Re: You will not believe this...
 

Ethnicity, and by your argument, identity has been shifting in the UK far longer than it has in Oz. I would say that the UK is far more comfortable with it as a result.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

Hey I never said I really care less that people in the UK are racist-and I dont object to Europeans holding on to their existing identities-I just dont think that calling Australia racist in relation to Europe is quite right.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

I don't believe anyone actually did call Australia racist in relation to Europe. I think the point being made was that you claimed that Australia was far less racist than elsewhere, that somehow Australia was an anti-racist paragon which clearly isn't the case.

Re: You will not believe this...
 

This is where you are just jerking my chain-I go up north all the time-drink beer and chat with guys from Leeds and Hull and Liverpool ,wherever,all the time-I know the attitudes up there.....and so must you-the place teems with typical lower-middle-class deeply racist daily-mail readers.
Yorkshiremen , possibly out of the big cities, are about as racist as any bunch of UK people get-except maybe nothern-Irish.
To suggest that trendy Sydney or melbourne is as racist as yorkshire is absolute crud.

Re: You will not believe this...
 

But I actually live in Yorkshire. And I don't agree.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

Not an anti-racist paragon-just less racist than Europe.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

Plus, I was brought up in Norwich (last great white city in the country) and spent 12 years living in Cambridge. Both dispayed greater levels of intolerance than I've found in Yorkshire, purely because people in those cities are less likely to live and work with people of other ethnicities.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

Honkey! :D

Re: You will not believe this...
 

Then you are effed in the head-next thing you will say that Yorkshire is a more trendy modern place than Sydney-with more contemporary people and a more cosmopolitan feel.
Yeh right-the kind of deeply imbedded hate and xenophobia that exists in places like Yorkshire in spades hardly exists in Australia at all(except perhaps in immigrants drom these places.

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

Again, I don't agree. You are making sweeping statements yet again.

Europe is a big place, with its own levels of diversity. To compare that to a country that, although a 'melting pot' has far less diversity is ludicrous.

Re: You will not believe this...
 

It must be a lovely place in cloud cuckoo land.

Leeds is trendy, modern and cosmopolitan, and after London and Manchester, one of the most trendy, modern and cosmopolitan places in the country!

I have encountered no such xenophobia or imbedded hate - and I work in widening participation, that is, outreach work which promotes equality and diversity in some of the least diverse parts of the country.

And it is utter b*llocks to say that xenophobia and embedded hate doesn't exist in Australia!!!!! And what's more, you know it.

Re: You will not believe this...
 

Does this need to go to mediation? :)

Re: You will not believe this...
 

With all due respect to you Bundy, as you may know I live in Bradford and I think that the majority of people here are in fact racist. I know lots of people who work for the council and also social services and they are probably the worst offenders.

It's not everyone, but it is the majority of people.

I don't know where abouts you live but I live quite near a lot of the asian communities, and I see and hear it quite a lot. And just to add for the OP's benefit it's not just from the "white" people, some of the asians are racist too.

Re: You will not believe this...
 

Nah, it's not worth the time or effort ;)

Re: You will ot believe this...
 

OK, I agree many Europeans are not racist and the elites that seem to run the show don't seem to be-but this underbelly of lower middle class racism exists-real deep racism-and I think this is where we are misunderstanding each other.
You assume this kind of racism exists in lower-middle class Aussies-it actually doesnt-most lower middle class Aussies are far simpler-not quite cultured enough to even think in ethnic terms.
I couple of colorful comments dont change this.
Hence the Australian powers that be dont "oppose" racism much because it really isnt athreat(cronulla withstanding.
In europe there is a constant undercurrent of battle between liberal forces and a mass undercurrent of working class resentment and racism-hence these societies enforce political correctness more rigidly and adopt more overt anti-racist positions.