Yesterday news of another person of Indian origin is killed on there way to work at Hungry Jacks in West Footscray, his mobile and wallet were not stolen. Police are saying its not racially motivated.
There are people in the community who believe that lots of people get murdered or attacked and only the ones where the Indians are victims are reported. But even the doubters of these alleged racially motivated attacks have to acknowledge that there seems to be some sort of pattern here.
I mean there are Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans of all casts and religions living in Melbourne, yet the ones who are being attacked and killed seem to be the people who are here as students or recent migrants. Maybe they are the most vulnerable and easy targets for attacks.
I personally believe these attacks are racially motivated.
It could be that the stereotype of Indians being smelly and taxi drivers and 7eleven/petrol station operators and generally working in low jobs make them an easy target because they are viewed incorrectly like this to the broader society.
I dont know i just feel real sad for this guys family, he was just going to his job and he gets killed. I used to get annoyed with my Parents who used to tell me to take care of myself while going out, but nowadays i actually worry quite a bit cos i am of sub continental origin. I probably wouldn’t go out by myself late at night these days.
At the recent Boxing Day test match i was in the Pakistani crowd like i always are being the patriotic Pakistani fan that i am. While the majority of Australian fans were well behaved, there were still some who were saying some pretty mean things, Pakis go home, and whos running the 7eleven if ur here. and some other crap. The disappointing thing was that it was mainly coming from the people who were not drinking, the ones who were intoxicated were in fact coming and dancing in the paki crowd lol. Makes you wonder about some of the racism that still exists.
I guess there’s arguments for both sides here. I am from a town with one of the highest percentages of anglo australians in the state or country, can’t remember which, and it’s a pretty violent town regardless… the way that things are reported it would seem that attacks like this are racially motivated because in other reports, why would you mention that an ‘australian male/ female’ was attacked - we live in australia, in my opinion most of us are ‘australian’, reporting the ethnicity of someone who is living in the country they were born or grew up in (especially if you are ‘white’ australian) seems kind of redundant. When european aussies (ie anglo) are in these kind of reports they are generally identified by age, occupation, gender, etc… so it’s hard to see any kind of relevant comparison or pattern considering they use such different descriptions. Someone who bashes a grandmother is still a sicko - whether or not it was an elderly person from Australia, India, or Lebanon - motivations for attacking anyone are never any better than any other reason - that person is still an asshole!
In saying that though, I do think that our social and cultural awareness and tolerance in general isn’t anywhere near where it ideally should be - that’s just a sad fact and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
There were two other stabbings on the same day but they were ‘white’ so it doesn’t get the hype. He had been attacked before so how do we know this wasn’t a personal attack? Walking in a footscray park at 10pm alone isn’t the safest thing to be doing no matter of race or situation.
The pattern is that +15% of melbourne’s population is from that continent and with those working late hours they are more at risk due to the ratio not because of their race. The attackers haven’t been mainly ‘white’ australians. Indian decendants commit crimes too, take that dude who fled to melb after slitting his wifes throat or even that kidnaping of a women where they cut the dudes thumb off. It’s all relative. If i get into a fight with a obese man expect me to make insults of a certain calibre, same with indian decendants are the cricket comments really racist or is it just pointing out the stereotype?
What i do find sickening is that the indian student federation has requested ‘cricket players’ to speak out about the violence! WTF does cricket have to do with a poor dude stabbed when he was on his way to work!!! Like getting nbl basketball players to speak about sudanese violence and that is racist. RIP Nitin Garg.
Funky, whilst it’s true that people of all nationalities are victimised, when it comes to violent crimes, these usually occur between people known to eachother. People that have a history or the violence has arisen out of mutual drunkenness or conflict etc.
These attacks of indian victims appear quite unprovoked, not the consequence of some longstanding feud or mutual participation in antisocial activity. Previously i have been one to say it’s just the media creating hysteria again, but I’m with radicalman on this one.
Based on a media report that serves nothing but racism hype to sell? News limited/corporation also has shares in media in india… We all have no information on any attack only hype from the media. When all other attacks the victim’s natio is not included in the report. How bout we stop focusing on an individual race (that politicians focus on money from education and pr) and start focusing on the issues of violence on the streets, police protection and making the streets safe for everyone, not just indian decendants…
Maybe Shane Warne can escort indian students to and from work/school?
I would say that it could be racially motivated, absolutely - but my opinion is that creating this mass hysteria about racism is done in such a counterproductive way so why bother pointing out the motivation behind one attack if you’re not going to make a scene about an attack on someone whose ethnicity won’t sell papers, it comes across like australia is going on some kind of rampage - I’ve had friends beaten, assualted in public by people who don’t know them, verbally abused for clothing or appearance - and most of my friends are of eurpoean australian origin. i think the media should tone down the racially motivated element of it if they don’t have substantiated proof case by case, and if nobody is standing up to do something PRODUCTIVE about the lack of tolerance in this country. And no i do not consider countermeasures such as protests to be productive. it’s so easy to assume that an attack is racially motivated if you’ve had every other tabloid newspaper and current affairs show pushing this view from the get go without actually looking into each case before they report it.
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some people target the elderly, some people target subcultures, some people bash their girlfriends, and unfortunately some people target people due to their ethnicity.
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NO ONE ATTACK IS ANY MORE DISGUSTING THAN ANOTHER. These attacks were committed against different individuals by different individuals. Whilst it is sickening, there is not some renegade army out to target people of indian/ pakistani descent. Just the same way that 3 elderly people being attacked within a certain timeframe is not indicative of some huge anti-age movement. And tabloid papers and current affairs programs fuelling the fire are only helping to widen the gap between cultures and nationalities by insinuating that a particular group is being targeted and putting them on the defensive.
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Have any of you actually heard people talking about Indians and the attitudes towards them? And im not talking about just joking around. Im talking about hostility and anger about jobs being taken, immigration ruining this country, and genuine dislike of anyone that looks or seems to be from the subcontinent. It’s not pleasant and i 100% dont doubt that it translates into an increased likelihood of victimisation.
Of course. And as I said, it could have been and probably was a racially motivated attack, if we’re happy making sweeping assumptions. But what good does creating a media storm and invoking useless protests (and let’s face it, how productive is a mob of people who are all angry and frustrated about the same thing gathering in the same area going to be - especially when the issue is in relation to and specific to one community subgroup - it just widens the gap between the groups.). And continually having people sitting on their asses pointing out the apparent ‘pattern’ of violence just makes people get on the defensive and promotes a backlash. I mean why not go one step further and point the finger at the ‘pattern’ of who the perpetrators are? If we have no solid facts then making and promoting any kind of assumption is a waste of time and completely counterproductive. It’s a vicious cycle.
^^ Yeah I don’t see it Nick. Just what the media show, which I view but know they warp everything- though how do you warp a stabbing from a man going to work?
I don’t see this violence or involvement of racist comments that are obviously happening more frequently...apart from the Uni protests Indian students did a couple of months back. The people that do these attacks are shameful and its just stupidity with no understanding. Fear is all that I see.
Why do people hate? Like really- what is the soul purpose of what is happening here? As its going to keep happening...people just move from one Nationality to the next changing the purpose of these violent attacks. Are white Australians are slowly becoming hated race in this country?
How do people feel this is affecting their lifestyle and focus and concern for friends who are a certain nationality? I have Indian friends, my flatmate is from Shri Lanka- my concern has increased definitely for their safety.
Everyone saying that media has beat up the race issue - lest we forget that all we’ve been reading about in the papers for months now is violence in the streets of Melbourne - why is this not called sensationalism?
To think its an illogical assumption that the offences are racist is just as close-minded as the opposite way of thinking.
I think the media sensationalism of it serves a great purpose. It helps counter this myth of the perfect “multicultural”, “cultural melting pot” country that we supposedly have and people more readily take a side, rather than fence sitting and saying “im not racist but”. Discussions of these things allow for the expression of underlying attitudes and bring them to the forefront and it will let it be seen that there is racism in Australia, and that can lead to a backlash against racism. Just read the Herald-Sun comments page. There’s a clear polarisation, and this will reflect what’s happening in the wider community. Sure a lot of it might be based on ignorance and fear-mongering, but that’s exactly what the community is all about, and that’s what’s really happening out there.
Im not saying Australia is worse than any other country. But there seems to be this unwillingness to accept that Australia is anything less than perfect. There’s a really strong “im not racist but...” attitude out there, and it needs to be addressed, and this is a perfect opportunity for it to be discussed out in the open. I dont think creating the hysteria widens the gap - it illustrates how wide the gap already is.
EDIT: just before everyone jumps up and down and has a sook saying im labelling all Australians racist. I’m not. I wouldnt want to live anywhere else. But there is a racist vein in Australia and nobody seems willing to accept responsibility for it, and that’s what i take issue with.
EDIT 2: btw - I do understand where you guys are coming from. Of course it’s idiotic to reach a conclusion without the facts and so forth. Im also basing my understanding of attacks on Indians on my own experiences and observations, rather than solely this reported incident.
I don’t think anyone has said that it’s illogical to assume that one or all of the attacks were racially motivated - in fact completely the opposite, that’s one thing that is generally agreed upon. and i for one certainly do not think that Australia is perfect but I consider myself incredibly blessed to live here considering what is going on in the rest of the world. Have we become so precious that we can’t see that? There is violence everywhere - we should feel lucky to be here.
I think the point of this thread was lost a little somewhere along the way - basically were these attacks racially motivated? Simply, there is a more than likely chance this was the case. But what does continually pointing this out achieve, unless you want to go that one step further and blame someone? and that’s when the shit really hits the fan. Unless there is literally a movement like the KKK operating in Australia, targeting individuals in a methodical and organised manner, that we can identify and eliminate, then unfortunately racism and racially motivated violence is a horrible fact of life that can only be treated with education and knowledge. What’s illogical here is thinking that there is any productive outcome to this kind of hype as it just leads to us stereotyping the perpetrators and chasing your tail with more violence or agression. Because that’s what’s already happening in this thread with the white aussie male comment (which by the way auds is probably what we were all thinking anyway so absolutely no disrespect to you for that one - it needed to be said).
anyway, i’m brainfried, i’m outta here for the day! thanks for the mental stimulation!
so now the ppl in india are calling australia a terrorist country?
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lol fucken complain about everything in life why dont ya
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this shit happens to every race out there n not just the indians, my god i know of so many racist ppl out there tho who have attacked all race’s out there
Fuk i just posted this in the morning then watched my pakis kick the aussie teams ass come back and theres heaps of replies. i will read them when i come back from a bbq lol
Yes the area is Footscray but common man, does that mean that no one of indian origin is allowed to walk to work, i mean look ill be honest here i probably wouldnt walk to work in Footscray at night but that is my circumstance, if i was a student and i needed to work a late shift to make some money to survive then i probably wouldn’t have much choice. When i was studying at Foots uni i used to walk from uni to the station at night and it wasn’t a very nice experience, footscray at night is kinda like the movie Judgement night u are just expecting a crazy Denis Leary to be around the corner. There has been an indian dude getting his head bashed in (on camera) at dandi station, there has been numerous taxi drivers stabbed and even killed, there has been a bunch of youths having a go racially at a car full of indians unfortunately for the youths those indians in the car were khabaddi players who are strong mofos and the youths got bashed. Its happening all over Melbourne. People say that ohh its not only indians that are getting bashed, could it be that other races dont really care what happens to their fellow peoples i actually am glad that the indians are united in condemning these acts on their people. I agree with Ant-1s statement that alot of people say they are not racist...BUT and this mentality is shown in newspaper columns.
