OUR UGLIER SIDE CAN FLOURISH IN ISOLATION
Sometimes it takes an outsider to hold a mirror up and shed light on the problems we gloss over. And racism, unfortunately, is one of those problems
OUR greatest blessing is our greatest curse.
Living on this beautiful island continent means our borders have protected us from the worst of COVID-19, and yet this isolated lifestyle has infected us with a singularly insular attitude.
And unfortunately, we can’t blame the pandemic for this behaviour.
When I arrived on the Gold Coast in 1991 at the age of 15, I was shocked by the racism on display. And that’s quite a statement from someone who grew up in Texas.
While the US has always had a race problem, perhaps it simply hides it better.
Certainly that was my experience in 1980s Dallas when it came to AsianAmerican classmates … their culture was not an issue. And actually, their culture was primarily American.
Then I moved here and heard phrases and slurs that I never even knew existed. These racial smears were uttered not only by adults who should know better, but by my own teenage “friends’’ who would shout such things at total strangers in Pacific Fair.
I was certainly not in Texas any more.
In the ensuing decades, I honestly do believe Australians have bettered their behaviour.
Pauline Hanson’s warnings of an “Asian invasion’’ notwithstanding, Aussies have mostly welcomed our Asian neighbours.
But this virus has seen a relapse in racial ignorance.
Last week a friend was finally able to visit her favourite nail salon and asked her technician, a woman originally from South Korea now raising her family here on the Coast, how her world had changed since her business was forced to close in March.
The woman broke down, saying she was heartbroken and wanted to return to her parents. She said since the outbreak of coronavirus she had been verbally abused, beeped at on the road, and denigrated by her fellow city residents. And all this while in the company of her own children.
Gold Coast, we are much better than this.
And yet her experience is not isolated.
Just last month, police issued a stern warning to Queenslanders following a massive spike in the number of racially motivated attacks against the Chinese community during the coronavirus pandemic.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll and Police Minister Mark Ryan said the abuse that Chinese Australians were experiencing during the crisis was “abhorrent’’.
We don’t need to agree with China’s Government, we don’t even need to like China’s Government, I know I certainly don’t. But that has nothing to do with Chinese people who live here, let alone anyone of Asian descent in our city.
And so I choose to believe that this behaviour stems from a very vocal but very small minority of imbeciles.
And so I choose to believe that my own children’s friends would never repeat the slurs of my 1990s classmates.
Certainly, I know with all my heart that my children themselves never would.
The ironic thing is that I was absolutely incensed this week to read reports of British actor Miriam Margolyes’s own sledges against Australians in general, and the Gold Coast in particular.
The 78-year-old, who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, recently filmed ABC documentary series Almost Australian and said the process left her feeling slightly disenchanted with the country.
In particular, she said she found Surfers Paradise confronting.
“There is a brutality there and a greed in Australia which I don’t like … people should be ashamed of living in Surfers Paradise, it’s disgusting. I think that actually shocked me because I don’t go there. It’s not my world and I don’t want to go there.
“I hope people will not be too annoyed about the things I have to say, but in the end, to be honest, f**k ’em if they are.
After almost 30 years living in this city, and a lifetime as an Australian citizen, I don’t like anyone badmouthing my home town.
But I can also acknowledge that sometimes we need the opinions of outsiders to make us see the full picture. To make us take a good hard look in the mirror and accept that, in certain angles, our ugly side has been on display.
Because while I firmly believe Margolyes is in the wrong, I also believe that we need so-called outsiders, the almost Australians, to make our city richer – socially, culturally and economically.
That is a true blessing
She was verbally abused by her fellow residents