The Curse of the White Aborigine ! #2

Now that the dust has settled a little after the ABC's Insight program, I must point out that Bess Price also had been called a "GRUB" by Chris Graham, a white Abo who works for the New South Wales Aboriginal Council. When she looked at him across from her during the show  she said, "Sorry, I didn't think you were Aboriginal. You look like a whitefella to me."  Mr Graham said he was deeply hurt by that remark and it evoked his verbal expletive.

Dallas Scott, a fair-dinkum Aboriginal, was there and commented, "I was witness to an amazing display of young and old white identifiers (see photo) roundly proclaim their connection to and knowledge of their 'Culture', then turn around not five minutes later and abuse Aboriginal culture by speaking over an Elder (Bess). I don't know what this mystical 'Culture' is that these identifiers are on about, but if they were hoping to display an innate understanding of Aboriginal culture that night, then they missed the mark by a mile."

He adds, ''Once upon a time, the paler activists were an asset to the Aboriginal cause. Now, they have become a liability. Sprouting bullshit such as 'our white skin is a result of rape of the colonisers', they are no longer laughable and tolerable in small doses -- they are promoting a view of life that just continues to perpetuate the victim mentality and does their cause no favours. When you point out to them that their obvious side of the family have continued to choose to marry white people willingly, and not as part of some forced assimilation program, you will be met with astonishment or indignation. They don't like the facts getting in the way of a good catchphrase, and it is this sort of lazy indignation that has to go."

Dallas feels the other reason the pale-faced activists are well past their use-by-date is their lack of caring for the big issues. Where once they used their skills to assist at the grassroots and the their voices to agitate through the media for equality for suffering blacks, the voices of the younger ones have now become self-serving and narrow to their own interests -- be it Native Title, Arts Funding or whatever their pet passion might be. He says, "It is hard not to become enraged when bringing up the living conditions of some of the children on missions or in remote communities, only to have the subject changed time and time again to a pet passion topic. They don't want to hear about it. Their racial identity and support of that persona is far more important than some kids, far away in the Northern Territory having sexually transmitted disease at 5 years old."

Oh yes, Dallas then explained about the benefits and where are they? While it is true that simply being granted your Proof of Äboriginality (usually one part in 16) does not give one immediate financial benefits or access to a magical payment stream, that does not take away from the fact that every year $3.5 Billion in Government funding is disappearing under the guise of race-based benefits available only to Aborigines. T'hat doesn't include the privately funded Scholarships or initiatives available. Where are the benefits? EVERYWHERE!  Dallas states, "If you want to paint a picture or write a book or travel somewhere arty, try the various race specific awards, or the Arts Council for big chunks of money like whitey Anita Heiss got for her silly book entitled, Am I Black Enough for You?

Dallas continues, "Don't stress about some poor black from the bush coming in to steal away a share either. The abo-industry has done a brilliant job of keeping the poor ones poor and out of sight, mostly illiterate and uninterested in what they are missing out on. What these abo-elites have all learnt a long time ago is that for the funding tap to stay on, a certain number of Aboriginal people have to be suffering. Nothing turns the tap on harder than starving or dying kids, so each year, we have to make sure there is another sad story to achieve our goals. Of course we don 't ask that your family suffer, only those already doing it tough!"

The Way I See It....Bess Price has a perfect right to say, "I want what she has for my children" with regard to Larrissa Behrendt and her smug life of comparable privilege. Instead of people reaching out and offering help, people instead choose to vilify Bess for her words. (Read Larissa's vile words in my last posting). They took that very privilege they have been given, their superior educations given to them in the name of progress for the very people Bess represents, and used it to try to rip her to shreds in the media. Labelled "grub" by one, a "simple-minded blackfella" by another, time and again from the very same people who demand respect for their half-assed identity...resort to shameful personal attacks on a woman whose only crime was to speak her mind in true Aussie tradition and disagree with their high-minded point of view.