To think the world has a big white supremacy problem?

[GardenVariety]

Is anyone actually surprised that this has happened? It is shocking and sickening, but let’s face it, it has been so acceptable for so long to vilify muslims, to abuse muslims, to attack muslims - politicians have made careers out of this. Is it any wonder that yet another white supremacist has murdered muslims and has received praise for doing so by keyboard warriors on various platforms.

I (and most muslims in the West) have been dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 by being held responsible for every terrorist atrocity. Dealing with knee-jerk reactions and responses became the norm for me since then. Every terror attack, grooming ring, extremist preacher became my responsibility to explain, condemn and apologise for. I was asked why muslims don’t put double-page ads in the paper to apologise and condemn. I was told that I shouldn’t be surprised at the hostility towards muslims because the few give everyone a bad name.

So here I am, wondering if those people (all white) who were quick to vilify my religion and me and demanded an apology and explanation for the latest newspaper headline will now explain today’s headlines to me. Will they explain why white people do this? Will they give me a full breakdown of his manifesto, explain each name listed on the white terrorist’s guns, explain the choice of music on the video, explain why he filmed it, explain why he had so much support (white terrorist supported by other whites, therefore all whites must be terrorists) and take out ads in national papers apologising for being white. After all it was a white person who did this and just like all muslims were held accountable, will all whites be held accountable too?

Hotspot, I live in Australia were we have an indigenous population of Aborigines. Outside of remote areas, most are not totally ethnically Aboriginal. Firstly, there was no invasion by whites people when white man arrived. The idea was to build settlements and live here. There was no army, no battles, no treaty as the view was that neither white people or Aborigines had title. A contentious view, obviously, but it was the view at the time. Terrible stuff happened on all parts. No doubt about that. However it seems to me that the legacy of white man’s ( and it was almost all men in the beginning) arrival for Aborignes has been access to healthcare, education, participation in democracy, preferential access to public housing and subsidised mortgage rates etc. A horrible legacy indeed. Aborigines living in remote areas do face horrendous social problems. Truancy amongst their kids is epidemic, domestic violence and child rape are a big problem and early death is common. Aborigines in these areas rarely see the other side of fifty years old. The reasons for all this are complex. Generational reliance on welfare ( no access to training or tertiary education without going to town or the city and very few jobs ). The generational poverty this engenders is at the bottom of all this basically it seems to me. Lack of easy access to health services is another reason. When I say remote, I mean really remote. It is just not viable to provide access to GP services, treatment facilities that would be found elsewhere. Teams of health workers and welfare workers tend to be attacked,sadly, so tends to be difficult to recruit people. Shortages again. Alcahol is at the bottom of this terrible cycle it seems to me. It is a very, very sad situation. We don’t seem to have found a really satisfactory solution yet. It isn’t through lack of ongoing trying or goodwill. The majority of Aussies regardless of colour want to see our indigenous folk thrive.

Born and bred white Aussie here, lived here my whole life.
White army's did invade, did kill, they wanted the aboriginals gone.
Children were stolen, women raped and killed, men killed. Half cast kids were shunned. They were put to essentially slave conditions on the outback stations.
Quit spouting the white wash history that we are fed in school.
Aboriginals were and still are treated as 2nd class or less citizens. They are routinely discriminated against simply cos they aboriginal
White people bought the alcohol that has taken over the aboriginal population.
They are hurt and angry as many of them were alive to see families ripped apart or them themselves were stolen. We ain't talking the 1900s here we talking as recent as the 60s
The majority of Aussies want the aboriginal people to suck it up and get over it, why the hell should they? They lived happily for thousands of years before whites invaded
Lack of healthcare and education in the top end comes from the government who still wish to force them from their land, who cut programs designed to help. The government don't want to work with them but control them

Squeekums, did you read everything I said. Yep, no doubt, white settlers brought guns, disease, alcahol and yes, there were horrific acts committed against Aborigines. I. Know.That. We do, indeed have a responsibility to redress the damage. I believe we are doing that, as a nation, and making progress. Work to be done? Loads, especially in the outback.

Sorry to double post. No, Aborigines should not ‘suck it up’. They should not have to. Can’t Australians work together, as Australians, to try and level things out a bit? Give all Aussies the same rights and privileges? In theory we do? In practice, not so much.

We haven't done anything tink
We just shun them to the back again
Our government cuts programs that could help, wants to close traditional camps, sells off traditional lands

So tell me, what are we doing as a country...... nothing apart from trying to sweep our evil history under the rug
The only thing that's changed is we don't openly steal their kids or murder them in public, that's done by the government behind closed doors

Well, we have stopped regarding Aborigines as fauna which is nice! Sorry, being a bit flippant about something not to regarded lightly at all. I was actually pretty shocked to learn that this was the case this morning. What we are doing, firstly, is trying to maximise access to health, educational and social services in remote communities. A difficult ask that doesn’t excuse us as a nation from doing what we can. Life expectancy is horribly low amongst outback Aborigines and desperately needs improving. Shouldn’t be the case. Aborigines in general have access to all the benefits available to other Aussies. Indeed some preferential access, such as preferential access to public housing and low interest mortgages. Aborigines also get some preferential access to student finance and university resources to make access to tertiary education both as attractive and affordable as possible, thereby more available, to Aboriginal students. Let me say I have no problem with any of this. It’s not enough by any stretch but it is a start. Surely?

Knock off the racism.

Gone4good. I am at a complete loss as to what I have said that is racist?

I didn’t address sqweekums remarks about selling off traditional camps and lands. I didn’t realise this was occurring. Definitely should not be. Traditional lands are not public lands.

Apologies for multiple posts. Beginning to be pretty upset. Yes. White settlers did decimate, either through ignorance or outright violence, Aboriginal populations. Does this still have a knock on effect? Yes. Of course it does. Should we as a nation be doing all we can to redress this? Yes. Are we doing enough? We could definitely be doing more but it is not an instant process. Have I suggested anywhere anything different. If that makes me racist, I guess I get to wear the pointy white hat. You know, casual accusations of racism can be extremely damaging in many ways.

Knowing the person you are talking too before so easily spouting such names also is advised.

Would the Muslim community do the same if the gay community had been the target?

They did after the pulse nightclub shooting in America

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/06/12/orlando-nightclub-muslim-reaction/85790320/

Hedgehog has a point cool. The Mslem community did offer condolences and condemned the act. I remember it.

There is so much hate it seems to me these days. Hate between races, sexual identities, religions, cultures. Very tribal it seems to me. It’s costing lives for God’s sake, never mind social division. In the words of PJ O’Rourke, “can’t we all just get on and make a little money?”

Jacinda Adern herself turned her back on the religion she was brought up in because of their views on homosexuality

This attack is different because whilst absolutely a terrorist attack it has not been committed as a result of an affiliation to a particular religion or group.

This is not true at all. This attack was committed by a man who was a member of the group of people who are ideologically against immigration, in particular by Muslims. You might call them neo-fascists or the alt-right. They don't all share exactly the same set of views, but they do share a broad swathe of beliefs around the superiority of the white "native population" (even in countries where the white population is descended from recent immigrants, like Australia), and the supposed dangers that immigration creates for "their" culture. They are just as much an identifiable ideological group as members of a religion.

I agree with you OP

I would add that when another male uses violence/murders/rapes all men are not held accountable either.

Misti come on! They are not as much identifiable - they live very much in the shadows for the most part and it's not an ideology as wide spread as Islam. In fact it is openly condemned by the vast majority of white people, and in many countries their are laws against it. Most whites don't share that ideology yet millions of Muslims share the same religion as those terrorists (although interpret their religion differently) . If you don't understand the difference I don't think I can explain it to you

I would add that when another male uses violence/murders/rapes all men are not held accountable either

But we are finally beginning to task men with dismantling the culture that leads to that violence.

Why is it so difficult for us whities to feel the same responsibility for a deeply white-biased system that produces white supremacist terrorists?

Only a couple of times on this whole thread have I heard anyone say "yes, white supremacy is a problem. I may not see it (being white and all, does a fish notice water?), but I believe your experiences and I'm sorry"

hope this works

I get where misti is coming from. I also agree though that alt right ( or whatever ) describes a much looser group of beliefs than Islam. The thinking is far less organised, if I am saying this properly. Also, I should clarify, I mean nothing negative in the term cohesive. Moslems are a tight bunch. Nothing wrong with that. A good thing in fact, not taken to an obcessive extreme. Especially when living in a culture that is so different to their own and occasionally even hostile, and has had to be fairly self sufficient over the centuries.

I think it is absolutely incumbent on societies which produce individuals who do such monstrous things to examine the factors in their society and culture which contributed to them and not just dismiss them as personal issues. One of the difficulties - which provides fuel to the extreme right - has been the resistance to doing that in the case of some Muslim communities (not just or even mainly from those communities). Look at how long the issues in Rotherham, Rochdale etc were suppressed. If we can’t examine what’s gone wrong when bad stuff happens it will keep happening.

Because I don't think it's about being white or a person of colour. I think if you speak to many Irish people and those from NI they will say they experienced a similar level of suspicion in the 70s and early 80s. I am not saying white privilege doesn't exist - it clearly does. But the situation OP is describing with Islamaphobia is directly related to terrorist attacks happening in the name of that religion. That's why people expect them to condemn the attacks. There's no call For Hindi's or Sikhs to do the same. It's not related to colour it's related to an ideology.