http://www.amren.com/features/2013/0...ite-australia/

Oh dear, not a good read. Amazing to think that the White Australia policy only officially ended in the 70's.

I wonder what percentage of the populace are for the changes !

In my experience the majority.

As the article says, let us all remember

'It came into being as a nation dedicated not merely to racial purity but to preserving a specific ethnic heritage. The “White Australia Policy” was really a “British Australia Policy,” established by a people who, as Prime Minister Robert Menzies said, felt “British to the bootstraps.” What happened to this proud, fiercely explicit identity?'

I grew up in Australia under the White Australia Policy, and I well remember the quote attributed to an Immigration Minister, "Two Wongs don't make a white". (The quote was correct, but taken out of context. The Wikipedia entry on Arthur Calwell contains an explanation.)

We just took the whole thing for granted - although it must be noted that the Policy was mostly concerned with the importation of Chinese labourers who would work for very low wages. That's why the Labor Party was so opposed to such importation; as I recall, there was little racial about popular support for the Policy. The Aboriginals were despised for their culture more than for their skin-colour. So were the Pacific Islanders imported to work on the sugar plantations of Queensland and NSW.

During the Second World War, there was popular resentment of the US Army's policy of segregating their black troops, and that was one of the factors behind the once-famous "Battle of Brisbane" between US and Australian troops.

In May last year I posted on my blog an item called The Story of 'Nigger' Brown - an early Rugby League sporting hero in my home town of Toowoomba; our local RL ground bore his name, nickname and all! I wrote "Nigger was never a common word in Queensland, until American soldiers came over during the war against Japan. We had plenty of terms of racial abuse, but that wasn’t one of them." It's interesting, looking back.

Hmmm. The article is written by a racist. Not exactly balanced.

The comments by the redneck readers confirm that not much has changed over there.

Out of curiosity, how did they acquire the nickname, 'Nigger'?

In a historic sense, it is an interesting article, if only for the opportunity to read the shocking old publications.

And yet, when the powers that be decided there should be change, public sentiment was swayed very quickly.

The White Australia Policy had barely been dismantled when Australia introduced its new National Anthem embracing multi-culturalism.

I wonder how often mass populations are manipulated in their beliefs to boost government coffers?

That is what governments do ! Of course lip service is paid to "democracy" !

Out of curiosity, why is the term Nigger considered offensive?

Latin adjective for "black" !

Not because it means "black". "Negro" means black, too, and that is not considered nearly as bad as "nigger", from a white person's mouth. The Southern pronunciation of "negro" was (and is, mostly) "niggra", and that pronunciation came to be used contemptuously by racists in the North. "Nigger" is just a slurred version of "niggra".

In recent years, many Black Americans (i.e. "Afro-Americans" - or, for the moment, "African Americans") have reclaimed the word by carefully spelling it "nigga", and in the plural "niggaz".

Here in the Caribbean, local people with African ancestors have a more relaxed approach than Black Americans, as I explained in my blog.

Racist attitudes are, I suspect, still mainstream in Oz - as they are in GB