This post has a content warning.
Last post I revealed some very personal information about my brain-patterning and history of abuse and shared an observation about the intersection of disability and gender diversity. Coming out and saying you’re a ‘gifted polymath’ is taboo in Australia, as is sharing your sexual abuse story so openly. These behaviours go against the grain of my Anglo-Euro-Australian culture which is to project that you are ‘normal’, self-deprecating and ‘really well, thanks’.
Today I’m busting out another taboo topic and tackling my personal experience of racism, specifically in the so-called ‘woke’ creative industries and academic sectors in which I work and study.
When I went to university for the second time from 2015-2019, I was told over and over that I did not have a right to a voice because I carried the burden of ‘white’ settler guilt, and it was ‘not my turn’ [to speak]. I was also told I did not have a right to talk, or make art about, contemporary Australian gender inequality for women, because women had ‘never really been a minority’, and therefore could not be now.
This was appalling and very damaging gaslighting by people in power fueled by mis-guided but extremely insidious notions spurred on by Social Justic Theory. It was inferred that simply by virtue of the colour of my skin, I was racist. My artwork was accused of being ‘classist’ and I was repeatedly told point-blank in assessments, in front of my peers, that I was ‘privileged’.
There’s a lot to unpack there, but we’ll start with the former premise. I’m not racist and never have been. This is why.
Photo credit: Sesame Workshop, 1969
I grew up in the early 1970s watching Sesame Street on TV, the show that blossomed out of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Sesame Street depicted a neighbourhood of people all getting along with each other, regardless of how they looked. Its characters demonstrated kindness and how to get along with members of their community who might be difficult. There was even a left-handed character called 'Lefty' (I’m left-handed).
At its inception, Sesame Street did a great job of promoting racial diversity and acceptance but a terrible job of promoting gender equality. This is an issue that the show is still grappling with in 2024, as evidenced by their latest merchandise. This is a big shame for the generations of female-born and gender diverse children who’ve watched the show.
I also went to church, where I was told ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’.
I grew up in 'multicultural' Meanjin/Brisbane where I had people of colour as class members and friends in primary and high school. One of my best friends in primary school was the child of the local church minister – they were a family of colour. I had people of colour as friends at university. I’ve worked and lived alongside people of colour as an adult.
My father is an immigrant, which makes me a first-generation Australian, which is considered a barrier to success. I didn't realise this until just recently as this fact about myself has never featured in my lifetime - I looked 'settler', sounded 'settler', therefore I was 'settler'.
My Dad’s accent was different to mine but this was normal and natural to me because it was all I knew. I got teased for having a funny last name (that nobody could spell or pronounce correctly) and grew up with no specific cultural heritage because Dad wanted to ‘assimilate’.
I used to wish I had been born into some huge Greek or Italian family so I could always be surrounded by people I loved and who loved me back. Instead, none of my Dad’s family lived on our side of the globe and Mum’s only relative in town was Grandma, who did not drive. I had a lonely, disconnected childhood.
Racism isn’t logical. Why should I treat someone differently based on something about them that they didn’t chose and have no control over?
Finally – I am an egalitarian. I treat all people equally, and with respect, regardless of sex, gender, ethnicity, cultural background or ability. I’ve lived my egalitarian values since I was a child – I just had to go to university for a second time to learn their name as a philosophy, and even then, due to the Politics Police, I found it in self-guided research.
Not surprisingly, few others at my Meanjin-based university had ever heard of the word ‘egalitarian’. Why is this unsurprising? Because Queensland is the most racist state in Australia. Regional Queensland had the highest ‘no’ vote in the failed The Voice referendum, and in 2019, when my university required me to work on a project with the State Library of Queensland, I was told that most of the complaints SLQ receives involve racism towards First Nations people.
If I could, I would move somewhere more progressive, inclusive and tolerant. But I can’t, for personal reasons.
Love thy neighbour as thyself, people. Or in today’s lingo – be kind.
Catch you next time for another taboo-busting sesh!
Gen Memory
October 2024
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