The Indian Mutiny

As you read this, the left-leaning intelligentsia will be hard at work writing the song-book on the recent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney. The initial bashings; the Indian student protests and riots; the general reaction of the media and police as well as public reaction, will be carefully re-crafted to reinforce the notion that Australia is a “racist nation”. 

Of course the overwhelming evidence on these occasions, as in most incidents like this, will be based upon academic study of the reaction of the Indian students themselves, voices on talk-back radio, commentary in the "right-wing press” as well as the experts from the “racist-Australia industry”. And media hysteria from India itself will be most useful. Oh yes! “Australia is such a racist country”. 

One place their research won’t be covering is the David Jones Food Hall. 

A visit to Sydney last month revealed what a great place this is to look at “racist Australia” in full colour. Of course some might say that David Jones, that bastion of White-Australia supremacy, blue-rinse gals and affluent Anglo-Saxon privilege, is the last place to study racism/racialism. On the contrary; it might possibly be the best. 

Floating about the Food Hall floor was a magnificently dressed gentleman of possibly Pacific Island descent, black suited, white carnation in lapel. He was obviously the floor manager, overseeing a mixture of what appeared to be Afghan, French, Indian, Chinese, Malayan, African and Australian – and for all I knew Herzegovinian — employees. The customers appeared to be Afghan, French, Indian, Chinese, Malayan, African and Australian – and for all I knew Herzegovinian ( i.e. Australians) happily eating, shopping and generally not noticing each other’s racial peculiarities.  

By peculiarities, I mean the poly-chromatic nature of the human race. As humans we share our poly-chromatic tendencies with creatures like Jewel beetles — we can have a variety of eye, skin and hair colours, as well as other distinctive features. But all these tendencies seemed to be of little concern to the staff and customers in the David Jones Food Hall.  

Being unconcerned with food handled by peoples of “other” racial or ethnic background seems to be an interesting test of a person’s alleged racism. 

The cheese counter sported a near seven-foot-tall Ethiopian gentleman, in immaculate white delicatessen kit, serving a L.O.L (little old lady). He offered her a small sample of what appeared to be an over-egged blue vein, of which she immediately, after tasting, ordered a $45 portion. His next customer was a very portly bikie who went for a very runny camembert. Then a pain-in-the-neck Dutchman tasted about 6 cheeses before deciding on none. A patient huddle of customers stood watching— and waiting. Some rolled their eyes at the Ethiopian cheese-man in sympathy.  

A young girl with an edgy Australian accent and her colleague with strong Chinese features handled the variety of racially diverse customers wanting stuffed olives, Black Forest ham, sun-dried tomatoes and the vast range of the multi-cultured foods “racist Australia” endlessly devours. A delightful young woman was offering morsels of cooked Wagyu sausages from a Sunbeam fry-pan to anyone interested. She might have come from parents born in Croatia or Spain or perhaps England … who noticed, who cared?  

Sitting on our stools at the lunch bar, an elegant Frenchman prepared our ploughman’s lunch with care and attention to detail. He didn’t seem to notice, or care, that we were from Tasmania.  

And the lesson from all this – who knows? What was obvious was that in the citadel of fine shopping, the haunt of privileged Australians, the racial mix of Australia wasn’t belittled … it was celebrated. You get the distinct feeling if a voice over the stores speaker-system called “all Australians move to the right”, there would be precious few in the food hall (black, white or brindle) standing on the left. 

Of course life might be different in suburbs where ethnic domination of one group attracts the notice of another. But this isn’t national racism. This is local tribalism — a distinction lost on many academics and left-wing commentators. 

Indian students deserve and are entitled to our full protection and the thugs and bullies stalking them on trains should be dealt with as thugs and bullies. Branding a nation as “racist” because of the actions of a few feral teenagers, rampaging on trains, seems to be, in itself, racist.