While I hesitate to give more air time to a woman known best for saying things I find hard not to take personally, the fact that Pauline Hanson is back on our TV screens for another stint, compels me to write this post. I am so tired of hearing – “we are better than this.” Are we? Really? Where were we (the better ones) when I had to explain to my then 10 year old that we were indeed considered “Asian” by most Australians? We were “assimilated” I assured her. We would not “swamp” anyone, I promised. And I was absolutely positive that Aboriginal people did not eat their own babies. The average conversation most people were having with their kids in the 90s, I’m sure.
And now she’s “back.” This woman who presumes to spill her filth at a new group of Australians. I watch my TV screen again as an Aboriginal senator shakes her hand, as Derryn Hinch kisses her cheek, as the Greens walk out. So they must be the better ones. The ones who think it’s wrong to listen to someone spewing ignorant hate. I used to think my country was run by the “better ones.” By and large. Despite overwhelming cruelty towards those who dared to “jump queues” and enter “illegally.” Despite detention, despite death at sea, despite silences around abuse, I believed we were “better than this.”
Not any more.
We don’t seem to make progress towards better-ness. We roll our eyes at people like Hanson while looking furtively around to see if we can whisper, “but she does have a point.” How many people expressed concern that a Muslim woman was set alight for walking down a street wearing traditional attire and how many thought she was asking for it? We become enraged when women are blamed for wearing short skirts but reserve the right to shake our heads at those who cover themselves? And we elect, democratically, without coercion, a woman whose empathy towards the vulnerable can be measured in a thimbleful of sand.
Sure, we are better than this.
Agree with every grain of it, Rashida
Oh Rashida, she is back but there are so many of us who don’t subscribe to her views. Strike that. There are many, the majority in fact, who cannot abide her views. I really have hope that things are changing, slowly, slowly, particularly in the younger generation, who have grown up in a multicultural society and don’t bat an eyelid at the colour of someone’s skin or their religious beliefs. Don’t believe for one minute that she represents the majority. Don’t let her rhetoric make you think that she does. She doesn’t. With love and respect. xx
Yes, I know that at an intuitive level. That it is different for my kids and your kids. But to see her, watch her and know also that people do think “she has a point” does make me ill. Thank you for your love and respect – right back at you Louise xx
I just watched her speech fully for the first time. She didn’t stop at Muslims, but had a go at single mums ‘having more children just to maintain their welfare payments’ and school leavers who go straight onto unemployment benefits and become ‘dependent on money they haven’t earned or worked for’.
She disgusts me. She’s the one who isn’t welcome here, who ‘bears a culture and ideology that is incompatible’ with the rest of us, and who refuses to respect our multicultural way of life. I disrespectfully suggest she shuts her mouth and p!sses off back to where she came from.
Well that would be one way … but she’s here to stay because there are enough people out there who believe she has legitimate concerns.
I know, but there are a lot who don’t and even turn her away. She’s won’t get her way! x
Thank you Glen
Wonderfully said, Rashida. Thank you for writing with such passion and clarity about a politician who carries suspicion in her heart … and probably still doesn’t understand what xenophobic means. Brenda
Thank you Brenda. And that made me smile; you’re right. If she understood xenophobia, she wouldn’t be xenophobic, one would hope.
I couldn’t agree more with you Rashida. It is so very disappointing to see that Pauline Hanson is back.
But am I surprised? No. Because Pauline Hanson is scaremonger who while blatantly ignoring the facts whips ignorant citizens of Australian into a hate-filled hysteria. Swamped by Muslims? 2.2 % of our population is Muslim. 2.5% is Buddhist. 61 % is Christian. Like you, I’ve heard people say “But she does have a point?” and its disturbing to say the least.
I know, Marlish, disappointing doesn’t come close. And hysteria has a way of fuelling more senseless ignorance.
my brother in law actually came out and said,’Pauline Hanson is the only one making any sense right now’ I have no idea how to deal with this. His mind is closed. We have to keep sharing and speaking out.
Liliana, I hear you. It always surprises and appalls me when I hear that. You’d think after 30 years I’d be used to it. But I’m not and I refuse to accept this rhetoric.
You have expressed your concerns very well, Rashida, as you always do.. I, for one, have never supported or felt “she had a point”! She’s a bit like Donald Trump. The scary thing is that there are many people who support them both and I empathise with how you must feel. I continue to work trying to break down barriers for Aboriginal people and I believe that if we all do our bit to condemn racism and challenge it when we see it, then we can have a real impact on changing people’s beliefs and prejudices. I have always hated racism and any kind of prejudice and have seen, first hand, the transformation that can be achieved when you actively work against it. I’m a great believer in the power of the individual to change society in a good way!
Louise, I agree. I try not to get strident about it but it just catches me by the throat when I see this woman gain credibility and people begin to justify her/their speech.
I couldn’t agree with you more Rashida. I can’t understand why the media gives her so much air time. I just don’t have the time for her.
Thanks Lucky