It Is Racist To Claim Indiginous Australians Fail Because Of Historical Injustices And White Privilege.

The biggest hurdle for indigenous Australians is the 'soft-racism of low expectations'. This comes from white, non-white and indigenous Australians alike.

When a White Australian says there is nothing stopping indigenous Australians from succeeding, a common response from indigenous Australians, and their well meaning non-indigenous supporters, is to say that claim comes from position of 'white privilege'.

When anyone uses terms like 'white privilege' to characterise a person's comments they are being racist. That is, they are making a pre-judgement, or generalisation based on the person's skin colour.

How would it sound to person with indigenous heritage, if I were to say, "I think you are speaking from the standpoint of a part Aboriginal who wants to claim victim status"? Sounds racist doesn't it.

I would never say that, I'm just showing how a "white privilege" accusation comes across.

It is pretty racist to assume, simply because of a person's skin colour, that they have had a privileged life, compared to some other skin coloured person.

Such an accusation is demonstrably false. There are children in Australia with indigenous heritage who are born into loving and financially secure families with respected parents who hold important positions. There are also white children born into poor, abusive and dysfuntional families.

These children may not have the same skin colour, but both are Australians, equal under the law, and both, save for mental or physical disability, will reach an age where their lives can be successful or not, totally dependent on their own effort and determination. They just need to accept personal responsibility for their own lives.

Sure, some children will have a head start over others due to their family's financial position, or positions of influence, but that applies to every skin colour and to all citizens whether or not they, or their ancestors, were born in Australia.

White privilege, white guilt, original sin, are all human constructs. It is silly to suggest a newborn baby has tendency to evil innate in all human beings, inherited from Adam in consequence of the Fall. It is just as silly to say a newborn white baby is born with the guilt of their forebears, or an automatic privilege compared to newborns with other skin colours.

How ridiculous would it be for the children of many successful, financially secure people of indigenous heritage, to claim either that the sins committed against their indigenous ancestors, will stop them succeeding in life. Or for them to claim something called 'white privilege' gives every white person a head start compared to them.

I'm talking about the children, (if they have them), of indigenous people like; Samantha Harris, Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Ken Wyatt, Cathy Freeman, Neville Bonner, Adam Goodes, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Mark Ella, Kyle Vander Kuyp, Noel Pearson, Marcia Langton, Stan Grant, Tony Dillon, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Linda Burney, (Patrick (Pat) Dodson, Jacqui Lambie, Malarndirri McCarthy, Adam Giles, Ernie Bridge, Marion Scrymger, Ernie Dingo, and many many other successful people who happen to have indigenous heritage.

Three years ago, Stan Grant wrote an article titled, 'Don't call them disadvantaged: Successful Australians redefining what it is to be Indigenous'. He was writing about his speech to a gathering of Australia's most successful indigenous people. He described how Australian indigenous people do succeed.

Stan Grant made a number of points worth noting by ALL Australians, not just indigenous Australians.

'I was born into poverty. My family was itinerant and we had no permanent home for much of my childhood.

For my parents it was a struggle to put food on our table.

Now, I live a privileged life.

Poverty need not be permanent. Suffering need not be a life sentence.

Instinct to prosper never wavered for us.

There is alternate history in Australia. It is a history of Aboriginal people struggling against adversity and successfully engaging with white Australia.'

They were not victims.

They hitched a ride on the post-World War II economic boom. They worked alongside the migrants of southern Europe and saw the face of this country change as the nation abandoned the old White Australia Policy.

Movement is change and Indigenous Australia changed. They married non-Indigenous people, sparking a black population boom, and gravitated to the cities.

Today the grandchildren of these pioneers are graduating universities in record numbers.

The Indigenous middle class is growing. Indigenous people are on our television screens, on our stages and our sporting fields.'

'Indigenous lawyer Noel Pearson blames what he calls a soft-racism of low expectations. White Australia can be disbelieving and black Australia can be sceptical if not hostile. Success is sometimes seen as betrayal, a sell-out to the struggle.

Academic Marcia Langton has called this out in her Boyer Lectures of 2012. She coined the term "The Quiet Revolution", but says success comes at a price.

"Those of us who are successful run the risk of being subject to abuse, accused of being traitors to our own people, 'assimilationis ts'," she said.

"These detractors will never help you and they can resent your success. They will become increasingly irrelevant as you become more successful."

There are deep, historical, structural problems in Australia; successive generations of policy failure and pockets of racism that lock too many Indigenous people out of the Australian dream.

But identity framed around misery can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.'

It was an excellent presentation by Stan Grant to what he said was the biggest gathering of indigenous millionaires ever.

We must all be wary of falling into the racism of low-expectation s when it comes to indigenous Australians. That is what you do when you claim that indigenous people's poor outcomes are to be expected because of injustices suffered by their forebears. That is what you do when you invoke the accusation of white privilege, and the excuse of historical injustice, for the failures of indigenous Australians.

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