Andrew Bolt Prejudices: When Political Correctness Becomes Oppression In Racist Australia
THERE’S a bit of trouble Down Under in Dreamtime.
Writer, commentator and blogger Andrew Bolt (I would call the Murdoch columnist right wing but it could be actionable) has been hauled over the coals for something he dashed off a couple of years ago.
The offending pieces were probably not part of his magnum opus nor could the judgement against the writer be called a great work since it is now being claimed Mr Justice Mordecai Bromberg has blown huge holes in the right to freedom of expression. In fairness Bromberg was careful about his judgement, he took almost six months after closing argument to finally reach a decision he felt able announce.
In what is a very liberal attitude, he then ordered the contestants to get together to decide what punishment if any should be doled out.
Anyone who visits Australia can not fail to be shocked and even mortified at the outright bigotry and vile racism which many (many, not all) Australians repeatedly show in private when talking of “blacks, Abos, drunken boongs, “; all those descriptions were used in a single conversation. New Age Aussies will publicly distance themselves from those kind of attitudes while, ever-so-discreetly, refusing to allow their children to attend schools with anyone with a darker skin.
Australia’s best-known Aboriginal actor, David Gulpilil, who has starred in a dozen films including Walkabout, Crocodile Dundee and Australia, is in jail for assaulting his wife. Gulpilil lives in a corrugated iron shack in a remote community in the Northern Territory. He is known to be a heavy drinker.
Paul Hogan, Crocodile Dundee, does not live in a corrugated iron shack.
Many Australians find it difficult to accept the vast majority of them are simply New Australians and carry a heritage of discriminatory, prejudicial and a downright violent series of policies towards Aboriginals. It is a legacy no less monstrous than the North American eradication of Native Americans, British Boer Wars concentration camps and actions boarding on genocide in the 18-1900’s around the globe, or the later Russian pogroms, Nazi death camps and Nationalist Bantu-stans of Southern Africa.
Bolt was injudicious enough to write two articles which criticised a group he described as being of mixed race but, he claimed, identify themselves as aboriginal rather than of mixed or partially white heritage. He was stupid enough to actually name nine people he considered to fall into that category.
This caused so much offence the nine, all describing themselves as Aboriginals, started the action saying he had broken Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act.
Justice Bromberg agreed (after deliberating for months) and ruled Bolt and Murdoch’s The Herald and Weekly Times:
“Broke the Racial Discrimination Act by publishing the two articles on racial identity which contained “errors in fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”, said the Herald Sun.
A wounded Bolt said it was “a terrible day for free speech in this country. It is particularly a restriction on the freedom of all Australians to discuss multiculturalism and how people identify themselves.”
“I argued then and I argue now that we should not insist on the differences between us but focus instead on what unites us as human beings,” Bolt said.
Bromberg was careful to stress it was important to note:
“Nothing in the orders I make should suggest that it is unlawful for a publication to deal with racial identification, including by challenging the genuineness of the identification of a group of people,”
The offended group took Bolt to court claiming racial vilification over the two articles in April and September 2009 where he criticised fair-skinned ” Political Aborigines” for what he argued was a choice they made, as people of mixed racial background, to emphasise their indigenous heritage over their white heritage. He claimed this gave the individuals advantage and status.
Mr Ron Merkel, QC, for the complainants, said there was no attempt to shut down freedom of speech or debate about racial identity issues.
Mr Merkel said Bolt was free to express his views on the subject but should not have chosen to attack the nine individuals he named in his columns and blog.
The chattering classes in Oz are now in full swing and a former The Age editor swings into the fray with a statement that the Bolt articles should never have seen the light of day.
Meanwhile, you can still be called a “Hun!” or “Fenian Bastard!” depending on which part of the stadium you stand during a Rangers V Celtic match in Glasgow.
It could also be injurious to health to be a member of the wrong class or tribe in almost every sovereign state in the world. Such is the horrendous nature of prejudice.
What is dangerous here is when political correctness becomes oppression, another unwanted consequence or condition of lawmakers comes into play, suppression, censorship and tyranny.
Bolt’s 15 minutes of fame is not one of the great causes célèbres – just a careless Outback whisper.
Posted: 1st, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
