A Culture of Friendliness & Hospitality (?)

Reference article: http://www.smh.com.au/national/racism-on-the-rise-in-australia-migrants-report-cultural-shift-20140405-365a5.html

This is a picture of a bag of (delicious) honeycomb chocolate, which I purchased today at Paddington Market.  However, it is more than just a tasty memento from today's excursions; I consider it a symbol of the friendliness and hospitality that has been so characteristic of the Australians we have encountered thus far.  Like many others, the man selling these chocolates heard our accents and asked us where we were from.  When we said that we were from Washington DC, he perked up and began asking us questions about what we were doing over here, how long we were staying for, and so on.  We chatted for a while about the differences in American and Australian food production (for example, he asked if we had honeycomb chocolate in the States, and we sadly replied that we had never seen it), he offered us "struggling college students" a discount, and gave us a sample of the blueberry-mango chocolate. All in all, it was an extremely pleasant encounter, and I left feeling truly accepted and welcomed.

While this was a relatively short exchange, it was representative of how Australia seems to welcome Americans--with genuine warmth and enthusiasm.  This is a welcome change from many other foreign countries I have visited, in which Americans seem to be regarded with disdain and annoyance.  Here, Australians seem truly excited to meet Americans, and willing to go out of their way to make us feel welcome.  Although I have made many silly, tourist-y mistakes while out and about, I have never received the scorn or annoyance that I deserved.

However, this is unfortunately not the case for all foreigners in Australia. It would be easy to assume that the friendliness and hospitality extended towards us is extended towards all foreigners; however, racism is still a major problem in Australia.  Before leaving for Australia, I had been told by a good family friend to pay attention to how people of other races and ethnicities were treated, for this very reason.  To be honest, I have not noticed any instances of racism and discrimination during our time out and about in Sydney (history with Indigenous people is a whole other story, and one that has been an important area of focus during our classtime). Therefore, I did some online research to learn more about the current problem of negative attitudes towards foreigners in Australia.

According to an article by the Sydney Morning Herald, the latest annual Mapping Social Cohesion survey by the Scanlon Foundation found that 19% of Australians were discriminated against because of skin color, religious beliefs or ethnic origin. This number was up from 12% in 2012, and was the highest number since the survey started in 2007.  Furthermore, current political leadership is attempting to weaken the Racial Discrimination Act, which was created in 1975 under the leadership of prime minister Gough Whitlam. This act overrides state and territory legislation, and prevents racially based discrimination in areas such as employment, advertising, public spaces, and housing.  Under the current leadership, section 18c may be cut, which forbids bullying or intimidation on the basis of race.  According to the Sydney Morning Herald article, Attorney General George Brandis defended these proposed changes by saying, "People have a right to be a bigot, you know."  Although it is unlikely that the Racial Discrimination Act does much to prevent racism, weakening it contributes to a culture in which it is acceptable to discriminate against others based on race.

I was surprised to hear that this is such a problem, because Australia seems like such a friendly and laid-back country. Furthermore, Australia is very progressive in other social issues, such as women's rights and LGBT issues.  Usually, areas that are intolerant in one aspect (for example, race) are intolerant in other aspects as well (for example, gender and sexuality), so it is an usually to hear of a place that is very progressive in one area but not the other.

Furthermore, learning about this issue helped me view Australia in a more realistic light.  Throughout this trip I have tended to idealize Australia, viewing it as better than America in almost every way. Although Australia is obviously an amazing country, it is important to remember that it is is not a perfect country, and that it has issues just like everybody else.