Monday, October 12, 2009
More on Harry Connick Jr. and Sol Trujillo...
An Aussie friend pointed out that Australians have no history of racial discrimination toward people of African or Mexican heritage, and because of that they weren't being racist in the cases I wrote about in the previous blog. The Aussies were just being funny--in an Australian context. Harry Connick Jr and Sol Trujillo were seeing the Aussie humour through their own American context--laden with American racist baggage--and interpreted it as something other than it was intended. As my friend concluded, "We're a weird mob." Ironically, that's also the title of an Aussie movie about Italian immigrants trying to survive racism in post WWII Australia.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Reaction to HEY HEY IT'S SATURDAY black face skit
It's not that Australians are racist, they are racially naive and insensitive. I've found that African-Americans who live here experience little personal racism. But, it's a mostly white country separated from the rest of the world by oceans. Aussies have little exposure to people of African descent, except for recent arrivals most of which are refugees. The Aussie sense of humor, especially on TV, reminds me of 1950's US TV: broad and simple humor, slapstick and coarse. Uncle Miltie in a dress, and Sid Ceasar doing spit-takes and taking pratfalls would fit in well here in 2009.
Historically Aussies have not been kind to their indigenous population--who are black--only granting them citizenship in 1967. Keep in mind that Aboriginals arrived on the continent in 38,000 BC, the whites arrived in 1776 AD. Most Aboriginals are still not mainstream. And it's not just limited to black people; Australia had a "white only" policy for years to exclude Asians. That has changed and Aussies of Asian decent are mainstream in the society. But, as Dame Edna once said, "Despite what affectations we may maintain here in Australia, we are really just provincial English society." That means closed and with a limited world-view. This TV show reflects the lower end of the intellectual spectrum. It wasn't necesarily mean, just ignorant.
This "naive racism" isn't restricted to TV humor shows. One of the more recent embarrassments (for me) was the treatment of Sol Trujillo, the corporate executive of Mexican-American heritage brought in to privatize the government-owned phone company, Telstra. In the course of his job he had to make some unpopular decisions. Instead of criticizing him on the issues, he and his two assistants were derided by business enemies and politicians as the "Three Amigos". He was often pictured in cartoons sitting on a donkey wearing a sombrero. The sombrero stereotype continued for the 4 years of Trujillo's contract, though he never mentioned it in public. Only after his contract was over and he was leaving did he speak out, saying coming to Australia was "like stepping back in time."
Historically Aussies have not been kind to their indigenous population--who are black--only granting them citizenship in 1967. Keep in mind that Aboriginals arrived on the continent in 38,000 BC, the whites arrived in 1776 AD. Most Aboriginals are still not mainstream. And it's not just limited to black people; Australia had a "white only" policy for years to exclude Asians. That has changed and Aussies of Asian decent are mainstream in the society. But, as Dame Edna once said, "Despite what affectations we may maintain here in Australia, we are really just provincial English society." That means closed and with a limited world-view. This TV show reflects the lower end of the intellectual spectrum. It wasn't necesarily mean, just ignorant.
This "naive racism" isn't restricted to TV humor shows. One of the more recent embarrassments (for me) was the treatment of Sol Trujillo, the corporate executive of Mexican-American heritage brought in to privatize the government-owned phone company, Telstra. In the course of his job he had to make some unpopular decisions. Instead of criticizing him on the issues, he and his two assistants were derided by business enemies and politicians as the "Three Amigos". He was often pictured in cartoons sitting on a donkey wearing a sombrero. The sombrero stereotype continued for the 4 years of Trujillo's contract, though he never mentioned it in public. Only after his contract was over and he was leaving did he speak out, saying coming to Australia was "like stepping back in time."
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