me tell you I also get scared when I see a group of Aussie men/boys walking together. We have been programed to fear those in groups and in particular those of Middle Eastern Appearance.
The difficulty is that these Lebanese boys have had to deal with so much racism, unfair treatment and hatred and many of them are at a point where they easily explode. Sure its not a good enough excuse for violence but then we have the Aussies, they know that they can pretty much aggravate the ethnics and so long as they keep it just below the line and don't throw the first punch then the ethnics will be blamed if they react or rebel. It isn't difficult to discredit a person of Lebanese background given the present climate. The Aussies want to get rid of the ethnics and they know just how to go about it whilst coming out looking squeaky clean.
As far as I am concerned this all goes back to the way bullying is dealt with at schools. This no blame method that is used is causing the problems! We need to pay more attention to the "Why" things are reaching the levels that they are at and work on addressing that first. We need to address bullying and tormenting and although it might be that we shouldn't punish bullies harshly- to not even place blame tells the bully that what they are doing is acceptable and does not validate the victim of the bully. This causes resentment and anger and resentment and anger leads to aggression and violence. Bullies thrive in this type of environment and then it spills out into the community. That is where we are at today.
When issues are not addressed properly and fairly sooner or later things have to explode.
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